page_title: Maldon, Essex
section_title: Early history and Medieval
hierarchical_section_title: Maldon, Essex / History / Early history and Medieval
caption_attribution_description: Tower, St. Peter's Church, Maldon. In the seventeenth century Thomas Plume started the Plume Library to house over 7,000 books printed between 1470 and his death in 1704; the collection has been added to at various times since 1704. The Plume Library is to be found at St. Peter's Church. Only the original Tower survives, the rest of the building having been rebuilt by Thomas Plume to house his library (on the first floor) and Maldon Grammar School (on the ground floor)
context_page_description: Maldon is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is most renowned for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced in the area.
context_section_description: The place-name Maldon is first attested in 913 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it appears as Maeldun. Maldon's name comes from mǣl meaning 'monument or cross' and dūn meaning 'hill', so translates as 'monument hill'. East Saxons settled the area in the 5th century and the area to the south is still known as the Dengie Peninsula after the Dæningas. It became a significant Saxon port with a hythe or quayside and artisan quarters. Evidence of imported pottery from this period has been found in archaeological digs. From 958 there was a royal mint issuing coins for the late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman kings.
  It was one of the only two towns in Essex (Colchester was the other), and King Edward the Elder is thought to have lived here while combating the Danish settlers who had overrun North Essex and parts of East Anglia. A Viking raid was beaten off in 924, but in another raid in 991 the defenders were defeated in the Battle of Maldon and the Vikings received tribute but apparently did not attempt to sack the town. It became the subject of the celebrated Old English poem "The Battle of Maldon". The battle is commemorated by a window in St Mary's Church and by a statue on the quayside of the slain Saxon warrior Byrhtnoth.
  According to the Domesday Book there were 54 households and an estimated 180 townsmen in 1086. The town still had the mint and supplied a warhorse and warship for the king's service in return for its privileges of self-government. The town was awarded a charter by Henry II in 1171, stating the rights of the town as well as defining its borders and detailing its duty to provide a ship for the monarch "when necessary". The town's All Saints' Church, unique in England in having a triangular tower, dates from around this period. While the precise building date is unknown, the church existed by 1180, the date of the foundation of nearby Beeleigh Abbey. A Charter of Richard I of December 1189 confirms "certain grants to Beeleigh Abbey, including the Church of Blessed Peter in Maldon and the Church of All Saints' in the same town". St Mary's Church, on the Hythe Quay has a grade 1 listed Norman nave from 1130, though evidence exists of an earlier church on the site from at least a hundred years before.
caption: Tower of St Peter's Church
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