Wantage

]] Wantage was a small Roman settlement but the origin of the toponym is somewhat uncertain. It was seemingly named after a stream that was there originally, with possible etymology being 'to wane, decrease' or an intermittent stream. King Alfred the Great was born at the royal palace there in the 9th century, Wantage appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. Its value was £61 and it was in the king's ownership until Richard I passed it to the Earl of Albemarle in 1190. Weekly trading rights were first granted to the town by Henry III in 1246. Markets are now held twice weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Royalist troops were stationed in Wantage during the English Civil War. In the 19th…

, completed in 1878]] Wantage has been the site of a church since at least the 10th century and the present Church of England parish church of Saints Peter and Paul dates from the 13th century, with many additions since. Saints' Peter and Paul contains seventeen 15th-century misericords. King Alfred's Grammar School was designed by the architect J. B. Clacy of Reading and built in 1849–50