Author Archives: Backstreeter

County Hall abseil

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Abingdon County Hall was taped off this afternoon as a worker abseiled about the outside.

A van, parked nearby, was the property of  Chiltern Lifts Company. And so this could have been part of a survey to see about installing a lift, something the town council have started to investigate. Town council officers met recently with Historic England Planning and architects to consider three options for the lift. (But that is a complete guess. Somebody out there may know better. Perhaps it was the Mayor’s Charity Abseil.)

UPDATE: Actually, my guess was wrong. The lift engineers were looking at the current lift and will be back once they have consulted with the manufacturers. It could be out of action for a while. The abseil was English Heritage workers repairing the balustrade and cupola. They also cleaned the windows.

Abingdon Clouds (Theme Day: Soft)

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These clouds were photographed over West St Helen Street in Abingdon.

Close-up clouds look like mist and feel moist. Further away, they look soft like cotton wool, but if clouds were like cotton wool, aeroplanes would have problems climbing to 35,000 or 36,000 feet. Clouds must be softer than cotton wool, softer than marshmallows – as soft as moist air.

Part of the City Daily Photo theme day: Soft.

Halloween – getting creative with wool, wood, and pumpkins

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All Hallows is a religious festival where the dead are remembered on the night before All Saints Day. Before then, it could have been a pre-Christian festival. Halloween has become a time for dressing up, spooky parties and trick-and-treating.

It is also a chance for people in Abingdon to get creative with wool, wood, and pumpkins.

The postbox on the  Market place has been decorated with a spooky topper.

The Blue Boar has been made to resemble a House of Horrors with wood from Oxford Wood Recycling.

Pumpkins of different sizes and colours are there on display for people to get creative at Fabulous flowers.

Local Excellence Market

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Traders and craftspeople came to Abingdon Market Place for the autumn Local Excellence Market today.

After a two-year absence, the Abingdon Extravaganza will be back on the 26th of November and will have a football theme. In the year when the England Lionesses won Euro 2022, after beating Germany 2-1 in extra-time at Wembley, the extravaganza will be opened by some of the Oxford United Women’s team. The extravaganza format will be the same as in previous years, with a parade, stalls, and entertainment.

The Royal British Legion has launched its annual poppy appeal, and there were traditional poppies and smaller lapel badges, including a Falklands 40 badge. 255 British personnel lost their lives recapturing the Falklands in 1982.