The tall central building proclaims in bright red brickwork ‘Free Library’ – built in 1895. The orange shopfront belongs to ‘Crumbs Sandwhich bar’ where you can get an ‘all day breakfast’ and the more sober shopfront is P B Conway, opticians. The group of three gabled frontages stand up tall.

I would like to find out more about the architect and see some of their other designs.

This is the Abbey Baptist Church down Checker Walk. At one time it belonged to a group called the Strict Baptists, but they are now the Grace Baptists. The Abbey Baptist Church preach in the open air, and have a strong sense of mission and saving people’s souls.

The other more main stream Baptist Church is The Ock Street Baptist Church. They have a long history going back to 1649 when it was founded by John Pendarves.

Production of MG cars at Abingdon was stopped in 1980. BL (British Leyland) with a noticeable lack of judgement announced the closure while workers were celebrating 50 years of MG production at Abingdon.

The factory was closed, and this is the last piece of land that is yet to be developed.

Plans for housing and flats have been put forward by Builders Ede from Kidlington who own the land. But their plans were rejected by the local planning authority, and have been resubmitted. They tried to fit in too much first time around.

The land lies along Colwell Drive between Abingdon police station and the houses of Willowbrook. It has been left undisturbed so long that it has become the home of foxes and skylarks…

The February 2006 edition of ROUND&about has recently been delivered to all homes with a postcode starting OX14 which mean Abingdon.

It features the first of a three part article on training animals ‘.. As I grew up, I had all sorts of animals around the house, including a squirrel that I found frozen stiff and I thawed him out. My mother wasn’t pleased when she opened the oven door andhe popped out…’

It has a large section about local events- disjointed ramblings. Its well done.