Malmesbury, the oldest borough in England, became the site of Malmesbury Abbey, a monastery famed for its learning. It was later home to one of Alfred the Great's fortified castles (burhs) for defence against the Vikings. As a market town, it became prominent in the Middle Ages as a centre for learning, focused on and around the abbey.

In the later seventh century, the site of the Abbey was chosen by Máel Dub, an Irish monk who established a hermitage. Towards the end of his life Malmesbury Abbey was founded around 676 by Aldhelm, a nephew of King Ine of Wessex. The town of Malmesbury grew up around the expanding Abbey.

In October 939 Æthelstan, king of Wessex and of the English, died in Gloucester, and in the year 941 his remains were buried in the Abbey.
The market cross, in the centre of the town, was built around 1490, possibly using stone salvaged from the recently ruined part of Malmesbury Abbey. An elaborately carved octagonal structure of the Perpendicular Period.