Author Archives: Backstreeter

On St Helen’s Wharf

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On St Helen’s Wharf, there were friends from the twin towns, visiting Abingdon for a church twinning conference on the environment that is taking place this weekend. There is a presentation tomorrow morning by five Abingdon Eco groups, and in the afternoon a presentation about the Heat Source at Peachcroft Christian Centre.

St  Helen’s Wharf looks lovely with the trees autumnal, and the drift of leaves.

Whoever planned the sunken rowing boat deserves a prize. It featured on the front page of the Abingdon Herald a week ago, thanks to a Becca Collacott photograph – taken on a misty morning

The Garden Room

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The Garden Room was open at St Ethelwold’s House. In the Garden Room, there is a Visitors Book. Here is a small and quite typical selection.

‘An amazing retreat to stumble across in Abingdon. I can’t believe I never knew this was here.’

‘I lived in Abingdon from 1964 to 67. I can’t believe I’d never been here before. Wonderful. I’ve done some knitting.’

‘I’m so glad I walked into this fabulous setting. Spring has finally started to do its magic, and flowers are coming up. The birds are singing, and I can watch the geese and riverboats. It’s a site for sore eyes after the harsh winter months.’

‘What’s a lovely place to stumble upon. We are studying at Oxford and decided to take a little day trip to explore Abingdon during our Christmas holidays. What a lovely place.’

‘Stumbled across the lovely garden. So tranquil.’

‘Thank you to all the people who make this what it is. It’s a beautiful place. Restores my soul.’

‘It’s my great joy that I was joined for about five minutes by a Kingfisher on one of the poles.’

When I left, I saw one of the volunteer gardeners cutting back plants, a visitor sitting on a bench enjoying the October sunshine, and a dragonfly resting on a garden table.

Conduit House patched up

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Work on patching up Conduit House in Albert Park was completed a few weeks ago. What started as a simple project to re-lime the joints became more complicated. This picture shows that patching was needed, and wall ties.

Conduit House is not far from Trinity Church and is older. Trinity Church was opened in 1875, the year Conduit House last acted as a cistern to collect water from natural springs and conduit water to the residents of Ock Street.

The ancient building belonged to Abingdon Abbey – which closed in 1538, and was passed to the current owner, Christ’s Hospital of Abingdon, in 1553.

Christ’s Hospital of Abingdon laid out £31,000, the major part of the cost of the remedial work. The work was also funded partly by the Oxfordshire Buildings Trust, a charity that gives grants to maintain ancient buildings in Oxfordshire. ‘The Oxfordshire Buildings Trust was established to help preserve Oxfordshire’s historical, and architectural heritage. It also offers grant aid, advice, and campaigns on heritage and conservation issues. If you have an ancient building (not a church) you could try them. Churches have their own charity – the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust.

Halloween bats

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Ashley sent me a picture of six bats at St Helen’s Wharf at the weekend, all crocheted from wool.

When I went to St Helen’s Wharf there were only three.

‘Crochet bats cannot fly! Not when they are made of wool. Not when they are attached to the railings with cable ties.’

‘Holy crocheted bats, Batman! Only a criminal could callously cut the cable tie and take the bats.’

‘Yes, Robin! It does sound batty, but my bat sensor has picked up the trail of the criminal mastermind in question.’