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Wallingford Anglo-Saxon Cemetery
The first reference to a bridge is 1141 when Stephen besieged the castle. The first stone bridge is credited to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, at around 1250. It was the main route to Gloucester and South Wales until the bridges at Abingdon were built in 1415. Major repairs involved stone from the dissolved Holy Trinity Priory in 1530. Four arches were removed so a drawbridge could be inserted during the siege of the castle in the Civil War of 1646. Following a flood, three arches were rebuilt in 1809, and a parapet and balustrade added. The tollgate was removed in 1881, and steps erected on the north side in 1912. The current bridge is 900 feet long, with 19 arches. The westernomost arch is believed to be largely 13th century, as is the 14th arch. The new by-pass bridge at Winterbrook, built 1993, is the newest road bridge on the non-tidal Thames.   Wallingford Castle from Bygone Berkshire, by P.H. Ditchfield; Wallingford Castle plan from The early Norman castles of the British Isles by Ella S. Armitage Wallingford Castle was built between 1067 and 1071 by Robert D'Oilly on orders from William the Conqueror. It was strengthened by Brien FitzCount before the wars between King Stephen and Empress Matilda. FitzCount established a prison within the castle, called Cloere Brien. Ealdred of Abingdon, Edward I, Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester, Owen Tudor, Margaret of Anjou and Judge David Jenkins were all imprisoned here. It was described as "most securely fortified by impregnable walls". King John added further to the castle, and Richard of Cornwall spent substantial sums on it: during the 13th century it gained two further walls and ditches. It fell into decline in the 16th century, but in the 17th century, it was strengthened again for supporters of Charles I during the war with Oliver Cromwell. It was the last English stronghold to surrender during the civil war, and Cromwell later ordered it to be destroyed (in 1652). The site was a meeting-place for non-conformists such as Edward Stennett later in that century. A gothic house, built on the site in Victorian times was demolished in 1972. The grounds are now open to the public. http://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/wallingford_cast.html
Artist's impression of the castle http://www.earlrivers.org.uk/images/Wallingford%20Castle.gif http://www.castleuk.net/castle_lists_south/175/wallingfordcastle.htm http://www.le.ac.uk/ar/njc10/wallingford_project/index_files/Page564.htm Timelines – Wallingford Castle http://www.btinternet.com/~timeref/hpl1348.htm http://www.btinternet.com/~timeref/hpr68.htm http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/English%20sites/2974.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/walk_through_time/pop_up_maps/castle.shtml http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?pid=1&id=249217 http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?pid=1&id=249227 Wallingford Castle
Castle meadows
Management plan http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/ccm/cms-service/download/asset/?asset_id=488327 http://www.northmoortrust.co.uk/home/countryside/wallingford 360 panoramic photograph
Wallingford or Chalmore Lock
 A summer or low-water lock and weir were built at Chalmore in 1838, and Stephen Wheeler was appointed lock, weir-keeper and ferrryman. However, much of the time the 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 and 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.
  Wallingford Saxon defences from The early Norman castles of the British Isles by Ella S. Armitage; Sections of defences by Rev. E.A. Downman from Victoria County History Built in the 9th Century on Alfred the Great's instruction to protect the town from the Danes, as one of the planned military towns or burhs. They are believed to have had a wooden pallisade on top and a water-filled ditch on the outside. Wallingford's walls, along with those at Warwick and Winchester were the longest, and Wallingford's are probably the best-preserved examples. They can be traced from Mill Lane into the Kinecroft along its southern edge (parallel to St Johns Road), its western edge (parallel to Croft Road), and continuing along the western edge of the Bullcroft (parallel to St George's Road) and then along the northern edge of the Bullcroft next to Wallingford School until Castle Street.http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/English%20sites/2977.html http://www.ogdoad.force9.co.uk/alfred/alfhidage.htm Wallingford Siege Castles Wallingford Workhouse  In 1861 the Wallingford and Watlington Railway was planned, which would have gone through Benson, Watlington and Chinnor to meet up with the Great Western Railway Aylesbury branch at Princes Risborough. The line opened as far as Wallingford in 1866, with a station on Station Road. Passenger services continued until 1959 and goods traffic to Wallingford Station until 1965, although the line was used for the maltings until 1981 (with the line terminating there). Cholsey and Wallingford Railway Preservation Society was formed then to look after the line. http://www.cholsey-wallingford-railway.com/History.html Whitecross Bronze Age Site
 Wittenham Clumps, by Charles G. Harper from Thames Valley Villages, 1910
The site is known as an Iron Age fort, but there is evidence of activity on the hilltop from 6000 BC to the medieval period. Researchers have found Mesolithic flints and Neolithic flint tools, a Late Bronze Age enclosure ditch, a late Roman settlement and burial on the hilltop, and pits suggestive of occupation in the 12th/13th century. It is managed by the Northmoor Trust. http://www.channel4.com/history/timeteam/2004_wit.html http://www.oxfordarch.co.uk/micro_sites/wittenham_clumps/index.htm http://www.northmoortrust.co.uk/ This site Copyright of Wallingford History Gateway Productions 2005   |
