Archaeology Open Day and Dovecotes in Marcham

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Archaeology Open Day
In Marcham today there was an archaeology open day at Manor Farm, next to the circular dovecote. (Marcham is 2 miles from Abingdon)

Archaeological digs happened there for 11 years ending in 2011. The excavations revealed the foundations of Roman buildings including a circular arena. There were also many Iron Age pits. During that time a lot of artifacts were collected. The current work called Trendles Project, funded by the National Lottery, involves experts leading, and enabling local people, and school children, to help and sort and categorise a lot of the finds: Iron Age and Roman pots and bones and coins etc.
Archaeology Open Day
The open day involved archaeological talks by the project director, and story telling by Chris the Celt who is telling here about how the first harp was made.
Archaeology Open Day
There were samples of Roman Food prepared with the help of Apicius’ Roman Cookery Book; demonstrations of various ancient arts and crafts including basket making, pottery, and spinning; and the chance to view and help sift through some of the artifacts that had been found.
Archaeology Open Day
Before cycling back to Abingdon I viewed a couple more Marcham dovecotes: one shown me by the owner of Manor Farm, who is a great supporter of the archaeological work, and follow up project, on his land.
Archaeology Open Day
The other dovecote is next to Marcham parish Church and has been fully restored.

Marcham had several dovecotes. The first ones would have been built when the Manor was owned by Abingdon Abbey – when pigeons were a source of winter meat, allowed to the privileged.

Resubmission of Plans for 159 dwellings in a field South of Abingdon

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field South of Abingdon
Plans for 159 dwellings in a field off the Drayton Road have been resubmitted by the new owners Taylor Wimpey. The target decision date put by the district council is 30th November 2014. Plans available here.
housing on the Drayton Road
The new developers have introduced a modified style of housing, and drainage, but draw on the same transport study done on 6th September 2012 by their predecessor.

A planning inspector, on appeal, allowed the original plans so long as a number of conditions were fulfilled. The most significant of these were traffic mitigation measures. The original developers traffic study saw queues of 70+ during the morning rush hour on Drayton Road at the double roundabout. Their solution was to remove one pedestrian crossing and add two pedestrian crossings at new locations.

That measure was then rejected by Oxfordshire County Council – the authority required to approve any highway changes.

The new planning application says “Taylor Wimpey in accordance with the appeal decision will provide the two pedestrian crossings and necessary highways alterations as specified in the appeal decision.”

The lease is up at the end of June

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The lease is up at the end of June for both the Town Council and The Citizens Advice Bureau at Old Abbey House. The new buyer is not yet known but rumours include: pub, arts centre, hotel, mosque, housing ….
Civic Quarter Changes
And so the address for the Abingdon & District Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is now Abbey House, Abbey Close, and CAB balloons are out.
Civic Quarter Changes
Abbey House, in Abbey Close, also has new signs for Oxfordshire County Council, the other new tenant.
Civic Quarter Changes
Outside Old Abbey House there is some office equipment, available for Free. It includes cages for displaying information leaflets, a reception desk, and some chairs.

Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council have also vacated this building to move to the Guildhall.

Town Council Meeting – June 2014

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In the Roysse Room this evening there was a Meeting of Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council. These are my jottings …
Heraldry
Abingdon-on-Thames was given a special award for the Corporate Use of Heraldry for their use of the town’s heraldic symbol.

We heard that The Mayor, Angela Lawrence sat unperturbed when a rat ran out at a recent event she attended.

A grant was awarded to the Foyer for £5,000 to support additional opportunities for residents (sport, job seeking, community involvements, trips etc). The Foyer gives accommodation to young homeless people and often helps to turn their lives around.
Rugby
A grant of £10,000 was given to Abingdon Rugby Club towards urgent ground work to their pitches.

Councillor Alice Badcock was congratulated for organising Fun and Music in the Park.
Rugby
The architects have come back with revised costings for the Guildhall development after the failure to secure a lottery grant. The improvements to the frontage and foyer area have been dropped. What remains is a modular design :

  • 100 seat cinema
  • Abbey Hall including removable racked seats
  • Lift to some but not all historic rooms
  • Bar cafe area in the lower ground floor lobby and offices where the old bar was.

The costs are still in the range of £3,500,000 – £4,000,000 because of inflation so don’t seem that much lower. The design was described as ‘modular’ and ‘pick and mix’. If funding cannot be found for one option such as the cinema then it may be dropped. Exploratory meetings are to go ahead to see if a cinema operator partner will help with funding.

The annual accounts did show that The Guildhall costs £224,362 to run in 2014 and £148,831 in 2013 (excludes income). But on questioning it was discovered that a large part of the difference was the £30K gas bill. Both gas bills were paid in 2014.

The Museum are producing a book about WWI in Abingdon to go with their exhibition starting on 4th August (exactly 100 years from when the war was declared).

The MG Garden is now complete and the Mayor will open it in the near future.
solar powered Christmas Trees
The solar powered Christmas Trees have been put up for sale by the contractor as they did not perform too well for Abingdon-on-Thames.

A new working group is to be set up to find land for a new cemetery. There is 10-15 years left of Grave Space and it will take five years to set up a new cemetery. If the town counncil did run out of room then the district council are ultimately responsible for burials but that could mean Abingdon residents getting buried in Wantage or Faringdon.