The Kings Head and Bell public house takes you back into a world of dark wood panelling. There is a courtyard with tables where you can sit outside in summer, and a snug with a blazing fire in winter.

It is an old Pub with records going back to the 1500s. The out buildings would have had a hostlery and smithy for horses. As can be seen there is enough room to drive a coach and horses.

There are stories about King Charles I having come here during the early years of the Civil War, before the Roundheads took over Abingdon.

In any case, the sign remembers that very King.

The facade was altered at the beginning of the 19th Century to look as it does now.

There is a jazz club upstairs sometimes.

One of my favourite Abingdon pubs although the music can be loud at times. Not that I mind loud music. I’m just no good at lip reading.

This coming Sunday will be Harvest Festival at Trinity Church which is where I normally go. People bring food and other gifts which get shared out the next day among people ‘in need.’

And where better (in Abingdon) to go at around Harvest than to Peachcroft Farm.

I was suprised that they are still doing “Pick your Own” so late in the season. They have some late raspberries, runner-beans and sweet corn.

They have a nice little shed selling fruit and vegetables – pre-picked. And behind that is a proper shop run by “Wells Stores.” The Peachcroft farm web site says the store “is bursting with all kinds of country food – the kind of fresh and home produced food that makes your mouth water.”

And alongside the shop are lots of turkeys running about in the sunshine, and clambering over the bales of straw. The turkeys also get a note on the website as “‘old fashioned’ slow growing strains, and grow to full maturity, giving their meat an excellent texture.”

The windows of the Blue Boar pub in Bath street have been covered with sheets from the Sun Newspaper. And a blackboard has been put up saying “Closed for Re…” I Couldn’t make out the remainder of the word, whether it was redecoration, repainting, restoration, renovation, or repair…

.. or even rest, recovery and recuperation. The Blue Boar is an old pub, over 500 years old, with an extension at the back. So sometimes you can experience
an olde worlde open fire, but at other times Big Screen Football or Saturday Night Fever. Perhaps the old building needs a rest and a chance to recuperate after the long summer.

Another pub going through a renovation is the Old Anchor on St Helens Wharf. In January, the pub was looking for a new landlord. The new landlords, who took over in March or April, seem to be doing well, and the pub is thriving again, particularly on Thursday evening when there is a quiz. In their case I can see that half the roof tiles have been replaced so they are re-roofing. The sign in the middle of the scaffold says “Open as Usual.”

The horse chestnut leaves are beginning to look ragged, and the conker cases are dropping to the ground.

They have had a difficult year. Horse Chestnuts are not that good at coping with droughts.

But despite that they have done their most important function and produced lots of conkers for school children. The odd ones might get missed and turn into new trees.

There is a particularly well set out avenue of horse chestnut trees near the top end of Audlett Drive. On one side of Audlett Drive the avenue leads to a style and then to Thrupp Lane.

And on the other side of Audlett Drive the trees lead towards the Radley Road. But before Radley Road you will see a road, appropriately named ‘The Chestnuts’.