The TSB has announced that it will be closing 82 branches in 2020,

and the TSB at 1 Stert Street will close in April 2020.

A spokesman said this was ‘in response to changing customer behaviour’.

This is not the first time a Trustee Savings Bank has closed in Abingdon. Trustee Savings Banks began as places for smaller savers. A local Savings Bank (with trustees) was started in Abingdon in 1820 and closed in 1892. It too was in Stert Street. An article in the Reading Mercury of 1902 reported that many local Trustee Savings Banks had closed and their deposits been transferred to the Post Office Savings Bank, including the one in Abingdon.

The current Abingdon Trustee Saving Bank opened at 1 Stert Street in the 1940s. Trustee Savings Banks amalgamated between 1970 and 1985 to form one Trustee Savings Bank that got renamed TSB. The TSB went on to merge with Lloyds and so for some years Abingdon had two Lloyds TSBs.

After the 2008 banking collapse, and government rescue, the TSB was forcibly separated from Lloyds. It did not get the best of separations, and now the TSB is closing branches.

The Christmas Craft Market was on the Market Place in Abingdon today.

Some of the Park Run runners meet at Java & Co after their 5 km run.

The Town Crier is seen here in front of a local honey stall and Beyond Bubbles. There must have been about sixteen stalls on the Market. It is organised by Abingdon-on-Thames Chamber of Commerce who seem to do far more than the BID (Business Improvement District) ever did. The Chamber represents the shops.

Looking round the shops, finishing touch is a Christmas Wonderland, full of decorations and gifts.

Abingdon Sports have festive footballs and rugby balls alongside some warm looking gloves.

It will soon be time for the blog’s annual round up of gains and losses in Abingdon Town Centre.

Thursday 5 pm to 8 pm  is a late shopping night on Stert Street and some other independent shops.

Then Saturday is Small Business Saturday – with civic car parks free. There is also a Christmas Craft Market all day Saturday.

Free parking also happens on 14th and 21st December – to encourage us to do some Christmas Shopping in the Town Centre.

Abingdon Beer Festival returns to the Abbey Buildings on Friday and Saturday.

Also on Saturday 7th December Abingdon Town Band have their Christmas Concert.

Then on Sunday, Fourhorsemen events told me ‘We’ll have many stalls selling many different items and a kitchen offering a variety of different foods.‘  Looking at their facebook page they try to attract stalls selling antiques, collectibles, and crafts.

With Christmas on its way, one could easily forget there is a general election. The result will be announced on Friday 13th.

Waitrose in Abingdon had all the new parts of the store reopened from today.

This is the third Waitrose store in Oxfordshire to trial ‘Unpacked’ after Oxford’s Botley Road, which has been running for a few months, and Wallingford, which is very recent. Customers can take and weigh their own containers and refill them in the “Refillable” zone with: lentils, rice and pasta, dried fruit, breakfast cereals, seeds etc. . There are also wines and beers on tap; unpacked frozen fruits; coffee beans for grinding in-store; and Ecover detergents and washing liquids. The aim is to give people the choice to buy things with less disposable packaging. You can still buy most of these products in wrappers elsewhere in the store.

Other changes included reconfigured areas of shelving; the cafe area is walled off from the store and called Waite & Rose; and outside are some new cash machines.

I did not notice a big change in the unwrapped range in the fruit and vegetables section. That may be to come. The Unwrapped trial in Oxford had a lot more unwrapped fruit and veg.

The fruit and veg section has been expanded but is mixed with more pre-processed vegetables like the new range of sliced potatoes.