The Joncare showroom, in the Radley Road Industrial Estate in Abingdon, is having a closing down sale of various daily living aids such as mobility scooters and walkers.

Joncare was established in 1978 by John Prout, an engineer. John created some of the original and innovative Joncare product to meet the diverse and special needs of children with physical disabilities

Another company selling aids called BES Rehab Ltd acquired Joncare in 2016.

Last time I looked down the Radley Road Industrial Estate, about half the businesses were to do with cars: servicing, repairs, MOTs, tyres, car wash, and Taxis. I got my car MOT’d and serviced down there as Belingers have moved to Didcot. A lot of other Vauxhall owners apparently did the same.

At the library there is a small display showing the Longworth Factory that opened on the Radley Road in 1960 to make scientific instruments. The board tells a little of the history of Longworth, from when they made ironing boards in the ex-Abingdon Carpet Factory. Longworth are now known as Penlon.

On the way to the library, I passed an MG, Made in Abingdon…

a bollard, probably made in Ballard’s Foundry in Abingdon …

and some pottery, Made in Abingdon, in the window of Added Ingredients.

Bob Frampton will soon have a new book out called ‘Made in Abingdon’ about MGs. The museum always has a number of artifacts Made in Abingdon. And on Heritage Open Day, on the weekend of 9th-10th September, we hope to have pictures and walks about things Made in Abingdon, and the places they were made. So I would love it if people could send any pictures they have on the theme ‘Made in Abingdon’ to backstreet60@gmail.com .

Two of Abingdon’s Turkish Barbers have had a re-style – possibly to show that they are run by close relations. Both Re-style …

and EFES, the original Abingdon Turkish Barber, now have very similar liveries.

Mostly Books has already changed over to the new owner Sarah Dennis, and today there was a day of celebration in the shop with cake and champagne. At 1pm speeches were made by Mark Thornton, The Mayor of Abingdon, Jan Morter, and Sarah.

There followed a ceremony where a large key was passed from Mark and Nikki to Sarah via The Mayor, which contained some hilarity. Sarah has been in and around the shop for quite some time learning the art of running a book shop from Mark and Nikki.

I also bought a marvelous book and was served by Imogen, and discovered that she is a finalist in the wicked young writers awards, and has her short story in the book of the finalists. So took a picture of that too.

The ‘Oxfordshire Book Crawl’ is happening over the next week, involving independent bookshops in Oxfordshire, to mark Independent Bookshop Week – you can find out more here: https://www.oxbookcrawl.co.uk/