You Never Walk Alone in St Ethelwold’s garden

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The garden of St Ethelwolds House, in Abingdon, is open all year round for people to enjoy the quiet and the flowers.
A lot of the flowers, including the lupins, are at their best in June and July.

Volunteer gardeners keep it looking good, and there is a notice saying they need more keen gardeners. Vegetables grow in one corner, and there are large compost heaps in another.

In the corners are two rooms for the use of people wanting a quiet solitary retreat. Beyond them boats are moored where the River Thames drifts slowly.

There are also events in the garden. Starting next week there will be an art exhibition.

This term the ‘Singing for Pleasure’ group can only sing outdoors and are using St Ethelwold’s garden. Since the garden is near the River Thames the songs today had a nautical theme, which included a couple of songs from South Pacific. One of those chosen was ‘Never Walk Alone’.

I recorded an extract with thanks to the Abingdon Music Centre. They had a smaller ‘Singing for Pleasure’ group this week and will welcome new members. Thanks also go to the copyright owners who will get any money from YouTube if adverts placed on this video make any money.

Neighbourhood Plan (interim report and survey, 2 engagement sessions, 4 more focus groups)

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(The Abingdon Neighbourhood Plan focus groups met earlier in the year. The output of these groups has now been assimilated into an interim report, and this notice has appeared on the Town Council noticeboard at Roysse Court.)

The interim report for the town’s Neighbourhood Plan  is now open for review and consultation at NHP-Report-and-Wall-Chart-for-Website.pdf

You can read the interim report and respond in the interim report survey  by the end of July.

The Neighbourhood Plan steering group will be holding two engagement sessions under the County Hall on 10th and 24th July from 10:30 to 13:00, where you can find out more and share your views.

To further improve the final report, 4 task groups will explore issues more deeply. You are able to participate in these focus groups which will be active over the summer. They are:

  • green spaces
  • the town centre
  • neighbourhood identity
  • culture

Get in touch via neighbourhoodplan@abingdon.gov.uk if you would like to take part in a focus group.

The dance goes on

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Ray’s father danced with the Abingdon Morris Dancers from 1934. Ray used to come along with his dad, age 6 or 7, and later joined in the dance. Ray has been involved with the Kennet Morris Men for a lot of his life, and has recently joined the Mr Hemmings Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers and plays in their band.

This evening Mr Hemmings Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers, and their band, were performing at the Broad Face and The Punchbowl.

They were joined by Ashnah.

The evening ended with an invitation for everybody to join in.

Retail to Residential in Bath Street

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A premises in Bath Street has changed from retail to residential.

The building dates from the 1960s and the shop was a ladies clothes shop until July 2020.

Justifying the decision, VWHDC said ‘Whilst the loss of a ground floor retail unit is regrettable, due to the small size of the unit, and its location on a secondary shopping frontage, it is not considered that the loss of this unit would cause significant harm to the function, character or appearance of the existing shopping provision or to the town centre as a whole.’