The premises, previously known as the Saxton Arms Public House, has been given planning permission to become a shop by the Vale of White Horse District Council.
Now the premises are ‘closed for refurbishment’.
It will be interesting to see what sort of shop this will now become.
Thanks for the comments while we were away. Now, back in Abingdon, there is a chance to catch up with some of the happenings …
Preliminary work has begun on the development for 158 dwellings off Drayton Road. The first of the new pedestrian lights, funded by the development, on Marcham Road is underway. This is intended as a traffic mitigation measure.
10 Lime Trees have also been cut down to make an entrance to the Morland Gardens development.
Resurfacing work on Drayton Road from near Caldecott Road to Marcham Road has been completed. That was funded by Oxfordshire County Council not by the development.
We are away on our summer holiday. As this is our thirtieth wedding anniversary we have travelled further than usual.
There have been reminders of Abingdon, 3,359 miles away.
Old Speckled Hen beer has reached Kingston, a Canadian city located on Lake Ontario. British loyalists retreated here from the independent United States of America during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). They helped defend Canada from USA attempts to expand the States northwards in the war that followed in 1812.
However Canadians have not taken to “Old Speckled Hen” as well as might be expected and three years on, from the inauguration of this pub, the beer, that originated in Abingdon is no longer available on draft, only in cans.
We will be back home in a few days, where A and J are holding the fort. Then a very busy week as Heritage Day is on 12th Sept, something I help organise, and there are events before and after. See abingdonheritage.co.uk. By the way if anybody has pictures of Victorian ancestors, who lived in Abingdon, please get them copied in the library where we are starting a collection.
Thanks to Suzanne and Rob for this report from 4 days ago.
“My husband, Rob, our cat Lolly and myself took our boat upstream to Sandford and on Wednesday collected a bottle of Thames source water that is making it’s way downstream via different river users.
There is more information about its journey at: http://totallythames.org/events/info/source-to-sea-river-relay ). Our task was to safely carry the bottle from Sandford Lock to Abingdon Lock where it would be looked after for the night before continuing it’s journey the following day without us.
At Abingdon Lock Rob, of the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers, was met by his fellow Morris men and they danced (in the pouring rain) to entertain boaters passing through the lock, before the bottle of source water was officially handed over to (ex Morris dancer) Frank who was manning the Lock.
There are more photos (non-Morris) and also a couple of video clips of the dancing available on Suzanne’s blog:http://thegabbleratchet.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/2015-totally-thames-source-to-sea-river.html