The Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers were dancing in the rain as the people arrived at St Helens Church, the venue for the Mayor Making this year. This is the annual ceremony where the Mayor of Abingdon is elected.

The outgoing Mayor. Councillor Helen Pighills, gave 4 Mayors awards to people in the commnity at the ceremony. They were:

• Jenny Berrell, Curator of the Abbey Buildings 1987-2016 (above left)
• Flt Lt Joan Smith who headed the Abingdon  Air Cadets from 2004-2016 (above right)
• Neil Porter who organises the Abingdon Air and Country Show
• Staff and volunteers of the Barns Cafe, Northcourt.

The new Mayor is Councillor Alice Badcock (right). Her family has a very long history in Abingdon, She went to Caldecott and Larkmead School. Since coming onto the council Alice has created and organised Music in the Park, as well as many of the events during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

She is seen here talking to the last of a very long queue of people who came to the Mayor Making. The new Deputy Mayor is Councillor Jan Morter alongside.

The Abingdon Air and Country Show opened at 10am this May Day morning.

Being the first of the month I also wanted to take part in the City Daily Photo Theme day – The May 1st Theme is Smell.

‘Huskies In Need’ are a specialised charity that try to re-home rescued Huskies. They had a dozen dogs, at the show, that were smelling the ground, smelling people’s hands, and smelling each other. There were an awful lot of smells around. For them it would have been an easy theme. But taking a picture of smell was difficult.

To me, with my underdeveloped sense of smell, the most obvious smell was the mix of steam and oil from the small traction engines. I hope this gives you a whiff of it.

There were stalls by groups interested in recent military history. This lady is a clerical auxiliary to an Oxfordshire Home Guard unit. The typewriter is an original made by the Imperial Typewriter Co. Ltd. Leicester, England. Those were the days when Leicester were more known for their office equipment than their football team.

Owners of Vintage Cars don’t get in for free (correction after George’s comment). They sat around catching up with each other’s news, while exhibiting their brightly polished cars.

In the central arena there were a variety of Country Show entertainments, including a visit from the mounted police. Their horses demonstrated that they could play football with a very large ball, jump fences in unison, and not get panicked by people waving a flag, banging a drum and shouting, ‘Make Peace not War!’

By the time the three hour air display began, at 1:30pm, clouds had blocked out most of the blue sky. A Hurricane and Spitfire from the Battle of Britain memorial flight were on at 3pm, having flown over from Lincolnshire.

Next year’s show could be quite different if the UK does choose to Exit the EU. Many of the laws governing air shows probably come from Brussels. So who knows what a BREXIT Abingdon Air and Country Show will be like.

More pictures on the Abingdon Blog Facebook Page.

The bells of St Helens were ringing for some newly weds who came up East St Helen Street on a tandem.

They were cheered on their way by people on the Market Place, then rested for a few moments at the Abbey Gateway, to allow the walking guests to catch up, and take some pictures.

Mostly Books were celebrating Shakespeare today on the 400th anniversary of The Bard’s death.

At the Clubs and Societies Day, at the Old Abbey Buildings, Abingdon Drama Club were there. The last Shakespeare they  performed was Henry V in 2014.

Henry V Act 3 Scene 1 – The speech begins with ‘Once more unto the breach, dear friends‘, and ends
… I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!‘

The Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers were dancing round the town centre on St Georges Day. They danced at various pubs, then made a visit to the Clubs and Society Day before going to the beer festival at the Nag’s Head.

The Scouts were there too. Baden-Powell chose Saint George to be the Patron Saint of Scouts.

More about the Clubs and Societies Day soon.