The tiny little UK town that was England's capital 700 years before London

A tiny, vibrant, marketplace municipality was erstwhile the superior of England (Image: Getty)

A tiny, vibrant, market town, steeped successful past going backmost to medieval times was erstwhile the superior of England.

When we deliberation of England’s capital, glitzy London automatically comes to our minds, however, this wasn’t ever the case.

Malmesbury successful Wiltshire is the oldest borough successful England.  The municipality was primitively built astir an abbey and constructed successful astir 675AD. For a clip it was reportedly 1 of the astir important towns successful England.

Dating backmost to the sixth century, it was awarded borough presumption via a charter by Alfred The Great successful astir 880.

In the 10th Century, Athelstan, the archetypal king of (all) England and grandson of Alfred the Great, made Malmesbury his superior aft defeating an service of bluish English and Scots.

Here helium proclaimed himself arsenic King of each England making Malmesbury the nation’s archetypal capital.

Malmesbury was primitively built astir an abbey (Image: Getty)

During the English Civil War betwixt the Royalists and Parliamentarians, Malmesbury became a cardinal battleground and the southbound look of its abbey inactive bears scars from a conflict that tore done the town.

However, aft the 1640s, it faced an economical diminution arsenic transport and commercialized routes passed it to the coast.

Today it is simply a fashionable determination marketplace municipality with a bustling precocious thoroughfare filled with autarkic shops and a fashionable farmer’s market. Every August the municipality holds an yearly carnival which helps to rise wealth for the assemblage done events and stalls including the world’s largest pillow fight.

Emma from Coffee#1 Malmesbury's told  Express.co.uk that Malmesbury is simply a “lovely place” and “everybody is truthful affable and everybody knows everybody”.

She added: "You tin archer erstwhile radical person been to the country however successful awe they are of it. Obviously, we've got the abbey which is beauteous and the Old Bell which is the oldest edifice successful England."

The municipality is present filled with autarkic shops and historical buildings (Image: Getty)

Alfred the Great, made Malmesbury his superior successful the 10th Century (Image: Getty)

In information England has had galore capitals earlier London was yet settled upon. Steeped successful past Colchester is the erstwhile superior of England and Britain's archetypal city. 

As good arsenic claiming to beryllium Britain's oldest recorded town, Colchester was turned into the nation's Roman superior successful AD49.

When the Romans invaded Britain, Colchester was the archetypal spot successful Britain to beryllium fixed the presumption of a "Roman Colonia". In doing this, Colchester became the archetypal superior of the caller Roman state of Britannia.

Now, the metropolis is afloat of Edwardian buildings astir constrictive lanes with autarkic shops and restaurants for visitors to explore. There are besides quaint, colourfully painted houses successful the Dutch Quarter, named aft the medieval weavers that emigrated present from crossed the North Sea.

York besides had its spell arsenic the superior of England for a play of clip during the reign of King Edward I.

In the summertime of 1298 Edward I moved 2 departments astatine the bosom of government, the Chancery and Exchequer, to York. They lone returned to London successful 1304. 

For those years, York was efficaciously the superior of England. The metropolis was besides the basal for Edward's army.