Wallingford boasts of having the oldest corporation in England, preceding that of London by a hundred years, and its record certainly reaches very far back. In 1006 it was destroyed by the Danes. William the Conqueror rested here on his way to London after the battle of Hastings. The town was then held by Wigod, a noble Saxon, who lived in his great fortress-castle. His son-in-law was Robert D'Oyley, who built the castle at Oxford, and rebuilt and greatly strengthened that at Wallingford. From the part of the river above the bridge a tree-grown mound can be seen, and, further back, a comparatively modern house. On the mound once stood the strong castle, and the modern house is its present-day representative. The grounds are famous for their trees, and particularly for their evergreens, which grow thickly on the slopes of what was once the inner castle moat, for there were no less than three. No wonder Queen Maud felt that in reaching Wallingford in safety after her terrible escape over the frozen meadows of Oxford, she once more held the lead in the game she and Stephen played for the crown. Stephen, however, was not daunted. He settled down at Crowmarsh across the river, and made strenuous attempts to take the fortress. After a long time, when the garrison were beginning to despair, the Queen's son Henry came to the rescue with a force sufficient to afford relief. It was at Wallingford the treaty was made which eventually secured Henry's succession. The castle was given to Piers Gaveston by Edward II., but after the fall of Gaveston it reverted to the Crown. Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, wife of the Black Prince, died here in 1385, and later, in the Civil Wars between King and Parliament, Wallingford held stoutly to the Stuarts. The town was the last place in Berkshire which remained to the King, and it was taken in July, 1646, after a siege of sixty-five days. Cromwell, therefore, cherished a grudge against it, and when he came into power he ordered the castle to be destroyed, an order which was unfortunately carried out. Not far away in the same grounds is a fragment of a ruined and ivy-grown tower. This is part of an ancient college of St. Nicholas founded by Edmund, second Earl of Cornwall, who died in 1300.

In some ways Wallingford reminds one of Abingdon. They are both homely, pleasant, brick-built market-towns, rather sleepy, but self-respecting. There are several islands beside the bridge; but Wallingford has not made the most of its islands. They are bare, and disfigured by boat-building works. The bridge is fair, and, seen from below, where a weeping willow falls softly over one bank, the view is pretty. A conspicuous feature is the steeple of the church near, looking as if it had been joined on to the body without any thought of continuity of style. There are three churches in Wallingford, which once owned fourteen! There is rather a good seventeenth century Town Hall in the market-place and a Corn Exchange. Friday is the market-day. Both above and below the town the river is pleasant, though without original features; there are well-kept parks and fine-grown trees to be seen frequently. The only interesting place in the stretch below is Mongewell, where a large piece of artificial water joins the river, and near it is a small church quaintly built. Shute Barrington, the well-known Bishop of Durham, married for his second wife the heiress of Mongewell, and lived here before his death. Below Mongewell is a long, dull stretch, good for boating, but too unshaded and open to be pleasant for loiterers. The Trial Eights take place here in December.