What was a shoe shop for children, next to Throwing Buns, is to become a Jeweller. And I hear from Peter that the guitar shop in Stert Street will become an Estate Agents.

There is a town council meeting on 5th October which I cannot attend. I expect they will be making progress on the Guildhall and the Local Area Plan.

I’ll be at Preston Road Community Centre where we have the monthly committee meeting. So if anybody can make it to the town council to write a report that would be good. It is 7 pm in the Roysse Room.

The Bellinger Abingdon branch – at 111 Ock Street – is closing on 7th October 2016.

I got a letter this morning. It said … “Your vehicle and contact vehicles will be transferred to the Milton Gate site next door to Milton Park… If you can’t make it to Didcot we also have a large site in Grove.”

111 Ock Street is a long established Abingdon motor car sales centre. At one time it also sold petrol.

So what next for this site? Will it continue as Abingdon’s oldest continuous site for motor car dealers?

Gowrings acquired 111 Ock Street sometime between 1926 and 1930 as a depot for Ford motor cars. etc. The site then expanded to Mayott’s Road, acquiring all the properties between. In 1997 Bellingers took over the site and started selling Vauxhalls instead of Fords.

Pascal and Debbie retired a few weeks ago. The shop closed for a couple of weeks during the transition. The new team in charge are working hard to continue the success that Pascal and Debbie created on East St Helen Street. I see the lights on each evening as they prepare for the following day.

They had a stall under the County Hall during Heritage Day. Best Wishes for the retirement and the continued success of the business.

Sixty years ago, the Wootton Road shopping centre opened with five new shops. The shops served the post-war estates that had spread through Fitzharris and Wildmoor. The shopping centre contained a newsagent, greengrocer, butcher, general grocer, and a wool shop / draper.

Visiting the shopping centre this evening, sixty years on, two of the five shops have been merged into one, and an extra shop has been added round the side.

The shopping centre now has: a sports shop, self-service grocer (two shops), a telephone and fishing tackle shop, hairdresser, and tattooist round the side.