STUDY DAY AT WALLINGFORD
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Saturday 7 October 2023.
Visit the this historic market town
Highlights include:
- Introductory talk in Wallingford Town Museum
- Guided tour of the Saxon town
- Guided tour of the castle site
- Free time to explore the town
The introductory talk will start at 10:00, the museum will be open from 09:30.
Wallingford developed around an important crossing point of the River Thames. There is evidence of Roman activity in the area who have left traces of occupation, burials, roads, coins and pottery. The Anglo-Saxons built the first settlement. Wallingford has been fortified since the Anglo-Saxon period 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 ninth 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 well-preserved. Wallingford became the chief town of Berkshire and the seat of the county’s Ealdorman.