relating to the town's history. Displays include archaeology, Wallingford Castle, and the town in medieval and Victorian times. The museum is in a mid-16th-century timber-framed house with a 17th-century flint façade. It faces the Kinecroft, an open space in Wallingford which is bordered on two sides by Anglo-Saxon burh defences built in the 9th century. Governance UK Parliament During the Third Reform Act 1884 the constituency of Wallingford was abolished. Wallingford became part of the Wantage constituency. The Wantage constituency was recreated in 1983. The Conservative Party's Ed Vaizey served as MP for Wantage from 2005 until the 2019 general election in which Vaizey announced that he would be standing down. Shortly prior to this, Vaizey had the Conservative whip removed after voting against Prime Minister Boris Johnson on 3 September 2019. Vaizey had the Conservative whip restored on 29 October 2019. David Johnston was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent Wantage and was duly elected as the new MP for Wantage at the 2019 general election. Local government In 1972 the Local Government Act set out in law that in 1974 the Borough of Wallingford would be disbanded and the town would be transferred into a new local government district called South Oxfordshire. In 1973 the town elected three district councillors to the South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC). In 2003 two electoral wards were created, Wallingford North and Cholsey & Wallingford South, which each elected two district councillors. Since 1974 the Wallingford ward has elected a county councillor to Oxfordshire County Council. The county councillor is Pete Sudbury, a member of the Green Party. Wallingford is also run by a town council consisting of 16 members. The town council provides local services including maintenance of important buildings such as Wallingford Town Hall. Geography Climate As with the rest of the British Isles and Oxfordshire, Wallingford experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. There has been a weather station at the nearby Centre for Ecology & Hydrology collecting data on the local climate since 1961. Temperature extremes at Wallingford vary from recorded in January 1982 to recorded in July 2006. Recent low temperatures include during January 2010 and during December 2010. Transport River The River Thames has been a transport route for centuries, and Wallingford's growth as a town relied partly on it. Coal was supplied from North East England by coaster to London and then