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.

The shop that was Hathaways for many years, and has been a number of things since, will next become Abingdon’s fourth Traditional Turkish Barber.

Meanwhile the first restaurant to open in the Old Gaol will be a Costa Coffee shop, run by the same people who run Costa on Bury Street.

Same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. More of the same.

For anybody arriving late in Abingdon there is a list of Hotels and B&Bs on the A Board outside the Town Council Information Centre. (Thanks to DM for the comment yesterday. The Four Pillars has been recently renamed as the Oxford Abingdon Hotel. Maybe I should have sent the MG to Sandford on Thames.)

Still missing from the Abingdon list is the Upper Reaches which is looking overgrown as well as boarded up. The Vale of White Horse District Council own the land and could well be on the case. The hotel has an excellent location beside the River Thames.

I hear that people come from far and wide to the Miele Outlet in Abingdon. One work colleage, who lives in Chippenham, knows Abingdon just because they keep an eye on the Miele website for what is on offer at the Outlet, and then come to Abingdon for that purpose. The outlet has a large range of unboxed and re-conditioned products, and is part of the larger Miele presence in Abingdon – one of our most important employers.