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There is Another "Corona- Edward the Martyr in 975 and Ethelred in 978
or 979 (later the Unready after the Old English
tion Stone" 'unread' meaning 'ill-advised').

"In 1627 John Speed wrote: "The solemn ceremony of consecration would
have been in a Church, either the predecessor
'At Kingston likewise stood the chair of Maj- of the present All Saint's Church, or in St.
esty whereon Athelstan, Edwin and Ethelred Mary's Chapel, sometimes called the Chapel
sate at their Coronations and first received of the Coronations.
their Sceptre of Imperial Power.'
"The status of Kingston's church in Anglo-
"Kingston's place in the history of England Saxon times is uncertain, but it is of interest
was firmly established in the 10th century as that John Leland, in the sixteenth century, re-
the coronation-place of Anglo-Saxon kings. corded that the townspeople of Kingston con-
But the first written reference to Kingston oc- tended 'that wher their toun chirche is now
curs in a document preserved in the British Li- was sumytyme as abbay.' Recent research
brary. Written in Latin, it refers to a great points to the likelihood of it having been a
Council held in 'Cyningestun' described as minster church.
'that famous place in Surrey.' The date of the
Council was 838, and King Egbert presided. "These references to an Abbey and Minster
His son, Athelwulf, and the Archbishop of church are not the only similarities between
Canterbury, Ceolnoth, were in attendance, to- Kingston and Westminster: Firstly the discov-
gether with twenty-four bishops and all the ery of the ancient channel of the Thames on
leading nobles of the Kingdom of Wessex. Eden Walk, and its conjectured course to the
north and south of Eden Walk, now being more
"It has often been thought, incorrectly, that firmly fixed by site observation and excava-
Kingston's name comes from 'King's Stone,' tion, suggests that by Anglo-Saxon times the
meaning the Coronation Stone, but the appear- area of All Saint's Church and the present
ance of the name in the document, well before Market Place had an island character, standing
the time of the Kingston coronations, indicates on a gravel knoll, with the protection of the
that it signified a royal palace, enclosure or Thames on the west and low-lying marshy
estate. ground, the silted channel and its floodplain,
to the east. Saxon 'Cyningestune' may initially
"The number of kings most generally accepted have been little more than a timber hall and
as having been crowned at Kingston is seven, church, situated on an island as Westminster
though some are less well authenticated than Abbey was on Thorney Island.
others.
"Secondly, although now mounted upright,
"The first Kingston coronation was that of Ed- when in position in the Church or Chapel, the
ward the Elder, son of Alfred the Great, in Stone was laid horizontally like the Stone of
900 or 901. Next came Athelstan's coronation Destiny.
in 925. His energy and humanity made him the
one West Saxon king to compare with Alfred. "What of the Stone itself? Like the Stone of
Destiny it is of sandstone, but a hard silicified
"Later coronations were those of Edmund in 'sarsen' sandstone, like those at Stonehenge,
941, Edred in 946, Edwy in 955 or 956, and probably originating in the same area.

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