The steeple of St Helens viewed from beneath a large silver birch along West St Helens Street.

The same steeple viewed from the back window of the nearest parked car. The car probably belonged to one of the choristers.

The church door was open and listening to the evening hymn, I lifted the camera lens, beyond St Helens Court and the brewery buildings, towards the sky.

The Abingdon flag has been flying over the county hall for the last couple of days instead of the union jack, possibly due to the Mayor Making this evening.

On the stage of the Abbey Hall, in front of an audience of town’s people, Abingdon Town Council unanimously elected the new mayor by 20 votes to 0. The new mayor isn’t the chap with the chain, but the lady with the bonnet. This picture was taken when the mayor-to-be was helping the town celebrate the 45oth anniversary of the royal charter.

Her name is Lorraine Oates. She is 60 – although I find that hard to believe. She is married to Tim, who flies helicopters for a living. (That is not Tim by the way.) Lorraine has been on the town council for four years, and has chaired the amenities committee (which looks after play areas, cemetaries, allotments etc).

Lorraine is often on hand to help at events, and as mayor will attend possible two to three hundred in the next year with the help of her deputy.

Each crew has three qualifying races to try and get through to the final. So they embark near the finish.

Paddle up to the start point, and with drum beating, thunder down the river,

back to the finishing line.

The weather could have been better for the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vespers, who stage the event. It was either pouring down

or just drizzling.

But despite that, there were still a lot of people up for it, but maybe not as many as last year.

2¾ miles from Abingdon town centre is the centre of the village of Marcham. Off one side of the main road you will find a sheep farm…

and a dairy farm…

and there is an old dove-cote squeezed in next to an electricity sub-station.

But, like Abingdon, Marcham suffers from traffic problems. Along the main street called ‘Packhorse Lane’ the road twists, and there are no pavements.

There has been a long campaign to build a bypass round Marcham, but there is no funding currently and so the campaign drags on. In fact, things might get worse for Marcham with the proposed reservoir. Thames Water are proposing building a service road from near Marcham to the reservoir (should the reservoir be given the go-ahead). That could then draw in more traffic.