Category Archives: heritage

The Stone Faces of St Helen’s

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Stone Faces at St Helens
A lot of the stone faces that look out from the tower and walls of St Helen’s Church in Abingdon have been worn away by frost and wind and rain. You can only guess what they looked like, and how long they have been up there.
Stone Faces at St Helens
Other faces are made of sterner stuff. There is a south facing head that continues to look at the River Thames with stern unweathered disapproval.
Stone Faces at St Helens
Up near the top of the tower there is one grotesque that will always be afraid of heights
Stone Faces at St Helens
The Green Man, beneath one of the window arches, continues to spew out leaves year on year. Nothing will stop him.

Boundary Walk – January 2016

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Boundary Walk
Somebody counted over 81 participants in the beating the bounds walk round Abingdon this morning – more than last year. The walk begins on the Market Place. Then follows – as closely as possible – the 1556 Abingdon Borough boundary. In places old geographical features are no longer recognisable so there is some guesswork.
Boundary Walk
A photographer from the Oxford Mail was there to cover the beginning of the walk.
Boundary Walk
The walk then followed the Ock Valley to the Ock Bridge. A willow had split in two covering the path. There have been strong winds recently, and so there was a short diversion.
Boundary Walk
Participants had to go out of the way on Marcham Road where the traffic lights have been moved.
Boundary Walk
At every stop the town crier rang his bell, and Penny Clover, who was leading the walk, told us something about the history of the place where we stood.

1950s Abingdon – Mass X-Rays and Fizzy Lemonade

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1950s Abingdon
I saw in a 1950s Who’s Who of Abingdon that inhabitants of our town were once known as Abendonians.
1950s Abingdon
Here is a 1950s picture of Richard, now aged 65, beside the fountain in Roysse’s Court that was destroyed in 2015. What a shame!
1950s Abingdon
In the 1950s a shoe-fitting x-ray unit was a common shoe store device, and people were encouraged to go every 2 or 3 years to the mass X Ray vans that came to town to check for TB.
1950s Abingdon
Trinity Church had Chapel, Society and Poor Stewards. As I understand it chapel stewards helped look after the fabric of the building, society stewards looked after running church meetings and the needs of church members, and poor stewards helped look after the poor.

Somebody was telling me on Saturday of that same decade, and how they sipped Morland’s lemonade by the River at the Old Anchor Inn. They didn’t very much like the lemonade because it was too fizzy, but they did like watching the House Martins that nested under the eaves.

Fritzi’s Hot Dog Van circa 1979

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Thanks to Sarah for this follow up to the post about the 1978 Abingdon Market Place Act …
Fritzi's hot dog van
“As promised, here is a somewhat poor picture of Fritzi’s hot dog van in the Market Square circa 1979.
Fritzi's hot dog van
It’s taken from a brochure which was produced for the opening of Miele in Abingdon. The full picture shows a Miele lorry in front of the County Hall. Behind the County Hall you can see a gap that is now filled by the Sue Ryder shop on East St. Helen Street.”

Miele are still here in Abingdon – employing many Abingdon people in 2015.
Fritzi's hot dog van
The weather forecast for the Market Place this Saturday predicts strong winds. The planned Christmas Craft Market has been postponed until next Saturday – 12th December 2015.