Frank from the Lock has been given a special award by the High Sheriff of Oxfordshire in recognition of exceptional services to the community.

I believe there were only 23 such awards given out after 500+ nominations.

Frank has also been featured in the Oxford Mail. So this post is aimed at people who have not already read that, including friends from abroad. While I was at the lock one of his ex-work colleagues came to visit. He had seen the Oxford Mail article and came to revisit his old friend for the first time in 30 years.

The Abingdon area streetlife forum was launched in January 2015 and has 1403 members.

Two years later, another company, called Next Door, has taken over Streetlife and are inviting people to move across to their forum. There are 6 days to go before they stop new posts on streetlife.

When Streetlife started there were initiatives for people to meet up locally:
Any Welsh speakers, learners, improvers interested in meeting up?
Any crocheters / crafters around Abingdon?

It was also a place to ask about what tradespeople could be trusted:
Can anyone recommend someone to unblock my drain,
Gardener recommendations

Then there were the unexplained happenings around Abingdon that neighbours could explain:
Does anyone know what the throbbing noise is coming from the direction of Didcot? It’s been going on for a couple of days now.
Answer: Pile driving next to the power station

It acted as a town wide Lost and Found:
Glasses found
Mobile phone found
Binoculars found at Fishponds nature reserve

There were invitations to take part (this one very recent):
There has been a dreadful growing season abroad leading to a shortage of some produce. Tesco had limited the sale of Iceberg lettuce to two per person. How would you like to grow your own fresh vegetables? Due to retirements and people moving away Drayton Road Allotments, (by the Marina and river in Abingdon), now have 7 full plots and 3 half plots free. The fee is minimal, £15 for a full plot and £10 for a half plot per annum. If you are interested please contact the secretary by emailing dracommittee@draytonroadallotments.org.uk and someone will take you around the available plots.

Then there have been local discussions on hot topics:
I think people might want to look fairly closely at what NextDoor involves. It seems to include revealing things like street addresses and other personal information that some may not be comfortable with. Nobody likes or wants to encourage anonymous trolling, but at the same time this degree of sharing of personal details may be a step too far for many.

Waitrose in Abingdon has replaced most of the cycle racks in the front of the shop with seating. I am amazed that anyone in Waitrose thought that was a good idea.

Then there were things needing a home:
The Long Furlong Community Centre in Boulter Drive, Abingdon, is updating its furniture. If you might be interested in giving a home to any of the old (folding) tables and (stacking) chairs, they will be available free to collect from the Centre.

And things wanted:
Have you got an old rotavator you no longer need. Non runner would be OK. It’s for a local allotment site and our old Mountfield has just died.

There was a chance to publicise what was going on
Abingdon Passion Play 2016: come and take part! Performers’ intro & taster sessions …

The August List @ the Unicorn

For anybody who wants a local forum, who does not want to use the Next Door forum, for whatever reason, there is always the Abingdon Group on Facebook which has 5,237 members.

Both Next Door and Facebook are American Companies. Streetlife was British.

This morning at St Ethelwold’s House, East St Helen Street, Abingdon, there was the first Communi-tea drop-in. This will be a monthly happening on the second Saturday of the month.

Organised by Emma, from More In Common, and Sue from Host Abingdon, among others, it was a chance to meet, over a cup of tea, people new to Abingdon, some from country’s with conflicts and wars, and some just new to Abingdon.

There were a lot of people there, and everybody was welcomed by one of the Abingdon Town Criers, who, on this occasion, had somebody to translate.

Thanks to Diana for sending me this picture. A community minded individual has provided seats at the bus stop on the Vineyard.

Anne sent me a picture of a rusting postbox off Preston Road,

and some of the weeds also growing along Preston Road.

She wanted to know how to get anything done about them to improve the look of the town.