IF you're looking for an interesting picnic spot this summer why not visit Wallingford Castle Gardens?

The upper section, with its stone ruins, was originally the middle bailey of the great medieval castle begun by William the Conqueror in 1067, and has a fascinating history.

It was once used to house great kitchens built with cob walls: these 13th century mud-and-straw constructions and fireplaces were excavated by archaeologists in 1972 and still lie beneath the ground today.

By 1250, however, the kitchens had been deliberately buried to dispose of tons of earth from the digging of a third moat for the castle, raising the level of the ground to where it is today.

In 1282 on this open ground, Edmund Earl of Cornwall built a dean’s house, a priests’ house and a clerks’ lodging, for the clergy whose job it was to look after the king’s chapel in the castle. It is part of the priests’ house that survives today.

The original building had a square open cloister, with small rooms built round it. The castle wall formed one side, with lower walls on the other three sides.

You can still see a stone-arched entrance doorway, with carved lion-head guardians on either side, together with a well-worn threshold stone.

Parts of the adjoining wall are original but you can tell there has been much patching up over the centuries!

In 1548, Edward VI pensioned off the clergy and sold the buildings.

Fortunately they were bought by Christ Church college, Oxford, which leased them to make money, but when plague broke out in Oxford they were used as a safe retreat for its tutors and students. Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the buildings during a visit to Wallingford in 1570.

When the Civil War broke out in 1642, Charles I requisitioned the whole castle and refortified it: the buildings proved useful accommodation for the garrison governor.

When Cromwell won, he demolished the castle including the dean’s house, but the priests’ house and clerks’ house were spared for Christ Church and the college leases continued - a lucky survival.

By 1669 the priests’ house had been converted for use as a malthouse, while the clerks’ house was still a dwelling house, and that’s how things continued until 1819, when Christ Church finally sold up.

Enter the Hedges family: within a few years John Kirby Hedges had bought the land, demolished the clerks’ house and built a huge mansion in the middle bailey, using ruins of the priests’ house to create a conservatory and a small museum.

In 1972 his descendant, Sir John Hedges, pulled down the dilapidated Victorian mansion, planning to allow a large retirement home for the Architects’ Benevolent Society to be built in the middle bailey.

The plan was rejected after a local campaign and public enquiry.

In 1977 Sir John generously donated the whole castle to Wallingford Town Council, which continues to maintain the Castle Gardens and ruins today for the pleasure of our community.