Thankyou to Adrian for this ..

Have you or your little ones ever wanted to be a Ballet Dancer? Downland Dance are giving you the opportunity to try out a ballet class for FREE during their Open Day on Saturday 2nd November. You can sign up to events taking place during half term in Didcot or Abingdon. Sign up for classes for girls and boys aged 3 to 6 or for the Adult Beginners class (Didcot only).

For more details and to register visit www.downland-dance.co.uk/open-days or email info@downland-dance.co.uk

The Abingdon dance studio is above Seeney’s Pet Shop next to Coxeter House.

The annual Day of Dance today in Abingdon was hosted by Mr Hemmings Traditional Abingdon Morris Dancers. Their invited guests were Armaleggan and Ashnah.

Armalleggan are a rowdy stick bashing Border Morris side who practise in Cumnor.

Ashnah are tribal style belly dancers, and come from Abingdon.

The day is organised by Mr Les Badcock – a life long Abingdonian.

The day had a family feel with quite a few children of members following the event. There were occasions when everybody could join in the dance and the children loved that.

The Day started at Annie’s Tea Room and ended at the Royal British Legion car park. They also danced at the Broad Face, the Market Place twice, the Black Swan and Brewery Tap.

The Mr Hemmings dancers have been encouraging ladies to join in for two or three years, and this year there was also one or two younger dancers.

The day of dance used to be on the Saturday nearest the birthday of the original Mr Tom Hemmings in early May. The move to early July happened in 2017.

Last Saturday, I was walking along Hich Street when I saw Jennifer & Colin Wiggins, now residents of Port Washington, Long Island, NY. They used to live in Abingdon, and often come back, and Colin took these pictures of the Mayor of Ock Street around 1957.

This is a close up.

In 1957 there were not so many cars going along Ock Street.

This coming Saturday, the Election of the Mayor of Ock Street takes place and in Fat Face there is a fine display to let people know ahead of time.

Approximate timings taken from the Abingdon Traditional Morris Danding website look like this …

10:00 Polling Station at Brewery Tap opens, procession into town
10:15 Black Swan
10:45 Bury Street Precinct
11:30 Abbey Gateway
12:00 – 13:00 Market Place
14:00 The Broad Face
14:30 Long Alley Almshouses
15:00 Brewery Cottages, Coopers Lane
16:00 Close of Polling Station at Brewery Tap
16:15 Election of Mayor of Ock Street, followed by chairing and dancing (Brewery Tap) … Jennifer and Colin will also be there for their first chance to see the Mayor of Ock Street in a very long time.
17:15 Procession along Ock Street
17:30 White Horse
18:15 Mayott House
19:15 – 19:45 Market Place

Last year in the Fat Face window there was Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers lego. This year they have added Mayoropoloy.