An Armistice Day Act of Remembrance was held at the Abingdon War Memorial at 11 am today, as well as many other places in Abingdon.

Armistice Day is remembered each year on November 11th to mark the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany in Compiègne, France, for the end of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I. It came into force at eleven am on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918.

The event was attended by the Deputy Mayor, Cllr Andy Foulsham, other councillors, members of the Royal British Legion, and among the public, a group from Thameside School.

Clare Oldfield, poppy appeal organiser, said, ‘I spotted poppies like these these on the doorsteps of various houses in Exbourne road, Bath Street and Ock Street. What a wonderful thing to wake up to. Isn’t Abingdon amazing? Support for the poppy has been overwhelming this year and this is a fabulous tribute. I don’t know who did them but thank you.’

The Exbourne Road poppies are up again and poppy sellers will be out and about in the town centre, Waitrose and Tesco on Friday and Saturday.

The Christmas Lights have been turned on in Bury Street.

There is no Christmas Extravaganza this year. The Abingdon-on-Thames Chamber of Commerce organised the event in previous years. Their website says they are no longer organising local excellence markets / extravaganza. It took all their time and did not leave much time to carry out business related activities.

There will be a Christmas Craft Market on Saturday 4th December. Local excellence markets (including this) are now organised by the Abingdon Events Partnership.

Halloween is over for another year. Apart from the shop window displays, it passed us by as we don’t have young children.

In the town centre we are not visited by Trick and Treaters and no longer buy a supply of Haribo Tangfastics. I would end up eating them in any case when nobody came to the door and would regret it.

This year we haven’t even bothered with a pumpkin and candles.

Shop widows will change from Halloween to Christmas on November 1st. Some shops, like Finishing Touch, are already there.

There was a foggy start to the day here in Abingdon-on-Thames. The sun and blue sky would be seen later.

The fog gave the grotto at Cosener’s House a more mysterious appearance.

At that early hour stall holders were arriving with their boxes for a Craft and Gift Market at the Guildhall. It used the Roysse Court entrance, Roysse Room, and Magistrates Court.

Entry was free.

What was interesting about this market was the efforts made to attract people to the event. ‘Ladies! Gentlemen! Come this way! Come this way!’ One man outside was like a market stall caller trying to attract people to the market. A lady went further afield with a spinning arrow device.

There were about twenty stalls and they were all quite decent. Walking through I got the feeling that the stall holders were each hoping we would buy. They were so polite and willing to please, and said thankyou when we said ‘what a lovely display’ and answered with great detail when asked how the bowl with different woods and resin was made. They also had some good lines. The soap maker from Fareham in Surrey said ‘one customer told me this was the best saving soap he had bought’. We bought a couple of things and have no complaints.