Thanks to Christine for letting me know about this event, and Elizabeth for the 2nd picture.

The latest Oxfordshire Blue Plaque has been unveiled at a large house near the Albert Monument, on Park Crescent in Abingdon. It commemorates Arthur Edwin Preston (1852–1942) Mayor, antiquarian, and historian of Abingdon.

His house is now owned and used by Abingdon School, and the plaque was unveiled on Friday by Jackie Smith, Honorary Archivist of Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council, in the presence of The Mayor of Abingdon, the Master of Christ’s Hospital, the Head of Abingdon School, the Chairman of the Vale, among others.

“Arthur Preston made an extraordinary contribution both as a borough and county councillor and as an antiquarian who preserved the record of Abingdon’s history and restored its ancient buildings … (read on here)”

1864-5 Albert Park laid out by the charity Christ’s Hospital of Abingdon.
1865 Monument to Prince Albert, designed by J Gibbs, completed.
1867 St Michael’s Church, designed by G Scott, completed.
1870 Roysses School, designed by E Dolby, completed.
1875 Trinity Methodist Church, designed by W Woodman, completed.

Gothic houses in the North-Oxford style were set out around the park forming a fine Victorian residential area –

with gated private roads.

And from 28th June 2015, 150 years after the monument was unveiled, a new book about the park will become available. It is still possible to become a founding subscriber and have your name printed in the book. Address queries to albertparkra@gmail.com.

Near the end of Audlett Drive

you will find  Barrow Hills Recreation Area, a place that has not seen much council investment in the last few decades. It has a rundown BMX Track featured in 2006 , an area for football, and a very uneven car park. The area is mostly used by dog walkers who can set out in the direction of Thrupp Lane.

One route passes through an area of very regular woodland with the exception of one bent tree,

then across a field with some larger trees to the south, and then skirts an Old Coal Yard (in Radley Parish) just before Thrupp Lane. I am guessing that this was the local coal distribution centre run by the coal board.

I read in the History of Ock Street that T Enoch & Son, of 75 Ock Street, was the last coal merchant in Abingdon. They closed in the 1990s having operated for about 100 years. In the 1970s there were three coal merchants in Abingdon. Go back to the 1960s and most families would have a coal storage area, and took a regular delivery of coal.

Abingdon got a mention near the end of Episode 4 of the historic drama, Wolf Hall, currently being shown on the BBC. Thomas Cromwell dictates “Itinary for the King’s summer progress; depart Windsor, then to Reading, Missenden, Abingdon … then Wolf Hall!

Henry VIII stayed at Abingdon Abbey, on another occasion, at the start of April 1518 with wife Catherine of Aragon in the time of Cardinal Wolsey. There is an exchange of letters between Richard Pace, who is with the King, and Wolsey who is left to conduct government back in London.

The court were on the flight from the ‘sickness,’ and the chief chief issue concerning Abingdon is ‘There is very little accommodation in this small town’ and “Sufficient provision has been made at Abingdon of horse meat for the King. Cannot tell how ‘other poor men’ will do.”

The letters are available on the internet and Pace starts writing from Abingdon on 27th March 1518.