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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 5h

Malmesbury was well known for its exquisite lacemaking – a home industry which helped sustain hundreds of families over the generations.

Come and have a go at making some simple bobbin lace yourself!

www.athelstanmuseum.org.uk/event/lace-m...

Lace Making Workshop - Athelstan Museum

Malmesbury was well known for its exquisite lacemaking – a home industry which helped sustain hundreds of families over the generations. Come and have a go at making some simple bobbin lace yourself! ...

www.athelstanmuseum.org.uk

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 5h

Event coming up soon-

Lace Making Workshop

23rd October -
2 sessions - 10.30 to 12.30 & 1.30 to 3.30
Rausing Building, Malmesbury.

Tickets not required (£5 donation requested)

ages 5-95
(under 16s to be accompanied by an adult)
#crafts #workshop #localhistory

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 1d

On This Day, 8th October 1328, Malmesbury Abbey accommodated the boy King Edward III, together with his mother Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer, in the abbey guest house (now the Old Bell Hotel). They stayed until the 10th October.
#History #14thC #medievalSky #OTD

Isabella riding to meet her brother, Charles IV, in 1325. 15th-century illustration from Froissart's Chronicles.

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 6d

Malmesbury Wessex Week is nearly upon us once again.

Here are the talks and other events for this year between the 18th and 25th of October.

Tickets are still available on the website,
wessex-week.org
or from the Tourist Information Centre in Malmesbury Town Hall.
#events #history

Saturday
Bradley Hopper: Coinage and the
18th October
Making of England
Malmesbury Town Hall - 7pm - £10 Sunday
19th October
Campbell Ritchie: Guided Walk: The visible
Influence of King Alfred the Great on Malmesbury
Malmesbury Town Hall - 10.30am
£7 Adult, £3.50 U16 Tuesday
21st October Liam Wilson: Roman Settlement and After in the Malmesbury area: New evidence from
excavations by Cotswold Archaeology
Malmesbury Town Hall - 7pm - £10 Wednesday
22nd October
Tony McAleavy: Malmesbury and
Alfred the Great
The Old Bell Hotel garden room
Talk - 7.30pm - €10
2 Course dinner and talk- 6pm - £40 Friday
24th October Tony McAleavy: Lull: the monk from
Malmesbury who converted Germany
Rausing Building - 3pm - £10 Saturday
25th October Andrew Ziminski: Church going
around Wessex
Malmesbury Town Hall - 7pm - £10
Full details of each event and tickets on the website
www.wessex-week.org
Tickets also available from the Malmesbury Tourist Information Office.

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 6d

Now available in the Athelstan Museum shop in Malmesbury!

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 7d

.. was reburied in about 1130. That is somewhere in the grounds of the 12thC monastery precinct, an area that extends across most of the top third of the present town.
So we don’t know where he is precisely. We just know he is here somewhere!

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 7d

..elsewhere in the Abbey grounds for safe keeping. William of Malmesbury records seeing his body at that time.
It is believed that they intended to replace his body into the new church when completed, but there is no record of that happening. So it is likely that he is still in the place where he

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 7d

Yes the tomb in the Abbey was a 14th century addition and we don’t believe Athelstan was ever in it.
He was originally buried beside the altar in the Saxon church which preceded the building that still stands today.
In the 1100s, before that church was demolished, he was exhumed and buried

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 8d

We do have lots of material and information about King Athelstan as well, so the name is not totally unjustified.

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 8d

We are sure he was with us in spirit!
But no, we are the local history museum for Malmesbury, covering all periods from the Iron Age to the present. We are named after King Athelstan as he is buried in the town and had many other links here. Many institutions in Malmesbury are named after him.

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 8d

Our latest temporary exhibition is now open, in the Athelstan Museum, Malmesbury, until March 2026.

- Malmesbury and World War Two -

the exhibition features the many aspects of the war which affected everyday life in wartime Malmesbury.

#History #Museumsky #WW2 #20thC #Wiltshire

Photograph of the ‘Wings for Victory’ event on May 15th 1943.
Two WW2 fighter planes and a number of soldiers lined up on parade in the Cross Hayes, Malmesbury.
Photo: Charles Vernon.

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Reposted by Athelstan Museum

Andy Marshall @fotofacade.bsky.social · 15d

The day I visited Malmesbury Abbey was blessed with a rare quality of light which allowed the pattern and iconography on the eight orders of the C12th porch to fizz into life. #thread

Sunlit south porch at Malmesbury Abbey, showing concentric Norman arches carved with intricate foliage and figures, leading into shadowy interior with open wooden doors beyond.

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Reposted by Athelstan Museum

Tetbury Police Museum and Courtroom @museumtetbury.bsky.social · 19d

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 26d

That title for Edgar is the product of propaganda from Dunstan, who was bigging up the importance of Edgar and drawing a distinction between him and his predecessor, Eadwig, under whom the kingdom had briefly been split.

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Reposted by Athelstan Museum

North Ages @northages.bsky.social · 26d

Æthelstan, king of the English, from his vill at Buckingham, granted land in Wiltshire to one of his thegns #OTD in 934. Acting as a witness to the charter was Causantín (II) mac Áeda, king of Alba, having been cowed by Æthelstan’s campaign against the Scots. 📸Athelstan Museum #medievalsky

Silver penny of Æthelstan bearing his name, portrait and the title rex to Brit, 'King of all Britons'.

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Reposted by Athelstan Museum

King Charles I Return @kingcharlesireturn.bsky.social · 27d

Beside the Romanesque silhouette of Malmesbury Abbey

#Malmesbury #MalmesburyAbbey #Christianity #Faith #Whiltshire #KingCharles #CharlesI #England #History #Royal

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 27d

Guess it depends a bit on the definition, but we don’t think that question is complicated… 🤴

Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · 29d

Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury…
#thomashobbes

Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury Society @thomhobbessociety.bsky.social · 29d

Nice mention in @historytoday.com this month, that Thomas Hobbes was the first to properly translate The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides into English.
#polymath

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Reposted by Athelstan Museum

History Today @historytoday.com · 29d

In 15 years #Æthelstan united the English for the first time. Yet many of the facts about the Anglo-Saxon king remain elusive.

⌛️ Last chance to read this archive article for free

www.historytoday.com/archive/feat...

Giving Life To Æthelstan

www.historytoday.com

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Reposted by Athelstan Museum

The Parker Library @parkerlibcccc.bsky.social · Sep 8

Earliest extant portrait of an English king: Aethelstan (r. 924–927) with St Cuthbert from the Parker Library copy of Bede's two Lives of St Cuthbert (CCCC MS 183)

Prof David Woodman of @camhistory.bsky.social highlights Aethelstan's impact on England's history
www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/articles/new...

Opening of a 10th-century manuscript that is now in the Parker Library as CCCC MS 183. Opening shows a full page portrait of King Aethelstan (d. 939) presenting a book to St Cuthbert, or rather the community of St Cuthbert, then already in exile from Lindisfarne. The full page image has a floral border in red, king under an arch on the left and St Cuthbert in front of a brick structure topped with a cross.
Right of the image contains the beginning of Life of St Cuthbert, written in Latin. First three lines in red (rubric) is followed by two lines of monumental script in multiple colours, after which the text itself continues in usual brown ink.

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · Sep 7

We have the original pub sign for The Flying Monk pub on display in the museum.

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · Sep 5

An introduction to the unique Doom painting at St James the Great in Dauntsey, and how the English Reformation destroyed so much religious art in the 16th Cent.

Malcolm Sinclair, a Masters in Medieval Studies, will talk about the #15thC painting, one of only five on wooden boards in England.

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · Sep 5

Our next Tea Time Talk is coming up.

- The Dauntsey Doom Painting and the Reformation. -

17 Sep 2025 | 2.30pm | Rausing Building, Malmesbury.

£7 (includes tea and cake)

Tickets from the Museum or online here..
www.athelstanmuseum.org.uk/event/the-da...

#talk #events #history #16thC

The Dauntsey Doom Painting and the Reformation - Athelstan Museum

An introduction to the unique Doom painting at the Church of St James the Great in Dauntsey, and how the English Reformation from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I destroyed so much religious art in the 16th ...

www.athelstanmuseum.org.uk

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Reposted by Athelstan Museum

Liz Green @lizsgreen.bsky.social · Sep 4

My highlight was the talk by @holland-tom.bsky.social of @theresthistory.bsky.social about how and why King Athelstan was so important.
And I admit, I nicked the bit about 927 being more important than 1066 and therefore should be better known.
But you know what he's right!

Tom Holland speaking from the pulpit at All Saints Church in Kingston

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Athelstan Museum @athelstanmuseum.bsky.social · Sep 5

We hope you popped in to see us in the Athelstan Museum as well!

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