Abingdon Borough Council named Wordsworth Road in about 1971. Wordworth wrote a number of poems about May Day. Here is the first verse of one entitled “To May.”

Though many suns have risen and set
Since thou, blithe May, wert born,
And Bards, who hailed thee, may forget
Thy gifts, thy beauty scorn;
There are who to a birthday strain
Confine not harp and voice,
But evermore throughout thy reign
Are grateful and rejoice…

And so, some “rejoice” pictures taken, not far away, by the River Ock this May morning. The morning began dull and rainy, but by about 8:30 there was glorious sunshine:

This Robin often comes very close. Perhaps it is a bit too trusting.

This magnificent chestnut tree is next to the Ladygrove Meadow playpark, and beside the chestnut a blackthorn is in blossom.

Along the River Ock a Hawthorn bush has no blossoms yet. The Hawthorn is also known as the May because it traditionally blossomed from about May Day. That was before they rejigged the calendar.

And finally just to show that despite being May Day, bad things happen. This duck is being half strangled by the plastic holder from a six-pack. Some little children made sure their mum phoned the RSPCA.

The ninth verse of Wordsworth’s poem “To May” does say:

And what if thou, sweet May, hast known
Mishap by worm and blight;
If expectations newly blown
Have perished in thy sight;
If loves and joys, while up they sprung,
Were caught as in a snare;
Such is the lot of all the young,
However bright and fair.

Aircraft had been flying over Abingdon all morning, from all directions. The Abingdon Fayre website says “Because of the afternoon Flying Display program, NO ARRIVALS ARE ALLOWED FROM 13.15HRS WITH NO DEPARTURES ALLOWED UNTIL AFTER 16.30HRS LOCAL.” After 16.30 it was like rush hour in the sky as they went home. This plane is above Prince Albert in Albert Park.

Back in July 2000 the Abingdon Fayre started as a small Fete on Abingdon Airfield, next to Dalton Barracks (formerly RAF Abingdon).

Every year this event seems to get bigger and bigger and this year was the biggest yet. The money raised goes towards Douglas house – the young people’s hospice.

A lot of the visitors were aircraft enthusiasts, or vintage car enthusiasts. There were large displays of both. Round the runway I was amazed by the size of some of the telephoto lenses. The chap with the largest camera is shown here on the roof of a van. He is filming the display of an RAF Hawk Jet trainer jet. The same jet is shown starting its taxi to the runway in the previous picture.

Between the planes and the displays of: vintage cars, London buses, Harley Davidson Motorbikes, traction engines etc. were amusements for the children, and a lot of craft and charity stalls. This potter making brown flower pots has a very fine beard.

120+ MG cars had returned to the place where they were built. These enthusiasts are examining some of this cars finer points.

We have a campaigning local newspaper in The Abingdon Herald. This year they are campaigning to save our local Community Hospitals.

The Mayors of the five towns, (Abingdon, Didcot, Henley, Wallingford and Wantage) have got together to fight for a common cause. Any of the five towns could loose out if the community hospitals are restructured.

The Mayor of Abingdon was out and about campaigning on the issue today, as was the deputy mayor and a number of other local councillors.

There was a similar campaign two years ago, and ten years ago. Both times the hospitals were saved. One phrase used recently by a nurse, about community hospitals, was ” We must not let these jewels in the crown disappear.” One of our local councillors stand next to a poster with these words

The Drayton Road Bridge divides Abingdon in two. To the south of the River Ock about a third of the population live in an area traditionally known as Caldecott. Some born and bred Caldecott residents consider it to be a place with it own separate identity.

The strange thing about the arches underneath the bridge are that they are arched one side, and round the other. The bridge does act as a bottleneck for traffic coming from the south, and the bridge has been widened on a couple of occassions, most recently in about 1970. There have been calls for it to be widened again, but this has been rejected by the County Council who control the roads budget. The bridge can also act as a blockage to water flow, and may one day cause floods.

Looking up inside the bridge, it is layered like the growth of a tree. On one side the bridge is arched, in the middle the circular arch is made of stones, finally the most recent bridge widening uses prefabricated concrete.