Wallingford guidebook

Grand Georgian terraces rub shoulders with older brick and flint houses and there are even a few timber-framed survivors to add variety to a streetscape that still follows the original Saxon lines.

The quaint narrow streets are brightened by individual local shops - organic food, antique dealers, even a milliner - and the major chains that do have a base here are at the classier end of the market (Pizza Express and Waitrose).

Swans drift past, barges are moored further up river, and the bridge, the river and the delicate steepling spire of the lovely St Peter's Church, frame the town to impressive effect as you approach it from the East.

The murderous associations continue. More recently, the town has provided the setting for ITV's Midsomer Murders, notably the episode in which a local landowner and captain of the cricket team is bludgeoned to death while walking his dog (for shame!)

I concluded that this is a quaint and attractive little place, but it certainly isn't pickled in aspic. Wallingford has deep roots in the past, but it's also a busy and modern market town.

While you're happily admiring all those interesting buildings you can risk life and limb walking streets that fair rumble to the thunder of passing traffic.

Although it's well placed for drivers (the M4/A34 are both within half an hour's drive), transport is a bit tricky. There's a regular bus service, but Cholsey (3.5 miles) and Didcot (six miles) are the nearest train stations (and don't try calling a taxi during the school run).

These, of course, are relatively minor quibbles, and they certainly don't put off the 7,000 or so souls who seem more than happy to live here (many commute to Reading, Oxford or London, or work locally in places like the Harwell Business Centre).

There's a palpable sense of community, a desire to protect what's best about the town, and a great deal to recommend to prospective buyers - facts that are more than reflected in the relatively high price of entry.

- High Street has numerous antique shops, many in the Lamb Arcade; restaurants; a goldsmiths, a florist, a hair salon, some clothes shops, and a shop specialising in violins, violas and cellos.

- St Mary's Street, a charming and rambling affair, has an art shop, a good second hand book shop, estate agents, a milliner, a sportswear shop, a cycle centre, a wine shop, and a guitar shop.

- St Martin's Street, opposite, has jewellery shops, various fashion and design shops, a travel agency, estate agents, a flower shop, a shop selling organic produce, and a large Waitrose on the corner of High Street.

- Markets: The Charter market is held every Friday in the Market Place; a farmers' market is held on the third Tuesday of every month in the same venue. The Country Market (WI) is held is the Regal Centre every Friday.

- Eating: Good choice of restaurants - Italian, Chinese, several Indian, and Pizza Express.

- Drinking: Some attractive local pubs, including The Boat House, The George Hotel, The Cross Keys, The Green Tree, and The Coachmakers Arms.

Conservation Areas:

Property Types: Timber-framed, brick and flint, Georgian and Victorian in the centre; 30s, 70s, 80s and 90s in the rest.

Buyers: Wide demographic - young families with parent working in the city, locals with deep roots here, some retirees.

St Leonard's Lane includes some very cute cottages and larger semis as well as some new-build property. Further on are lovely brick-and-flint cottages opposite the attractive St Leonard's church.

St Leonard's Lane leads into Thames Street, which features an impressive mansion once owned by landscape painter George Dunlop Leslie.

On the corner of St Peter's Street there's an impressive Gothic house, and across the road you'll find one of Wallingford's more recent additions - though you'd never know it if you weren't told.

Standing in a commanding position overlooking the river, it's a mock-Georgian mansion that contains luxury apartments running to £350,000 for a two-bed flat.

There's also a newer development (90s) off Hithercroft Road at Sovereign Place laid out around a small green. This features some substantial detached houses and semis.

Further in, on Barely Close, are blocks of flats, while Windsor Close has mainly three and four-bed semis from the 90s.

Things improve on St Nicholas Road where bay-fronted semis with good gardens (possibly from the 30s) are the order of the day.

St Nicholas Road leads onto Station Road, a busy main thoroughfare with a mix of period terraces, semis and then large detached properties as it runs into Wantage Road.

Walk back down Station Road towards High Street and you come to another of Wallingford's prime developments - a converted school house on Walter Bigg Way, that now features luxury apartments.