Wallingford pub history index & Gentry & Traders
Directory of Pubs in the UK, historical public houses, Taverns, Inns, Beer Houses and Hotels in Berkshire. The Berkshire listing uses information from census, Trade Directories and History to add licensees, bar staff, Lodgers and Visitors.
The following entries are in this format:
Year/Publican or other Resident/Relationship to Head and or Occupation/Age/Where Born/Source.
WALLINGFORD is a very ancient borough and market town, in the hundred of
Moreton, union and deanery of its name, situate on the banks of the Thames,
3 miles from the Wallingford Road Station on the Great Western Railway, 13
miles S. E. of Oxford, 15 N.W. of Reading, and 45 from London. It is
governed by a corporation consisting of mayor, four aldermen, and twelve
councillors, and returns one member to Parliament. The town, which formerly
contained thirteen churches, sustained material injury during the Civil Wars
of Charles I.; at present it contains three, St. Peter's, St. Leonard's, and
St. Mary-the-More, and the parishes named after them: the parish of All
Hallows is a sinecure belonging to Pembroke College Oxford, and has no
church nor officiating clergyman, but only a burial ground. The incumbent of
St. Mary and St.Leonard's-cum-Sotwell is the Rev. John Langley, M.A., the
Revs. Joseph Baly, M.A., and John Bray Coles, M.A., curates. The rector of
St Peter's is the Rev. William Hazel, M.A. The living of St. Mary's and St.
Leonards-cum-Sotwell is in the gift of the Bishop of Oxford; that of St.
Peter in the gift of Mrs. Gregson. The Independents, Baptists, Primitive
Methodists, and Society of Friends have each chapels here; the first three
have likewise Sunday Schools.
Wallingford is supposed to have been the chief city of the Attrebattii, and
is called by Antoninus, Attrebattum; Camden conjectures its British name to
have been Guallhen, signifying the "Old Ford," from whence its present
appellation is derived. The town was destroyed by the Danes, in 1006, but
soon afterwards rose again to prosperity, and Sweyn their King was born here
in 1013. At the time of the Norman invasion Wallingford appears by Doomsday
Book to have contained 276 houses, "yielding nine pounds tax; and those that
dwelt there did the King service on horseback or else by sea." The Conqueror
visited Wigod, the Saxon, at the Castle, and married his heiress to Robert
D'Oyley, one of his principal followers who founded Oxford Castle and
strengthened that of Wallingford. The town stronghold was the scene of many
important events daring the stormy ages that succeeded. Hither the Empress
Matilda, mother of Henry II., sought the protection of Brian Fitzcount, its
owner by marriage with the heiress of Robert D'Oyley after flying through
the snow from Oxford Castle. Stephen, her pursuer, erected in 1153, a castle
at Crowmarsh, on the opposite side of the river, in order to blockade her
more readily. At length Henry II. came to the rescue, and the war was
terminated by the treaty of Wallingford. Brian Fitzcount died in the
crusades, and his wife in a convent, after which the castle reverted to the
crown. Henry II. held a council here shortly after his accession, and John
also here met his discontented barons. The Manor was, with other manors,
granted for the support of the Dukedom of Cornwall, a title first conferred
on the Black Prince, son of Edward III., in 1355, and which appertained to
that dukedom till the reign of Henry VIII., when Cardinal Wolsey having
formed the noble design of erecting Christ Church College, at Oxford, the
monarch granted him this manor and castle in aid of the undertaking, but on
the Cardinal's disgrace they reverted to the King. The castle belongs to
John Kirby Hedges, Esq., but the manor was annexed by the sovereign to that
of Ewelme, or New Elm, near Benson.
Within the west gate of the town formerly stood a Priory of Black Monks,
which was subordinate to the great Monastery of St. Albans. The yearly
revenue of this cell is not found in the valuation of the religious houses,
26th Henry VIII. because Cardinal Wolsey had before that time procured the
Pope's Bull for the dissolution of this and other small monasteries, and had
their lands bestowed on him by the King, 20th Henry VIII., with intent that
he should settle the same on this famous New College (Christ Church) he was
about to build at Oxford. By the fall of this Cardinal that noble design was
left unfinished, but was afterwards completed by the King. The priory and
lands again reverted to the crown, from whence they were granted, 38th Henry
VIII., to John Norres. It has been conjectured this suppression may have
first suggested to the King's mind the idea of a general seizure of all
ecclesiastical property, which culminated in as tremendous an edict as ever
was fulminated by monarch - the Act for the Suppression of the Monasteries.
Of the old Castle but a few ivy-clad fragments remain. When Leland visited
it in the 16th century, ho found it " sore yn ruine," but Camden, writing
some years later, says that its size and magnificence were such as to amaze
him coming as a lad from Oxford to view it. At the time of the civil war it
was again fortified, and held by the Royalists during nearly the whole of
that struggle. It was finally demolished in 1653. Gough conjectures that the
outworks of the castle are of Roman origin, the stones being laid
herring-bone fashion, as at Silchester.
The town is enclosed by Roman earthworks, forming three sides of a
parallelogram of which the Thames is the fourth. These earthworks are cut
through by embrasures attributed to Prince Rupert. Wallingford was the last
place in Berkshire that held out for Charles I. against the Parliament, but
was taken by Fairfax in 1646. The earliest charter of incorporation dates
from the reign of Henry I. The town is a borough by prescription, and as
early as the 23rd Edward I. returned two members to Parliament. The place is
beautifully situated in the midst of a very fertile and historically
interesting district. A very handsome stone bridge, 300 yards in length,
erected in 1809, on the site of a previous structure, connects the town with
the Tillage of Crowmarsh, in Oxfordshire. The streets are paved aud lighted,
and have a clean and prosperous appearance. A very large business is carried
on in corn, coal, timber, cattle, and agricultural produce generally. The
market day is Friday; and there is always a large attendance of farmers. A
very handsome Corn Exchange, in the Composite stylo, has lately been erected
in the Market Place, at a cost of £3000. Two fairs are held in the course of
the year, the first on Thursday in Easter week, for cattle, and the second
on the 29th September, for hiring. There is a Mechanics' Institution and an
Horticultural Society, established in the year 1831, under the patronage of
Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen.
Almshouscs for six poor women, were built and endowed by Mr. William Angier
and Mary his sister, in 1681, the inmates of which receive weekly 4s., and a
gratuity of 2s. 6d. at Christmas. A very pretty Cemetery was erected in 1860
on the Oxford Road, contiguous to the Castle grounds, the site of which is 2
1/2 acres; and a commodious National School for boys and girls was erected
in the Kine Croft, aud opened in December, 1861 - the attendance is about
150 of each sex. There is a Grammar School with a small endowment for the
education of six poor boys.
The principal Charities belonging to the Borough are aa follows :- Per
Annum.
Archbishop Land £50
Sir Thomas Bennett £20
Walter Biggs, Esq., for a Free Grammar School £10
Walter Bigga, for ten poor persons £10
Mr. Job Wells, for an Almshouse £16
Mr. Wm. Angier, and Mary his sister, for ditto £30
Mr. John Richardson, for ditto £9
Henry Fludger, Esq., for thirty aged poor persons £27
The total amount derived from charitable bequests is about £300 per annum.
Wallingford comprises aa area of 1135 acres, with a population in 1861 of
2869 inhabitants, distributed as follows : -
All Hallows, with the Castle Precinct and the liberty of Clapcot, 169;
St. Leonard's, 1030;
St. Mary-the-More, 1198;
St. Peter, 472.
The population of the Parliamentary Borough is 7794; number of inhabited
houses, 1635. Among the elegant mansions of which the town can boast may be
mentioned, Castle House, built on the site of the ancient Castle, the
beautiful residence of John Kirby Hedges, Esq., and Castle Priory, the seat
of Mrs. Gregson. The Union Workhouse, in the Wantage Road, erected in 1836,
is a commodious building, with accommodation for near 400 inmates.