Wallingford, Oxfordshire

Wallingford is a market town and civil parish in the upper Thames Valley in England. Until 1974 it was in Berkshire, but was transferred to Oxfordshire in that year. The town's royal but mostly ruined Wallingford Castle held high status in the early medieval period as a regular royal residence until the Black Death hit the town badly in 1349. Empress Matilda retreated here for the final time from Oxford Castle in 1141. The castle declined subsequently, much stone being removed to renovate Windsor Castle instead. Nonetheless the town's Priory produced two of the greatest minds of the age, the mathematician Richard of Wallingford and the chronicler John of Wallingford.

Geography
Wallingford is on the west bank of the River Thames downstream of Oxford  and lies at the foot of the Chilterns. On the opposite bank are the villages of Crowmarsh Gifford and Newnham Murren, connected to the town by Wallingford Bridge, a 900 ft long medieval stone bridge crossing the river and adjacent flood plain. At southern end of the town, though officially part of the parish of Cholsey is the settlement of  Winterbrook. The town bypass crosses the river to the southwest over Winterbrook Bridge.

Character and local government
The centre of Wallingford has the feel of a typical old market town, with a large open town square around the war memorial, the 17th century arcaded town hall, and numerous shops. There are some alleyways and a number of historic inns. Although only a small town, Wallingford has three ancient churches within the Parish of St Mary-le-More and St Leonard, a modern Roman Catholic church as well as a Quaker Meeting House dating from 1724 and Baptist, Methodist and Community churches. It once had 14 churches. Amenities include the Wallingford Museum, the Corn Exchange theatre, the Cholsey and Wallingford steam railway, public parks - one with the castle ruins. A blues festival, the annual BunkFest folk festival and a carnival are popular annual events. In recent years, the town has been used as a location for filming, notably Midsomer Murders which has also featured the Parish Church Choir. Wallingford is run by a town council consisting of 16 councillors. It is part of the South Oxfordshire district and the county of Oxfordshire having formerly been represented by the Municipal Borough of Wallingford. The current Mayor is Bernard Stone and the county councillor is Lynda Atkins, one of four Independent members of Oxfordshire County Council.

Climate
As with the rest of the British Isles and Oxfordshire, Wallingford experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. There has been a weather station at the nearby Centre for Ecology & Hydrology collecting data on the local climate since 1961. Temperature extremes at Wallingford vary from -21.0 C in January 1982, up to 35.2 C in July 2006. Recent low temperature's include -17.6 C during January 2010 and -17.5 C during December 2010.

History
Wallingford grew up around an important crossing point of the River Thames. The place has been fortified since at least Saxon times, when it was an important fortified borough of Wessex with the right to mint Royal coinage. It was enclosed with substantial earthworks by King Alfred the Great in the 9th century as part of a network of fortified towns known as burhs or "burghs" to protect Wessex against the Vikings. These defences can still be clearly discerned as a group of four roughly square areas around the centre of the town and are probably the best preserved such fortifications in England. Wallingford became the chief town of Berkshire and the seat of the county's Ealdorman. During the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the Saxon lord Wigod allowed William the Conqueror's invading armies to cross the Thames unopposed from west to east in order that his army might march on Berkhamsted, where he received the English surrender before marching on London. At that time, the river at Wallingford was the lowest point at which the river could be forded. The town subsequently stood in high favour with the Normans. The Domesday Book of 1085 lists Wallingford as one of only 18 towns in the kingdom with a population of over 2,000 people.

Wallingford Castle was built soon afterwards and became a key strategic centre for the Empress Matilda's party during the civil war that began after her father Henry I's death. After the fall of Oxford Castle to Stephen in 1141, Matilda fled to Wallingford, according to some historic accounts in the snow under a moonlit sky. As such the place was besieged a number of times and the Treaty of Wallingford ending the conflict was concluded there in November 1153. The town was granted a Royal Charter in 1155 by the new king, Henry II, being the second town in England to receive one. The castle was a regular royal residence until the Black Death hit the town badly in 1349. The castle declined subsequently, much stone being removed to renovate Windsor Castle, but it became a Royalist stronghold during the English Civil War. It was the last holdout of the Royalists in Berkshire, and the castle withstood a 65-day siege. Oliver Cromwell subsequently ordered the destruction of what was left of the castle and little now remains. Some of the castle rubble was used to construct a tower for the church of St Mary-le-More.

Wallingford flourished as a trading centre throughout most of the Middle Ages, and Wallingford Priory produced two of the greatest minds of the age, the mathematician Richard of Wallingford and the chronicler John of Wallingford. After the opening of Abingdon Bridge in 1416 the town went into economic decline. This was only revived in the 18th century when the legal writer and Wallingford resident, William Blackstone, established two turnpike roads through the town. The brewing industry was important with two breweries and 17 maltings in the town. This link was ended with the demolition of Paul's Malt in 2001.

On 9 September 1944 a Halifax bomber of No. 426 Squadron RCAF, returning from an abandoned raid over the French port of Le Harve whilst still carrying a full bomb load, caught fire over Wallingford after its port outer engine exploded. Ordering most of his crew to bail out, the pilot, Flying Officer John Archibald Wilding, and his flight engineer, Sergeant John Frank Andrew, remained at the controls in order to steer the plane away from the town, crashing into the fields at Newnham Murren and thus preventing loss of many civilian lives. Both Wilding and Andrew were Mentioned in Dispatches for their bravery with Wilding being posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. They are commemorated by a memorial at the junction of Wilding Road and Andrew Road in Wallingford and by the Canadian flag that is flown over Wallingford Town Hall every year on 9 September in their memory.

River
The River Thames has been a transport route for centuries and Wallingford's growth as a town relied partly on it. Coal was supplied from North East England by coaster to London and then by barge upriver to Wallingford. This supply could be unreliable in seasons when river currents were too strong or water levels were too low. In 1789 the Oxford Canal reached Oxford from Warwickshire and the Duke's Cut at Wolvercote gave it a connection to the Thames. This allowed coal from the Midlands to reach Wallingford by a shorter and more reliable route than by sea and river from the northeast. In 1799 the Oxford Canal consolidated its commercial position by buying an eighty year lease on a wharf on the Thames just above Wallingford Bridge. Chalmore Lock, a summer or low-water lock and weir, was built at Chalmore Hole, Wallingford in 1838, However, much of the time the fall was only 18 inches,  and the lock was open at both ends. It fell into disrepair, and the lock was removed in 1883. The missing lock is the subject of confusion in Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat". A ferry had operated at the site from 1787 to transport horses across the river where the towpath changed banks. As the removal of the lock and weir meant that this was the longest clear stretch of the upper river, it was an ideal site for rowing, and so the Oxford University Boat Club which had long trained here built a boathouse at Chalmore in 2006. In addition to the old Wallingford Bridge, a new bridge was built at Winterbrook in 1993 to carry the A4130 bypass around Wallingford.

Train
In 1866 the Wallingford and Watlington Railway was opened between Cholsey and Wallingford. Its relative speed and reliability enabled it to take a large share of freight previously carried on the Thames. Insufficient traffic receipts prevented the W&WR from building its planned extension to Watlington. The company sold the line to the Great Western Railway in 1872, and it became known as the "Wallingford Bunk". British Railways closed the line to passengers in 1959 and to goods traffic in 1965. However, most of the line has been preserved as the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway.

Presently, the closest regular railway station to Wallingford is in Cholsey, about three miles away.

Bus
Bus services for the town are operated by Thames Travel, including:
 * The X39/X40 between Oxford and Reading
 * The 36/X36 for Didcot (and thus themainline railway station) and on to Wantage.

There are other local services to Benson and then Henley or Abingdon; Streatley and Goring; and Cholsey.

Employment
The main employers based in the town are primarily on the Hithercroft Trading Estate (established in the 1970s), these include Rowse Honey, Royal Mail and Fugro and to the South East on the outskirts of the town the headquarters for the non-profit agricultural organisation CABI.

Sport and leisure
A.F.C. Wallingford is the local Association Football club. Wallingford has also a Rugby Football Club, Hockey Club, Rowing Club, Cricket Club and Tennis Club. All of these clubs are based at a large multi-purpose sports facility called Hithercroft Sports Park, located on the edge of town. Hithercroft is also home to a squash club. The extensive clubhouse houses changing rooms, several bars/function rooms and a skittles alley.

Schools
The town has a primary school: St John's; a junior school: Fir Tree; and an infant school: St Nicholas's. Wallingford School is the secondary school in the area, to the north of the town, which is the successor to Wallingford Grammar School, founded 1659. The majority of pupils from both Fir Tree and St John's continue to Wallingford School. Wallingford School also draws pupils from Crowmarsh, Brightwell, Cholsey and Warborough primary schools.

Town twinning
Wallingford has formal town twinning links with Luxeuil-les-Bains, France and Bad Wurzach, Germany; and informal links with Wallingford, Connecticut, United States.

In 2009 the town requested an end to the twinning relationship with Luxeuil-les-Bains following several years of non-contact. The request prompted a renewal of the relationship.

Wallingford School pupils take part in the German exchange programme with the school in Bad Wurzach.

Notable people

 * For residents, constables and prisoners at the castle, see Wallingford Castle.

In the town:
 * Jonathan Bailey, actor
 * Kevin Bailey, poet
 * Evelyn Barbirolli, oboist
 * William Blackstone, legal writer
 * Charlie Brooker, comedy writer and presenter
 * John Buckley, sculptor
 * Agatha Christie, mystery writer
 * Paul Conroy, music executive
 * Katharine Da Costa, BBC Oxford news
 * Gary Elkins, football player
 * Edgar Field, England footballer and winner of the FA Cup in 1880
 * Peter Flannery, playwright and screenwriter
 * Dulcie Gray, actor
 * James Hayllar, artist
 * Jerome K Jerome, author, lived near Wallingford
 * Geoffrey Keen, actor
 * George Dunlop Leslie, artist
 * Max Mallowan, archaeologist
 * James H. McClure, mystery writer
 * Ann Packer, olympic athlete
 * Zac Purchase, olympic athlete
 * Moses Roper, former slave
 * Paul Rotha, documentary film maker
 * Gladys Bronwyn Stern, novelist
 * Simon Watson Taylor, actor, translator and surrealist
 * Thomas Tusser, poet
 * John of Wallingford, chronicler
 * Richard of Wallingford, mathematician and clockmaker
 * Richard of Wallingford, organiser in the Peasants' Revolt
 * William of Wallingford, builder of Wallingford Screen at St Albans Cathedral
 * Rex Warner, writer
 * Peter Cathcart Wason, psychologist
 * Charles West, mystery writer

Wallingford used to return two Members of Parliament (cut to one in 1832 and none in 1885), and had some well-known MPs (often not resident) including:
 * William Seymour Blackstone, builder of Howbery Park, Crowmarsh Gifford
 * Thomas Browne (High Sheriff of Kent), Chancellor of the Exchequer
 * John Cator, timber merchant
 * Thomas Digges, astronomer
 * Sir Charles Dilke, 1st Baronet, promoter of The Great Exhibition
 * Edmund Dunch, member of the Kit-Kat Club
 * Sir John Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer
 * George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, astronomer
 * Sir Thomas Parry, Comptroller of the Household to Elizabeth I
 * George Pigot, Baron Pigot, British governor of Madras
 * Robert Pigot, Lieutenant General in the American Revolutionary War
 * Edmund Plowden, lawyer who defended religious freedom
 * Francis Sykes, builder of Basildon Park
 * Nathaniel William Wraxall, writer
 * For more details, see Wallingford (UK Parliament constituency)