Judge Blackstone is at last to get the recognition he deserves in his adopted home town of Wallingford.

The town council has been given permission by South Oxfordshire District Council to put up a blue plaque on the historic town hall to commemorate the man whose writings became the basis of the American Declaration of Independence. The work will be done during the summer.

Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780) was born in Cheapside, London, but moved to Wallingford where he wrote his Commentaries on the Laws of England between 1765 and 1769.

These became the basis of the American constitution, which is why Judge Blackstone is better remembered in the USA than in the UK.

He built, lived and died in Castle Priory on the banks of the Thames and supported St Peter's Church, where he is buried.