There are notices in the windows of the Broad Face to say that it will be opening tomorrow, 25th June 2013 – before a lot of people realised it had closed. The gastro pub has now had four Landlords in a year, but the new management, this time round, may not be entirely new- if rumour is to believed. They were the chefs working with Mr R while he was in charge, and now he has gone to pastures new, they have taken over the Broad Face.

People raved about the food when Mr R was in charge. A lot of that must also have been down to the new men in charge.

The Crown and Thistle will be closed for about four months, starting next Monday, while refurbishment takes place.

There will be a sale of contents on 18th/19th June 2013 in the car park.

I’m not sure if the stocks will be for sale, but most things will have to go, and the proceeds will go to Charity I believe.

Greene King have put the Grapes pub on the market. Ten years ago it was one the liveliest pubs, but of late it has only opened on busy evenings. This will be the third pub Greene King have sold in Abingdon in recent years. The first two have become Tesco convenience stores.

The Keys has notices out saying they are closed until further notice. The pub always had lots of events and was always flying lots of flags outside but it seems that the Landlord could not continue operating under Greene King’s terms.

Meanwhile the old post office is still empty but Wetherspoons have said they will be opening a new pub there in October and creating 40 jobs.

Greene King have been changing some of the pub signs in Abingdon. They have changed to written signs with the corporate tag “Meet and Eat”.

Looking at the Vale of White Horse Planning Portal it is not clear whether permission was granted for all the new signs.

Application P13/V0074/A for The Boundary House says application “Withdrawn prior to determination on 5th March 2013”.

No planning application could be found for the change to the College Oak sign.

Application P13/V0084/A, for a change to the Midget sign, was granted by the Vale saying “The change to a single sign, from a double is a welcome change.”