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.
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.
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.
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.
