The three storey Clock House was until recently used by Lloyds Private Banking Ltd. Notices say that they have moved into offices at the back, and so the building is available to Rent.
Clock House is a A Grade II* listed building with a striking entrance hall and staircase, and was built by The Tomkins family during the eighteenth century. More details can be found about Clock House on the Abingdon Portal.
I have this old Valentine Post Card showing a cannon in Albert Park facing Trinity Church – a line of site that is nowadays obscured by bushes and trees. I think somebody said the cannon got melted down during WWII along with a lot of railings round the church.
Looking across the Abingdon School playing field, a magnolia partly hides the church and Trinity House, next door, which now has a new two storey extension and is being sympathetically refurbished.
According to D.B.Tranter’s History of Trinity, John Creemer Clarke ( a founding member of Trinity, clothing manufacturer, and MP) bought Trinity House on a nine-hundred year lease in 1873 for use as a church manse, and when he died it was given in trust to the Church and served as manse until the 1970s.
From that time it has been a private home, unlike a lot of the large houses round Albert Park which are too big for modern families.
The work at 1-3 Ock Street is nearing completion. The building was once the Probation Office in Abingdon.
Kemp & Kemp have taken it on and have been restoring the building, sympathetically, to be their new offices.
They are to bury a time capsule under the floor to the building capturing ‘life in Abingdon today’ as well as telling the story of the building. Suggestions very welcome.
Monty and Mr Crusty were on the Market Place this morning – thanks to the Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary. One of their donkeys will be back next Saturday for a Nativity Play for under 5’s at St Helen’s Church.
This morning at St Helen’s Church there was Christmas Storytelling and crafts for children 3 – 9 years.
Outside St Helen’s at 11am was the official opening of the new heritage boards with the Mayor
On each board is a QR Code that you can scan with your mobile to listen to the audio tour of the new Heart of Abingdon Trail. The Mayor and the historians who worked on the boards did the tour before returning to the Market Place,
where Santa was in a gazebo grotto.