Wallingford

Let's try and take it back to the beginning.

Andrew Harper was born in Wallingford in Oxfordshire, went to Henley College, so bits of the country we know.

Always wanted to be a policeman.

He joined as a special constable at the Thames Valley Police at the age of 19 in 2010.

He, he heads towards London.

The Londoners kind of ward him off from Southwark, and so he moves round the South Bank of the Thames, crosses the Thames in Oxfordshire at a place called Wallingford, where some Anglo-Saxons submit, including the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Stigand.

Stigand, yes.

On September 17th, the next Oxfordshire winning postcode was 0x107DJ.

Residents on Hammer Lane in Warmbra near Wallingford won big that day.

And three days later, on September 20th, 0x182FG was the next Oxfordshire postcode featured in the draw.

Residents on Shergold Road in Bampton won big that day.

Brian Fitzcount, the bastard son of Duke Allen IV of Brittany, he was a part of Henry's court in the earliest years as well.

Brian would one day be given Wallingford, But Brian Fitzcount is mainly known as one of the closest friends to Henry's heir, William Adeline.

Gives you an idea of his fate, maybe, intent.

Wallerin of Moulin and Robert of Bossu were the twin sons of Henry's great counselor, Robert de Beaumont.

... it's just like it's still in there, you know? Yeah.

Um, and, and so they, they have to get all the way to Wallingford before they can cross the Thames effi- efficiently.

And there must be a, a welcome sign for William when he gets there because the Archbishop of Canterbury turns up there and submits to William, which may show the benefit of having taken control of Canterbury.

Well, that's the thing.

He entered Oxford on September 26, 1142, fired the town, and besieged the Empress in the strong Norman castle.

For three months the siege continued, till on December 20, when the Thames was frozen over and the ground thickly covered with snow, the Empress was let down from the tower clad all in white and escaped with four knights on foot to Abingdon, whence she sought safety at Wallingford and Gloucester.

For the next few years there was grievous misery but little close fighting.

Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, the worst of the barons, who had sold himself alternately to both sides and fought chiefly on his own account, died under the curse of the Church while beleaguering a tower belonging to the monastery of Ramsey.

At length, when Eustace died, it was agreed between Stephen and the young Henry that the king should hold the crown while he lived, and then Henry should succeed him.

Good peace was promised, and the restoration of justice and good laws.

This was done at Wallingford on November 6, 1153.

Henry for a while was Stephen's judiciar in England, but the king died on October 25, 1154, and then Henry of Anjou, the Empress's son, came peaceably to the throne.