When I say I come from Abingdon it often brings back a memory in people. At breakfast yesterday we met a man and his wife from Ontario in Canada. He had once been in the RAF as a parachutist and did some of his training at RAF Abingdon around 1952. During his time there he did some parachuting as part of the making of the film Red Berets, partly filmed at RAF Abingdon.

The film starred Alan Ladd as an American who enlists in the British Parachute Regiment in 1940, claiming to be a Canadian. The RAF Parachute Training School was at RAF Abingdon from 1950 to 1976.

Being some miles from Abingdon, I wondered what to blog about today. There was an old travel guide in an old bookshop that recommended places around the country. Called Signpost by W.B. McMinnies – published in 1964, the guide has an entry for the Crown and Thistle that begins “Salmon coloured walls and blue woodwork attract attention as you enter Abingdon from Dorchester and if you drive in to the cobbled courtyard you will not be disappointed. For this old coaching inn has just that indefinable air of quality, hospitality and comfort that is so much sought after and so seldom found to-day…

The old postcard was found separately.