Category Archives: cemetery

Cemetery angels

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Cemetery angels
Laced with algae, pearled by lichen, an angel is asleep over a grave with the words … ‘Cherished memories – our darling little daughter’.
Cemetery angels
From the era that first imagined Peter Pan a young angel looks down on another grave.
Cemetery angels
Frozen in time, these three stone angels guard graves in the Old Cemetery in Abingdon.

Last Sunday at Trinity the annual townwide bereavement service took place, and there was a stone angel pictured on the Trinity facebook page. At the service people were invited to light a candle for a loved one.

Blight and Mites attack Abingdon Cemetery

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Blight and Mites attack Abingdon Cemetery
Anybody who has been to the Spring Gardens Cemetery recently may have noticed that the hedge round the existing garden of remembrance has been removed, and a fence is being put up to screen the area from the road.
Blight and Mites attack Abingdon Cemetery
There have also been quite a few trees chopped down in the cemetery itself.

As I understand it the trees had a blight, and the hedge was being destroyed by mites that sucked the sap and destroyed the roots. The plan is to replace the trees with: Rowan, Silver Birch, and Flowering Cherry. And a new hedge is already beginning to grow.
Blight and Mites attack Abingdon Cemetery
The other change this winter is he construction of a path to the ‘new’ garden of remembrance.

By the way if you have questions about blight, mites, or any other matter, the Annual Parish Meeting takes place on Wednesday, 11th March, 7:00pm-9:00pm in the Guildhall (Roysse Room).

Each year the Town Council organises the Annual Parish Meeting as an opportunity for residents to raise matters which specifically affect the town. The Council also takes the opportunity to provide an update on its work during the past year.

A Hole Opens Up under St Nicolas Churchyard

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St Nicolas Churchyard
St Nicolas churchyard is currently having some long awaited work to make the path wheelchair accessible.
St Nicolas Churchyard
But the project was suddenly made more complicated by a large hole opening up under the digger. The workman was lucky to get out without injury. You might have expected the River Stert Culvert, or a burial chamber to be the cause of such a hole.

The hole was actually an old coal cellar right next to the old chimney.
St Nicolas Churchyard
By the way, I recently found this picture in Waite’s Guide Book of Abingdon, from the early 1900s. It shows Waite’s Printing Works, at 1 Stert Street, neighbouring St Nicolas Churchyard,
St Nicolas Churchyard
-where the TSB now stands.

Abingdon Remembers – 13th Nov 2011

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Abingdon Remembers 2011
A second and much larger remembrance ceremony (compared with the Armistice Day ceremony) took part at the war memorial today. A lot of the people who take part, both service people past and present, and dignitaries, attend a church service at St Helen’s Church beforehand.

Abingdon Remembers 2011
The ceremony was again very well attended and very moving.  But as a member of the public, to get a place, you now have to get there quite early. People were standing back along the High Street able to hear the music and see the parade but missing out on the quieter prayers and poems.

Abingdon Remembers 2011
During the ceremony wreathes are laid by dignitaries and clubs and societies, and after the ceremony many people choose to place their poppy or a small cross next to the memorial. If you did miss the cermony I have more images and some of the words and music on a short video. Music was played by Abingdon Town Band, and the Last Post and Reveille was sounded by Alison Rich, their principal cornet player  …