Town Councillors were taking it in turns to man this table outside Waitrose. This was a cross party campaign organised by the Mayor.

They were collecting signatures on their campaign to save Abingdon Community Hospital from being downgraded.People do worry that it offers a prime site for development, and people are worried that with the local PCTs (Primary Care Trusts) being in such a poor financial position, could see the site as a money spinner.

One man lamented that everything got sold off in Abingdon. Soon every building would be private. He remembered Abingdon in the 1960s having its own Concert Hall at the Corn Exchange. Now concerts took place at the Amey Theatre owned by the private Abingdon School.

One elderly lady remembered when the current hospital served as an isolation unit in the 20s and 30s, and another hospital in the Warren was for general nursing. She said she had lived in Abingdon all her life, as had her parents, and considered herself to be an Abingdonian through and through. Abingdon had always had a hospital, and a town like this should always continue to have one.

Its the reception at Abingdon and Witney College.

A plan of the proposed redevelopment of the Abingdon Co-op site has been published by McLennan Architects, working for the Midcounties Co-op. The new plans differ significantly from the original plans that initiated public opposition and protests. I added the sunshine and the sign.

For anybody who likes to make a bit of a drama out of buying new shoes, there is a shoeshop called Lady McBeth in West St Helens Street.

Passing the shop at the dark of night one could imagine getting some Kicker trainers from the store:

“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly”