There was an unusual gathering at the Mayor’s Parlour this afternoon. Visitors from our twin town Argentan met cavaliers, over for the second day of the Heritage Weekend.

After the cavaliers had explained the English Civil War, the relative merits of Oliver Cromwell and Napolean were discussed through a translator.

The Cavaliers came at a last minute invitation for ‘Heritage Weekend ‘ and came both days – not just the more popular Saturday.

So it was good the Mayor could entertain them. They also visited some of the local Civil War sites such as Culham Bridge, and Barton Court.

And did two more recruitment drives training Abingdon’s youngsters to defend the town. The town was fairly quiet on Sunday but on both occasions they did well to pull together a company and entertain children and parents. Thanks to The English Civil War Society for this taster of what they do.

There are a number of new informations boards on display this weekend. They are an additional part of the Abingdon Heritage Trail. But since the real boards were not ready for Heritage Weekend there were mock-ups at the five locations close to St Helen’s Church.

Roger Cox, the Mayor of Ock Street, or Mock Mayor of Abingdon, cut the ribbon, in a ‘mock opening’.

The real Mayor of Abingdon went round to a lot of the properties thanking people for taking part in Heritage Weekend – which is primarily a chance to look behind doors that are not normally open and find out about the town’s history. The picture shows her at 60 East St Helen Street – once Tompkins Malt House.

The Vale Islanders and Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers performed beneath the County Hall as there was a light rain at the start of the day.

The day included hourly boat rides where the town archivist told the history of Abingdon from the river.

At Our Lady’s Abingdon there was a food festival as well as the chapel being open for Ride and Stride, and Heritage Weekend – a large number of properties were open but this was the first time Our Lady’s had taken part.

Royalists came to protect the town against an invasion of parliamentarians. They trained up some young recruits in the use of pikes.

Even more Royalists will be here today (Sunday). They would be glad if you can support them at noon on the Market Place as they have not been publicised. They are seen visiting the Kings Head and Bell in this picture. They went on to see Barton Court and Culham Bridge – places with civil war significance.

When the new shopping centre and Guildhall were being developed Abingdon-on-Thames was billed as “The Town with Tomorrow.”

A display about that era was put up along with older historical displays in the old Abingdon People and Places picture display at the Community Shop. That exhibition will run until Heritage Weekend – 14th – 15th September.

Last week, there was a dry run of the Heritage Boat Trips. There are still some tickets available at the Town Council Information Centre. A smaller number will be available on the day (14th September). Learn about Abingdon’s history from the River Thames on an Edwardian launch.

The reason for the boat trips are that the latest part of the Abingdon Heritage Trail will soon be on show with new information boards around the St Helens Church area. Mock ups will be there for people to look at over Heritage Weekend. The Mayor of Ock Street will do a ‘Mock Opening’.

Almost everything else that is happening during heritage weekend is in the Heritage leaflet. Paper copies can be found at the Community Shop or Town Council Information Centre.

The same day there is a free food festival at Our Ladies Abingdon – which has the chapel open for Heritage Day for the first time. Stride and Ride round the Oxfordshire Churches is also that day, next weekend. And Dragon Boat racing is tomorrow.

Preliminary archaeological excavations are underway in the field in North Abingdon, belonging to Radley College, for which planning permission is being sought.

A number of  trial trenches have been dug, guided by the findings of geophysical surveys, and as always in Abingdon there are the prospects that there will be the remains of some old structures down there. I believe the last time the field had any excavations it was part of a study by students at Radley College in the 1970s. If anybody can remember the year or has any pictures that would be interesting to know.