The Oxfordshire Home Guard were at the Community Free Space in Bury Street, Abingdon, and will be back tomorrow, with an exhibition called ‘Doing Their Bit.’

They came armed, and fully equipped, but on this occasion they were not expecting an enemy attack.

Instead they were meeting the public in the year 2018 to show what life was like on the home front during WWII.

The Home Guard had posters recruiting women volunteers to assist by performing non-combatant duties similar to those under taken by the Women’s Auxiliary Serviced for the R.A.F. . That is in addition to all the work women were doing at home, in factories, on the buses, and wherever else they are needed during the war.

The Oxfordshire Home Guard have also generously promised to turn out as a body to guard Abingdon Lock on Sunday 8th April 2018.

At Abingdon and Witney College on Saturday the 42nd AbRail Abingdon Model Railway Show took place. Over recent years this exhibition has been at the leisure centre.

This year they were at a new venue at the college with the exhibition spread between the reception area, canteen, and a row of classrooms.
The great thing about the exhibition is the dedication and enthusiasm of the railway modellers who create such wonderful models. This line is Göttingen Süd in Germany.

Thomas the Tank Engine and friends were at the fictional Sodor Island, a layout created by Abingdon and District Model railway Club.

There were about 10 stalls and 17 layouts at the show. Another layout by the Abingdon and District Model railway Club was Belgrave Road, Leicester. This grand station never attracted as many trains as needed and closed to passengers in 1962. But before that people from Leicester would have taken to train from here to Skegness for the summer holidays.

Oxfordshire Artweeks is an artists’ organisation that promotes the work of Oxfordshire artists with a county-wide May Festival. Throughout November and December some of the artists hold shorter exhibitions and there was one at St Ethelwolds House over the weekend.

The work of The Abbey Group, four artists living in Abingdon, was on display in the Garden Room.