Wallingford is a small market town and civil parish in the upper Thames Valley in the English administrative county of Oxfordshire, and the historic county of Berkshire. Wallingford sits on the western side of the River Thames. Across the river is the village of Crowmarsh Gifford. The two are linked by Wallingford Bridge, a notable 900 ft long medieval stone bridge across the Thames and adjacent floodlands. In 1993, Winterbrook Bridge was opened to the south to avoid the traffic problems of Wallingford Bridge. Wallingford grew up around a strategically important crossing point on 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. Known as a 'burh', it was enclosed with substantial earthworks by King Alfred the Great in the 9th century to protect the population against the Vikings. Thereafter, 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 first 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 eighteen towns in the kingdom with a population estimated at over 2,000 people. Source : www.wikipedia.org.uk
Local Attractions : Cholsey and Wallingford Railway : www.cholsey-wallingford-railway.com Dorchester Abbey Museum : http://www.dorchester-abbey.org.uk/museum.htm Wallingford Castle Gardens : http://www.wallingford-oxon.net/history.htm