Swan Numbers Rise as Breeding Pair Disappears

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More swans than usual gather near the Wilsham Road railing, where people throw bread to the birds. I counted ten today. Someone I spoke to had counted fifteen another day. In past years, a breeding pair drove others away, but they are absent this year. Without them, juvenile swans gather.

I watched two moorhens with five chicks cross the river.

They passed in front of three swans. One swan tried to peck at a chick.

A moorhen flew at the swan and the swan thrashed away in surprise. The other moorhen led the chicks into cover.

Without the breeding swan pair, the balance has changed this year.

Welcome to Cay Khe

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A new Vietnamese Café and Noodle Bar on Stert Street opened for a soft launch on 26th April. After a few small adjustments, it’s now been open for a couple of weeks and is doing well.

There was once a Vietnamese café called Ha Noi on Stert Street — named after Vietnam’s capital city.  The new cafe’s name Cây Khê is more rural and poetic and means starfruit tree.

Art on Show and Under Repair

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The Town Crier had been out promoting Artweek and stopped by St Nicolas Church to see the art and jewellery on show by the Abbey Group.

Inside the church, artworks were arranged at the back, over some of the pews, and round the pulpit.

At the far end of the church, a scaffold tower was in place as the lights were being replaced with energy-efficient ones. More scaffolding surrounded the Blacknall’s tomb, which was built for John Blacknall and his wife, who died ‘at one instant of time’ in August 1625 — four hundred years ago.

Two restorers were at work, repairing missing plaster and touching up the paint round the monument. A special service is planned in August to mark the 400th anniversary.

Abbey Buildings – £4 Million Restoration Grant Announced

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An announcement was made today at the Abbey Buildings in Abingdon of the award of a £4 million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Pictured at the event are Felicity Dick, Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire; Gregory Bensberg MBE, Chair of the Abingdon Abbey Buildings Trust; and Cllr Rawda Jehlani, Abingdon’s new Mayor, elected yesterday.

The grant will fund a three-year project to restore and modernise the 13th-century Grade I listed buildings – the Unicorn Theatre, Checker, Undercroft and Long Gallery – making them accessible and usable all year round. Plans include windows to fully weatherproof the Long Gallery, installing a lift, creating level floors, and enhancing facilities including a glass lobby, retractable seating, and disabled toilets in the Unicorn Theatre.

Gregory Bensberg said, ‘These buildings are part of Abingdon’s story and central to our community. Making sure that everyone can access these, all year round, is the reason this project is needed.’

The Abbey Buildings Trust, formed from the Friends of Abingdon Civic Society, has already raised over £1.2 million from Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council, the Wolfson Foundation, the Historic Houses Foundation, the Pilgrim Trust and the Oxfordshire Buildings Trust and will now launch a public appeal to complete the funding. Works are hoped to begin in summer 2025.