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Designations

• Scheduled Monument 1006293: Wallingford Town Walls
• Scheduled Monument 1006329: Saxon Town (Wallingford)

Monument Type(s):

• DITCH (Early Medieval to Medieval - 801 AD to 1539 AD)
• RAMPART (Early Medieval - 871 AD to 899 AD)
• TOWN WALL (Early Medieval to Medieval - 901 AD to 1539 AD)
• GATEWAY (Medieval - 1230 AD to 1275 AD)

Summary

Site consists of earth rampart and ditch on three sides of late AS town. Outer face well-preserved; inner slope obliterated. Interior presumed to hold intact AS deposits. Includes Medieval defences maintained from Saxon period (PRN 7799) Trenches cut by TWHAS in 1983 to investigate rampart (PRN 13813).

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds:

Description

(1) Two stretches immediately north of west gate and immediately west of south gate have had their inner slopes obliterated and built over but the outer face is still well preserved
(2) Earliest defenses of Wallingford date from King Alfred's time (871-899). Earthen rampart has 'probably never had a stone wall'
(3) Large univallate earthwork of sub-rectangular form; traceable round all 4 sides, but best preserved in the western half
(5) Primary turf-revetted bank, c.900, later reinforced by stone wall. New stone N gateway built c1250, destroyed c.1275 by enlargement of castle
(6) 2 phases of defences in KineCroft: (i) Turf bank, ?c.900, (ii) Broad loam bank representing ?late Saxon heightening
(7) Section across break of slope E of southern entrance to town showed only a C17th bank
(9) GPO cables across Kine Croft in 1971 revealed scatter of medieval and modern sherds, but only 2 features: pits, both at same depth, one with medieval and modern pottery, the other with C12th sherds
(10) Watching brief located original west edge of the present open ditch of Saxon burgh, and 2 further ditches, both undated
13) The Wallingford Historical and Archaeological Society started c.1983 a trench to investigate the front of the old rampart line opposite Wilders site. The object was to see if any of the original outer facing survives and how it was constructed. The last time the outer facing was seen was in the early 1960's when the C13th north gate and its ditch was exposed. It was suggested that the Saxon rampart had a facing of turf which had been stripped from beneath the bank but which had been subsequently eroded by successive widenings of the ditch
14) This investigation resolved an anomaly arising from an earlier watching brief during the building of the new house on the same plot. It was thought that there was another ditch further to the west on a similar alignment to defensive ditch. This is now known to have been part of the Saxon defensive ditch.
16) BAR includes chapters on Origins of Wallingford, Wallingford in Domesday Book, and New Directions in the Burh to Borough Project.
17) Article outlines the aims, scope and preliminary outcomes of the Wallingford Burh to Borough Research Project which was set up to provide a detailed archaeological analysis of Wallingford's origins, growth and decline and to put this into a broader regional, national and European context of urban development. It centres on a site with strong physical suvivals from the ealry Middle Ages onwards and with much untapped documentary evidence. A major insight to emerge from the investigations considered in this project is the sheer complexity of settlement and castle evolution in the periods studied. As a partial microcosm of develpments over a much wider area, Wallingford provides evidence which can be used to address many significant questions about urban growth and decline in the late Saxon and medieval periods. Excavations and surveys in the town, while clarifying our picture of the past in some respects, have at the same time added to the intricacy of the patterns to be explained.

<1> English Heritage, Scheduled Ancient Monuments Record, SAM 234 (Scheduling record). SOX283.

<2> General reference, Beresford & St Joseph: Medieval England. An Aerial Survey (1958) pp.179-181 (Bibliographic reference). SOX373.

<3> NMR Monument - Long Listing Filed in Detailed Record File, SU 68 NW 28 (retained for more complete info) (Index). SOX391.

<4> Victoria County History of Berkshire, Vol I (1906) p.264 (Serial). SOX6.

<5> Berks Archaeological Journal, Vol 62 (1965-6), pp 17-21 (Serial). SOX390.

<6> Oxford Architectural & Historical Society, Oxoniensia, Vol XXXVII (1972) pp.82-5 (Serial). SOX284.

<7> CBA South Midlands Group, South Midlands Archaeology, CBA9 NL 13 (1983) p.150 (Serial). SOX5.

<8> NMR Monument - Long Listing Filed in Detailed Record File, see also PRN 2983-5; scanned copies (Index). SOX391.

<9> Berks Archaeological Journal, Vol 66 (1971-2) p.133 (Serial). SOX390.

<10> John Moore Heritage Services, 2001, Archaeological Watching Brief at 16 St George's Road, Wallingford (Unpublished document). SOX406.

<11> Leicester University, 2002, Geophysical Survey and Mapable Survey at Wallingford (Unpublished document). SOX1064.

<13> OAU Newsletter, Vol X, No2 June 1983 p.6 (Article in serial). SOX270.

<14> John Moore Heritage Services, 2004, 16, St George's Road, Wallingford, Oxfordshire: Archaeological Watching Brief (Unpublished document). SOX2422.

<15> CBA South Midlands Group, South Midlands Archaeology, Vol 32 (2002) p.43 (Serial). SOX5.

<16> Edited by K S B Keats-Rohan & D R Roffe, 2009, The Origins of the Borough of Wallingford - Archaeological and Historical Perspectives (Monograph). SOX2547.

<17> Oxford Architectural & Historical Society, Oxoniensia, Vol LXXV 2010, pp 35-47 (Serial). SOX284.

Sources

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