There is a log fire at the Old Anchor Inn, by the River Thames in Abingdon. Over the fireplace mantel are the words “DO NOT TOUCH The fire”.

As a child, one task I was sometimes allowed to undertake was to clear the grate of the previous night’s ashes, and then start the next day’s fire. This would either entail using white fire lighters, or the gas poker under a pile of coal.

On a number of occasions I remember watching as adults held a thin sheet of newspaper in front of the fireplace to draw up the flames. This was a more risky process, and on a couple of occasions I saw the flaming newspaper being sucked up the chimney. It could have caused a chimney fire but didn’t. We learned from our elders that fire had to be treated with respect.

Thanks to Malcolm for this report from 6th December 1967.

Many older Abingdon residents will remember the Blackburn Beverley. These huge aeroplanes arrived at RAF Abingdon in March 1956 and were the biggest aircraft to go into RAF service at the time.

There were only three pilots qualified to fly them at the base so an intensive training programme started to supply aircrew for the two UK squadrons, both based at Abingdon. Residents of a certain age, especially those in the north of the town, will remember the ‘bumps and circuits’ carried out both day and night in the early days of service.

53 Squadron was amalgamated into 47 Squadron in 1963 and the latter was disbanded on 31st October 1967. The last two Beverleys departed Abingdon on the 6th December 1967 which is when the attached pictures were taken. I was a member of the local ATC squadron and myself and a friend were cadet ‘jollyriders’ who scrounged a lift.

The flightpath took the pair around the Isle of Wight – the air to air shot is over the Solent – with formation flypasts en-route over RAF Upavon (headquarters of Air Support Command at the time) and RAF Odiham.

These were followed by farewell flypasts over Abingdon – the approach lights can be seen in the final image – before landing at RAF Shawbury, where the two aeroplanes were handed to 27 MU and eventually the scrapman.