In 2014, thanks to our lovely friends at The Heritage Lottery Fund, we fully researched King Athelstan's story and discovered that he was an absolute legend.  Brought up by his fierce Aunty Aethelflaed, he fought off the Vikings and became the first King to rule all of England.  He was also the first to wear a crown and have his head put on a coin wearing said crown.  Some of the laws he introduced we still follow today and the current coronation ceremony has its roots in the one he wrote for himself.

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And yes, just like the kids at the local primary school, he wore purple!  

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At first, we turned this story into one of our amazing interactive storytelling workshops for 3 to 7-year-olds, and they love it!  But we quickly realised that people of all ages love this story, especially those from Kingston, so we wrote it up into

 

- An interactive workshop for KS2 children (this is when they do it at school)

- A piece of immersive theatre for everyone aged 6+

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And

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 - A theatre show for grown-ups.  It's not rude, but it's chocked full of history and we don't get up and fight the Vikings! 

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Kingston celebrates 1100 years since King Athelstan was crowned in 2025, so there will be announcements soon about what we'll be doing as part of that in the coming weeks.​

 

I​n the meantime, if you'd like to know a bit more about King Athelstan and Kingston's Saxon history then you can read all about it on these blogs.  

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PART 1 – ATHELSTAN–BOY TO MAN (wordpress.com)

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PART 2 a – ATHELSTAN BECOMES KING (wordpress.com)

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PART 2B–THE CORONATION STONE IS A FAKE!!!! (wordpress.com)

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PART 3– Athelstan becomes the First King of Britain (wordpress.com)

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PART 4–THE FINAL CHAPTER (wordpress.com)

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