In September 2011 this blog showed the efforts of some locals to clear the path at the side of St Michael’s Church. The path had been once kept clear by Hugh Randolph, who took great pride in the appearance of his neighbourhood.
In recognition local residents have renamed the path, formerly known by Oxfordshire County Council as ‘path 16’, as Hugh’s Path.
Read more about Hugh, who passed away in 2006, in the Aaahs Spring 2006 newsletter (a word doc).
(Thanks Iain for the story)
The Runaway Fair is orientated towards children who might not have liked the main fair the week before which can be very noisy.
The Runaway Fair was set up on Sunday morning on the Market Place, and along High Street. As a result High Street traffic had to be sent down East St Helen Street and up West St Helen Street.
Everything is cleared away by mid evening on Monday.
My favorite sign at the Runaway Fair is “Don’t walk buy, give it a try”. I can’t decide whether it is bad spelling or clever advertising.
Blog Action Day is where lots of bloggers worldwide follow the same theme. In 2012 that is The Power of We.
I could think of lots of Abingdon community groups which make a big difference, and examples of People Power. Then last night I got sent these pictures showing young people in the Basketball area in Southern Town Park doing a community mural.
Together with the help of a graffiti artist they were improving on the graffiti that had been there before, making it a more friendly place. The graffiti artist first came to work with the young people a few weeks back to work up a design.
PCSOs and the Vineyard Church, who run a youth club in South Abingdon, were also involved making this happen.
From Thursday to Saturday a French Market filled the Market Place.
There were a variety of French food stalls. We got some French Cheese, and then went to Patisserie Pascal, an excellent Abingdon shop, open Tuesday to Sunday, for French bread.
It is always good when a Market brings in products not available elsewhere in town, like the French CD stall.
I’m a fan of French singers, and although their CDs were on sale, I never heard any of them being played. When I got there we were treated instead with jazz, blues and finally Johnny Cash.
The stalls included: carpets and mats, scarves and hats, leather bags, and basket bags (from Madagascar), that are probably found at any Market in France but did not strike me as overtly French. The Eiffel Towers, on the toys and souvenirs stall, however did tick all the boxes of my French stereotype.