Kingston upon Thames is a royal borough - but do you know why?

Here at Nub News we've had a look into why our area is the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

There are four boroughs with royal status in the South East - Kingston, Greenwich, Kensington and Chelsea in London plus Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire (which happens to be a royal county too).

Kingston first gained royal borough status back in 1927 when the town was still in Surrey (lets not get back into that debate).

The status was maintained when Kingston became part of Greater London in the 1960s.

So why? Well you have to look back over one thousand years as Kingston is the country's oldest royal borough.

King Athelstan was coronated in the town back in 925 and designated the area royal borough status.

A number of other Saxon Kings have also been coronated in Kingston.

These are: Edward the Elder in 900 AD, Athelstan in 925 AD, Edmund in 939 AD, Eadred in 946 AD, Eadwig in 956 AD, Edward the Martyr in 975 AD and Ethelred the Unready in 979 AD.

So back in 1927 Kingston Council petitioned King George V to formalise this royal borough status - with their request granted.