Twitty’s Almshouses were open this morning for cream teas. The money raised is for Abingdon Hospital League of Friends. It cost £1.50, and for that you got a cup of tea or coffee or squash, a scone loaded with cream and a strawberry, and a raffle ticket.

… and the chance to sit out in the back yard of Twitty’s almshouse for a few minutes.

The Yard will be back at Caldecott Rec from next Monday 7th August. This is for teenagers, and kicks off with a Barbecue at Midday. This scheme has been running for three years now. If past years are anything to go by it involves some youth workers,
graffiti artwork, sound systems, and motor bikes to be overhauled.

This map shows that the junction of the new Wilts and Berks Canal. It will be accessible from Peep-O-Day Lane.

Peep-O-Day Lane itself is only accessible by bikes, wheelchairs and pedestrians because of the concrete blocks.

Opposite the entrance to the new canal can be seen this old quarry.

The canal development can be seen across this gravel-pit lake. It is a private fishing lake.

A wide track of earth has been cleared to form the canal and wetland.

For some time the blue Environment Agency Sign has said ” Site of the proposed junction of the Wilts & Berks Canal with the River Thames”

I didn’t expect it to happen, but the first £160,000 stretch of the project is underway. It is planned to be opened at the end of August.

The old junction of the Wilts and Berks Canal ended at Margaret Browns Gardens in town, but that land has been built upon. The new junction is in open countryside.

One of the Lime Trees along Caldecott Road, near the lodge at St Amand Drive, was being felled today.

The lodge itself can be seen (minus the tree) here surrounded by a wall that was built about fifteen years ago. The original wall was flattened when a builders van failed to notice it. I expect the wall and the lodge are the remnants of the once great Caldecott House.

The tree rings were difficult to count because the saw erased the outer marks. There were eighteen near the centre, but I would guess there were three times that amount.