Amesbury is an ancient town of Wiltshire, England, seven miles north of Salisbury and 78 miles southwest from London. Stonehenge is about 2 miles west of Amesbury.
In Old English it name Ambresburh. The name first recorded in the ninth century, and as late as the fifteenth century the town was still described as the burgus Ambrossi.
Amesbury being called, according to some writers after “a famous prince, Ambrolius Aurelius,” therein buried, and who erected here a British monastery for 300 monks. He was the leader of Romano-British resistance to Saxon invasions in the 5th century.
Amesbury fell into the hands of the West Saxon dynasty in the mid sixth century and remained part of the ancient core of the royal demesne of the kings of Wessex and England.
The monastery was afterwards converted into a nunnery and Eleanor, King Henry III’s queen, retired and died here. The town suffered by fire in the year 1753.
Oldest settlement of Amesbury, England
