We are very fortunate to have three book shops in Abingdon, and there were five, possibly  more, books about Abingdon published in 2011 …

The Abingdon Waterways Walk is a very recent booklet, describing an 8.5 mile circular walk, with text by Heather Brown, and pictures by Stuart Roper, produced by Choose Abingdon.

“A sweet and hopeful people – a story of Abingdon Baptist Church 1649 – 2011”   is a book written and revised by Michael  Hambleton.

Celebrating Abingdon’s History, is a book produced by Abingdon Area Archaelogical and Historical Society. The book comprises 9 papers first presented at St Helen’s Church in honour of local historian Mieneke Cox.

52 things to do far from the madding beaches is a book about the Vale of White Horse, which of course includes Abingdon. The book grew out of a competition asking people to submit poems and prose, photographs and paintings about where they live in the Vale. It is a book to dip into and also gives ideas of things to do locally.

The final book called The Lost Abbey of Abingdon I have not even seen yet. I tried to get a copy today but both Mostly Books and The Bookstore sold out on Christmas Eve, and are currently ordering more. W H Smiths did not have the book on their system yet.  I will add the picture when I find a copy.

By the way… Have I missed any books you know about Abingdon from 2011?

Footway work is to start in West St Helen’s Street early in the new year and continue for about 11 weeks. Footway must be the official term, as opposed to pavement .

All the coloured markings that were made almost a year ago are now explained.

Apart from a bit of disruption it will be good to have the pavements brought up to the level of the rest of the town centre – possibly even better if it is to take 11 weeks.

A Very Happy Christmas and thanks for looking in.

The first picture shows Abingdon Town Band playing carols at the Waitrose exit – helping to cheer up people doing Christmas  food shopping.

Town centre lights are looking good this year …

The County Hall is now without scaffolding, and fitted for the next 50-100 years.

The Market Place decorations are seeing their 3rd or 4th Christmas.

Lewis Baker always does a good Christmas show.

As do Helen and Douglas House.

Children are so important at Christmas.

From today there will be Free Parking in Abingdon, for up to 2 hours.

Paid for by council tax payers to help shops in their local town centre thrive.

New signs remind people they still need to display a ticket even if they put no money in the machine.

So it is “No Pay” and Display.

I believe people will still need to pay for all on-street parking as that scheme is run by the County Council not the District Council.  It will be interesting to see how that works out in the coming days – whether there are fuller carparks and emptier street parking places.

P.S Very easy to use, and quicker than paying …

Either enter your registration number and press the button (for that type of machine), or just press the ticket button (for the other type of machine).