Simon’s News, on East St Helen Street, will be closing down on Saturday 23rd November. Simon says this is partly due to ill health.

The closure is a great shame for Abingdon as Simon’s News is the last dedicated Newsagent in Central and South Abingdon, after McColl’s Stores, in Reynold’s Way, closed last month. I heard that a lot of the paper rounds from Simons and McColls will now transfer to Rowes in Wantage.

There will be a sale for the next couple of weeks. Simon’s News have a wide variety of traditional sweets in jars.

On the Fairacres Retail Park there has been a revamp of the Lee Longlands store. They are marking the merger of their Vineys and Lee Longlands, Abingdon showrooms, and the Mayor of Abingdon was there to cut the ribbon. The Vineys showroom closed as part of the Fairacres phase 2 development.

Lee Longlands took over Vineys in 2002. Both businesses have been established well over 100 years. Lee Longlands was established in 1902 in Birmingham, and Vineys was established in the 1870s in Abingdon.

The store merger sees both Lee Longlands and Vineys styles of furniture in different areas of the store.

Vineys have had a number of different premises in Abingdon, selling drapery and furniture. This picture shows a shop in High Street. Mays and Vineys set up a consortium and established the Fairacres Retail Park around 1973.

Mostly Books have a smart new front, now the scaffold has been taken away. They also have a new website.

Abingdon does very well with three book shops, two independent, and one national chain.

Over the road Thomas Merrifield are also having a redecoration.

Thomas Merrifield recently sold (stc) a house, a few doors up from Mostly Books, called The Knowl. It has a planning application for change of use ‘from Residential Care Home to HMO (house in multiple occupation) including internal alterations to partitions and reinstatement of the front garden.’