The Church in Abingdon has been holding a number of joint events over the current week. There have been prayers at St Nicolas church each lunchtime throughout the week taken by different church leaders. Tomorrow (Sunday 27th Jan 2019) there is a joint service at 3pm at Christchurch. And last night the annual Church in Abingdon Quiz was held at St Helen’s Church. Thankyou to them for an excellent quiz.
Money raised at the event will go towards The Abingdon Bridge, a charity that supports young people in difficult situations.
In the quiz there were a couple of questions on local Abingdon history. John Mason appeared in the picture quiz, and we were asked the reason and the date for the first ever Abingdon bun throwing.
The Abbey Cinema opened today and has a full programme of films.
The Abbey Hall has been transformed with all round sound, a ten meter screen, tiered cinema seating at the back, and tables with swivel chairs at the front where people can enjoy drinks and light meals from the Guildhall kitchen. The white walls and windows are darkened with full length curtains.
The Abbey Cinema will act as Screen 1 with the Unicorn Theatre as Screen 2. A full programme of films can be seen at https://theabbey.ac
Ian and Sue Wiper, who run the The Evesham Regal, approached Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council earlier in the year with this proposed use for the Abbey Hall – empty since 2015. The two parties have since been working together to make this project happen. The cinema will be there for a couple of years as part of the initial agreement.
The first film is Mary Poppins Returns – ‘everything is possible, even the impossible‘.
The Abingdon Beer Festival took over the Abbey Buildings for the second evening running.
The bar was run by Loose Cannon Brewery, and had 18 beers and 4 ciders at the start.
Beers get sponsored by different people or organisations.
There was also live music.
Profits go towards the upkeep and future development plans of the Abbey Buildings.
The day that began with rain was drying off by the time the Abingdon Christmas Extravaganza Parade, led by the Oxford Caledonian Pipes Band, marched round Abingdon town centre. The person the children wanted to see (as you can hear in this video above) was … ‘Santa! Santa!’ .
At St Nicolas Church throughout the day, there was music and stalls, and then from 4 p.m. Tom and Jerry cartoons at the high alter with popcorn.
Outside St Ethelwold’s House, Oxfam has their own grotto with a backdrop of projects they support, and a lucky dip with Santa’s sleigh and reindeer. Inside they also had lots of stalls.
On the Market Place, after the parade, there was a lot going on and lots of stalls.
On Bath Street there were lots of stalls including the Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary,
and a performance area featuring The Ox, dated 1700, that leads the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers.
Performances also took place on the Market Place. The group pictured above are from Abingdon and Witney College who are putting on a pantomime.
During the day people visited businesses in town. The event is organised by volunteers from Abingdon Chamber of Commerce, and so hopefully their members saw some benefit.
Later on in the day there was something that looked like snow spraying out of the upstairs window at Beacon and Beacon.
Then a young lady who had won the shop window competition pushed a big red button,
and the fireworks started, instantly. Thankyou to Julian for sending me this picture.
Not all the lights came on instantly but there were people working on them throughout the day so it was best endeavours.
