Anne Gould took a party of 50 from the Abingdon U3A Group to witness the ancient Ceremony of The Keys at HM Tower of London. They were hosted by Yeoman Warder Spike Abbott from Abingdon, now living within The Tower walls, and were fortunate to have a few ‘refreshments’ in the private club frequented by the Beefeaters. Anne was lucky to catch a photo here with the Tower Gaoler, Pete McGowran, ex RAF, just after he had secured the Fortress with The Queens Keys.

There is more about the Abingdon U3A (University 3rd Age) on their website with their programme of activities and events. Last Monday they had an interesting talk by Jeff Rozelaar based on his book Bagels and Bacon telling of his childhood not far from the Tower of London in the East End.

The Thames Valley branch of the International Police Association (IPA) were having a walk and meal together in Abingon-on-Thames today.
“Servo per Amikeco” in Esperanto means “Serve through Friendship.”

The IPA is the biggest Police Association in the World with almost 420,000 members. The Thames Valley branch includes police officers (on active duty or retired) from the Thames Valley and the Metropolitan Police Service. The IPA was founded on 1st January 1950 because a police sergeant from Lincolnshire, England, Arthur Troop, wanted to create a channel for friendship and international co-operation amongst police officers, after the war.

One of the members was telling me he had recently visited police colleagues in Hungary, and will be going to Portugal later this year. They also have local social events. The chairman of the local association lives in Abingdon.

The Abingdon Peace Group were in the town centre on Saturday to congratulate ICAN on winning the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. The group ICAN convinced 122 nations to sign a UN treaty banning nuclear weapons.

ICAN, the international campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons, is an international coalition of groups, including survivors from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.

I read in the Abingdon Herald a couple of weeks ago …

‘The Kingfisher Canoe Club – and its youth division Pathfinders – packed up and left its home of 25 years in Abingdon on Saturday, more than 18 months after being served an eviction notice.

The club had identified a ‘perfect’ new site in the northern corner of Rye Farm Meadow but its attempt to move there has collapsed…’

Currently their equipment is stored miles from the river. I took a course with the Kingfisher Canoe Club a few years ago and think it would be a tragedy if others cannot learn to canoe safely on our local rivers in the same way. The club has been there for over 40 years.

The canoe club have looked at a lot of options before deciding on Rye Farm Meadow which is Vale of the White Horse District Council land. Up to the last minute the Vale were working with them and then there was a legal problem at the last minute.

Hopefully district councillors can help resolve this matter before we loose one of our most valuable local clubs. Councillor Details are at this link (Abingdon wards are at the top)