Kingston had been an important town since Roman times, probably because its ford provides the first  point at which the Thames could be crossed on foot without constructing a bridge.  Later the ford was replaced by a wooden bridge which, until the construction of a bridge at Putney in 1729, was the first bridge over the river above London Bridge.

When the Anglo-Saxons conquered England, they formed rival kingdoms which fought each other for supremacy and territory.  By the eighth century the southern area conquered by  the  Kingdom of Wessex was known as Suthridge - the root of the name Surrey.  The town at this time was called Cyninges-tun, or the King’s homestead.  Some have suggested that it contained two palaces, one for the King of Wessex and one for the Bishop of Winchester.  Others believe that it was simply a local centre for royal administration and taxation.  Whichever is the case, it is clear that Kingston’s royal links go back a long way.

In 838 AD King Egbert of Wessex held a Great Council at Kingston - or, as a contemporary document describes it, “that renowned place which is called Cyninges-tun in the region of Suthridge”.  The Council was attended by the king’s noblemen, Archbishop Coelnoth of Canterbury and twenty-four bishops, and at it was made a compact of mutual support between Church and State.  The bishops were given rank in the State as “spiritual lords”, a settlement which persists to this day in the right of twenty-four bishops (and two archbishops) to sit in the House of Lords (or, to give it its full name, The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled).  This can be seen as one of the earliest flowerings of the establishment of the church - an important element of the constitution still.

The natural place for Egbert to hold such an important assembly would have been Winchester, his capital and the seat of one of the most important bishops.  But Kingston’s ford made it more accessible; and, possibly, its location enabled him to seek the support of the Angles of Mercia, north of the river, with his Saxons, south of the river, against their now common enemy, the Vikings.

One of the acts of the Great Council was held before an altar - probably the altar of a new stone church, built on the site of the present-day All Saints Church, and dedicated to God and All Hallows.  Egbert is reputed to have been inspired by the great Cathedral built at Aachen in Germany by Charlemagne for his coronation, and to have built the church at Kingston especially for the Great Council.  The altar of this church stood approximately where the altar of the present-day church stands, underneath the tower.  So the space between the choirstalls in All Saints Church can lay some claim to being the birthplace of the English State.