The Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers were dancing in the foyer as the guests arrived.

The mayor and her escourt sat at the top table…

Next to them were guest speaker Polly Vacher, and the chair of the Vale District Council. Polly told us of her recent Wings around Britain flight, where she flew between and landed at 221 different airfields in Britain – all in aid of Flying Scholarships for the disabled.

More than a few guests had civic chains. There were mayors from a lot of the surrounding towns.

There was a guess the name of the bear, a charity auction, and a raffle to raise funds for Phab and Age Concern.

and dancing to the sound of the Oxford University Big Band.

A ban on dropping litter has been introduced in Abingdon with the slogan “Littering? It’ll cost you”

Unlike the proposed alcohol ban, this ban will extend beyond Abingdon. Trashy posters are to be displayed across the Vale of White Horse District.

Signs pointing in all directions.

The River Thames runs along the length of Abingdon

and the River Ock goes through the heart of Abingdon.

There is a sign to the Ock Valley Walk, and another to Abingdon Marina:

but no sign says just ‘To the River.’

The war memorial in Abingdon, Oxfordshire has had a slight lean for a number of years, and is being monitored to see whether it has stopped moving or whether the time has come to underpin it.

Wind back the clock to the 11th Sept 1921, and this scrapbook picture shows the Earl of Abingdon unveiling the same war memorial.

Wind back the clock further, and those trees shrink back, disappear and another, less weighty, monument takes pride of place at the Square in Abingdon, Berkshire.