Just 0.2 mm of Rain in July 2026

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According to Flood Radar, just 0.2 mm of rain fell at a monitoring station near the sewage works in south Abingdon during July 2026. The July average is around 37 mm. By contrast, June rainfall at this monitoring station was above average.

In southern England, July has been reported as the driest on record. To help conserve water supplies, there is a temporary hosepipe ban, but there are a number of exemptions.

You may still see sprinklers operating on cricket pitches or other sports grounds. Watering is permitted where it is necessary to maintain a safe playing surface, but not the entire ground.

Other exemptions include:

* Food crops where watering with a hosepipe is essential.
* Commercial horticulture and plants grown for sale.
* Animal welfare, including ponds containing fish.
* People with certain disabilities or medical conditions who qualify for exemptions.

* Newly planted street trees (planted within the last three years where hand watering is not practical).

Some newly planted street trees have been provided with watering bags and labels asking people to become Tree Guardians by helping to keep them watered. This tree appears to have been badly affected by the prolonged dry weather. If its roots are still alive, regular watering over the coming weeks could still give it a chance of recovery.

Revised Walking and Cycling Plans for Abingdon Town Centre

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Oxfordshire County Council has published revised proposals to improve walking and cycling through Abingdon town centre after taking account of feedback from last year’s public consultation.

The scheme, funded through the UK Government’s Active Travel Fund, originally had a budget of £1.47 million. It has since received a further £269,000, allowing the council to make several changes in response to concerns raised by residents and businesses.

The original plans included a contraflow cycle lane along East St Helen Street, new pedestrian and cycle crossings, and changes to the busy junction linking High Street, Bridge Street and Stert Street.

Following consultation, several aspects of the scheme have been revised. The illustrations below are my own mock-ups based on photographs taken today to help show the changes. They are not the council’s official drawings, so if you want to see the precise layout you should look at the plans on the council’s consultation webpage.

The main changes are:

* No net loss of residents’ parking spaces. Parking spaces that need removing will instead be relocated. New residents’ parking will be created on Lombard Street and St Helen’s Court, while some shared visitor/residents’ spaces on East St Helen Street will become residents-only. To accommodate these changes, Lombard Street would become one-way eastbound for motor vehicles while remaining open to westbound cyclists.

* More loading space for businesses has been included.

* The proposed planting along East St Helen Street has been removed, allowing wider passing places along East St Helen Street.

* A new pedestrian crossing is proposed between Parasol Restaurant and The Punch Bowl.

* Another pedestrian crossing would be provided outside St Helen’s Church.


* A protected southbound cycle lane is added on West St Helen Street, linking St Helen’s Court with East St Helen Street. This would require the removal of four parking spaces.

How to comment:

The council is currently asking for feedback only on these revised changes, with comments open until 1 September 2026. See: : https://letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk/east-st-helen-street-active-travel-update

Later this autumn or winter, the council expects to hold a formal consultation on the complete revised scheme, giving everyone another opportunity to comment before any final decisions are made.

Bees Evicted from Wall

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Walking past Cosener’s House on Wednesday, I saw six people dressed in beekeeping suits. Two of them were  on scaffold. They were working beside a hole in the side wall of a building while bees flew around them.

The team must have dismantled part of the wall to remove a colony of bees. Along with the bees, they removed some large pieces of honeycomb in large plastic boxes.

I was told there were three boxes of comb like the one pictured. The bees must have been there for a long time to have produced so much honey.

Once the bees and honeycomb had been removed, the wall was rebuilt.

As I was taking photographs, a man driving past remarked, “That’s not something you see every day.”

The following day, bees were still flying around the rebuilt wall. By today, however, there were fewer signs of the bees.

Abbey Millstream Through the Year: July 2026

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July is a good month for spotting young waterfowl along the Mill Stream, although many of the youngsters are well hidden. These ducklings were out in the open below the weir.

There seem to be plenty of ducklings about, but the thick summer growth along the banks provides plenty of places for them to shelter, making them difficult to spot.

Moorhen chicks are often easier to find because of their high-pitched cheeping, which gives them away before they can be seen. Apart from the ducklings and moorhen chicks, I haven’t noticed many other young birds this month.

Around the weir, the reeds provide dense cover for wildlife. They protect not only birds but also large numbers of small fish.

The fish are easiest to see in the shallower water, or where bright green floating plants provide a contrast.

I found large numbers of Red Admirals feeding on a pink flowering plant beside the water’s edge.

Another interesting plant growing beside the stream has orange flowers that look rather like tiny jugs. It may be Orange Balsam.

The brambles beside the Mill Stream and the larger bramble bushes in the Abbey Meadows have produced a good crop of blackberries throughout July.

I met a couple using a 30-year-old walking guide who were puzzled by Abingdon’s Sword Bridge (the green iron footbridge, opened in 2007, with decorative motifs based on the ceremonial sword). It wasn’t shown in their guide. They were looking for the Abbey Gardens, so I pointed them towards the next bridge. That bridge, built by Cowley Concrete, looks striking in the early morning sunlight, with its underside reflected in the water.