9 December 2014 | Author/Destination: Great Britain / Großbritannien | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 7 minutesThe Coach & Horses pub © geograph.org.uk – Bill Nicholls/cc-by-sa-2.0
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.
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