There are four Local Excellence Markets a year in Abingdon and two craft markets. At today’s market there were craft stalls with paintings and photos. The one in the foreground is Martin Wackenier’s stall selling his photos.

Every Local Excellence Market allows a different community group to have a free stall each time and today that was the Green Forum. They bring together all Abingdon’s Green groups. They were doing a survey with six items about transport. The first item was School Streets. A School Street is a road outside a school with a temporary restriction on motorised traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times. There has been a trial across 9 schools in Oxfordshire, including St Nicolas. 60% of the 120 parents and residents who responded to the School Street survey said they supported the school Street at St Nicolas.

The core stall of any market is fruit and veg. Paul, one of the coordinators, told me that six people retired from doing outside markets during Covid and so he has been looking for new people and trying to get a good mix of stalls. There used to be a lot of people wanting to sell jewellery. Since Covid there have been a lot of people making cakes. New on the market today were a cookie and fudge stall.

The post box has a crochet dragon and a tiger. The Chinese New Year begins on February 1st. 2022 will be the year of the Tiger. In China dragons are seen friendly and the bringers of good luck.

The day started with frost but had turned to sunshine for the Monday Market. The market is back in full swing after the festive season. The tree has gone as have the decorations. Two Italian flags were flying. The Grimsby Fish van was there.

The butcher was calling out ‘Sirloin Steak, Pork Chops’. The fruit and veg man called back ‘Bananas.’

A lovely morning for a walk over the bridge and beside the River Thames.

The removable bollards around Abingdon Market Place are having new ground sockets fitted. The bollards can be removed to allow events like the fair and markets.

The work is needed as a result of regular damage and missing bollards that has happened over years.

The Abingdon Lions asked Father Christmas to be in their grotto on the Market Place in Abingdon today. He was giving little presents to children. He will be back on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day morning to fill stockings.

Somebody had made a Christmas decoration from wool on the post office box. There were also lots of stalls selling things that would make good presents for Christmas.

There were also decorations made of leaves to make houses and doors look Christmassy without using lights or blow up snowmen.

After Christmas there will be a pantomime about ‘Dick Whittington’ who had a cat. She is the best cat in all Abingdon at catching mice. You will have to go and watch to see what happens when they go to London. The Abingdon Drama Club are selling tickets.