WALLINGFORD is currently working on its ‘Neighbourhood Plan’ for the future.

Planning of towns is no new thing, but I wonder just how many local people might still be unaware of Wallingford’s national importance as the best surviving example of a Saxon planned town?

Back in the ninth century when Saxon England was under Viking attack, King Alfred of Wessex decreed that defended towns (‘burhs’) should be built to protect against the invaders.

More than 30 were established but Wallingford was the largest (together with Winchester – capital of Alfred’s kingdom).

A document written c.919, the Burghal Hidage, gives details of organising 2,400 local men to build and defend the new town of Wallingford with ditches and ramparts.

The total length of the works were calculated at 3,300 yards (3,017m).

Archaeology has shown the ditch to have been water-filled and over 5m wide, and the earth ramparts were crowned with wooden fences or walls.

The results made Wallingford a nationally important stronghold for the next 600 years.

The amazing thing is that so much of the ramparts, built by hand in those dangerous times, have survived for over a thousand years to define the core of Wallingford today; they can still be seen surrounding parts of the Kinecroft, Bullcroft and many other parts of the town, whereas in most other places Saxon work has long disappeared beneath expansion and development.

How did they survive?

William the Conqueror’s instructions to build a great Norman Castle in 1067 ensured the preservation of the Saxon wall on the north by re-using it and taking part of the ditch water supply to fill the new castle moats. Throughout the next 500 years the town’s Saxon walls provided an added defence to the great royal castle.

By 1542, the town defence was being recognised for its historic significance by antiquarian John Leland: ‘A very notable Thing and well walled. The Ditch of the Town and the Crest whereon the Walls stood be yet manifestly perceived, and begin from the Castle going in Compass a good mile or so....’ (modernised spelling).

In the 17th century Civil War, Wallingford’s castle, walls and gates were repaired to survive as the last major stand of the Royalists in England in 1646.

After the castle’s demolition in 1652 the defences were sadly neglected but survived because the population of the town had shrunk within them.

By the 19th and 20th century the town was thriving and growing again, with new housing encroaching on the ramparts on the south side of the town but maintaining the water-filled ditch.

In both 1881 and the mid 1950s, threats to cut through the Saxon banks for new roads were thankfully thwarted by people recognising their historic importance.

Today, our planned Saxon town is unique – a potential national attraction to tourists alongside our royal castle site and our world famous crime writer Agatha Christie – so let’s continue to protect and value it for future generations!

Guided town walks begin again at Easter: www.wallingfordmuseum.org.uk