This Ordnance Survey explorer map covers: Abingdon, Wantage & Vale of White Horse (and also includes the Thames Path and The Ridgeway).

The map is pictured, for effect, on the worn surface of The Ridgeway – a prehistoric high road above the Berkshire Downs.

The closest section of the Ridgeway to Abingdon is approached through East Hendred, and along a straight tree-lined road that ends at a little shadey car-park with a warning about not leaving valuables in your car.

The rolling view of the ridgeway is seen walking east. Looking down you can see the Diamond Light Source. (Acknowledgements to The Diamond Light Source for the picture.) Very soon it will be operational and experimentation can begin.

Abingdon itself is built on an area of Kimmeridge Clay and the Berkshire Downs are largely chalk. The Diamond Light Source contains

The sign says ‘Margaret Brown – Councillor from 1972 – 1981 – Dedicated to the People of Abingdon’

The view looking along the river from the Margaret Brown Gardens, through the leaves of the weeping willow.

The view back to St Helens Wharf from the Margaret Brown Gardens.

And these are the Margaret Brown Gardens themselves.

Previous post have shown a little of Abingdon Business Park and a bit of Abingdon Science Park but more interesting, to me at least, is the Radley Road Industrial Estate.

We start with a picture of A Walker UPVC Ltd.

But perhaps we should not jump in at the middle but start with this huge iron gate near the turn in from Radley Road. One side says Allens, and the other Motors. Outside and inside are a variety of Commercial vehicles (lorries and vans). Many have seen better days. The website http://www.allens-motors.co.uk has not been kept up.

Next door is Dignity Funerals Limited “the UK’s largest provider of funeral related services… owning 500 funeral directors...” and then alongside Brewers decorating materials who “carry a range of decorating materials from Albany paints to Zinsser primers“

Over the road you will find the Adhectic timber and sheet yard – a born and bred Abingdon Company

Round the corner is another Abingdon based company. It is one that might be recomended by your insurance company next time you have a prang. They are Hemmings Accident Repair Centre and “cater for all aspects of car body repairs and insurance work”

Lastly, and I may revisit to picture a few more businesses, but I’ll close off for now with Baskervilles who supply fresh food for caterers…. and I’ve seen them doing house deliveries in Abingdon.

The best photographers seem to use black and white for effect, so in this post I’ve gone for greyscale. First, sun streaming through the County Hall undercroft.

A dandelion in the Abbey Meadows.

Lastly a self portrait taken with my dog, next to the bent road sign of Curtis Avenue.