Nobody has commented in with the answer to last weeks quiz question. And I cannot hold back the answer any longer…

Abingdon Road and Oxford Road meet at Cumnor, near St Michael’s Church. It is also near Gee’s farm, where Radio Head used to rehearse. Groups still bang their drums in the little building along the farm track.

The Abbott of Abingdon used to have a residence at Cumnor Place, so on top of Radio Head, there are more ancient historic connections between Abingdon and the village of Cumnor.

Both Abingdon School, and The School of St Helen’s and St Katharine’s had their Open Days today. It give prospective pupils a chance to look round. The secondary playing field was full of cars at Abingdon School. I didn’t get to St Helen’s….
Lots of displays and activities had been laid on to entertain the visitors.
The Brass Band were playing from 11:30 to 12.
Upstairs in the chapel there is a window depicting the Trinity, which was installed in 2004 .
It was designed by the artist Nicholas Mynhee. The fire behind represents the Holy Spirit. Jesus is in the centre with nailed hand upraised in the upper corners. God the Father is represented by all of creation. That is tree, sky, glass….

Back outside, I wandered away from the crowds to look at this garden . Most of the visitors were interested in the curricular and extra-curricular events and not in stained glass windows and flower beds.

Finally here is the 750th anniversary plaque unveiled by Princess Anne a week ago. The 750th was the subject of another post.

The town seemed nice and busy this morning with lots of people out shopping.

At the Market Place end the friends of Stowford House were selling jumble to raise money to give learning disabled children outings and the like. From what I gather they have failed in their attempts to save most of Stowford House, a mile away from Abingdon in Shippon. It is a hostel for learning disabled, and now has only five clients.

Next to them some people were promoting the Alpha Course with the help of this car. The Alpha course is a chance to find out about Christianity through guided discussion. David Frost did a documentary about it some years ago.

And at the other end of the Market Place, Phil from the Abbey Baptists was letting rip with some open air preaching. I was given a tract saying ‘Time to think about the Big Questions?‘

The Ock Street exhibition at the Trinity Church Hall is here at last. The exhibition poster is tied alongside the Make Poverty History banner.

At the exhibition, I first listened to a recorded interview telling of harder times in Ock Street. The bread man would often be owed money by people. But still he could not let them go without bread. Poverty like that has been made history in Ock Street.

This lady is Ock Street born, and bred. She stands in front of a board saying Ock Street 1910. That was 8 years before she was born. She lived at 232 Ock Street.

Back in the early 1900s about a third of the population of Abingdon lived around Ock Street, until the slum clearances of the 1930s.

The exhibiton has been magnificently collated and staged by Abingdon Area Archaeological and Historical Society (Aaahs). They were pleasantly suprised at how popular it has been. There have been over 250 people on the first day. For anybody who wants, there are folders and computers and CDs to trawl through.

This exhibiton board is called Nonconformist Chapels. Ock Street used to have lots of chapels, pubs, shops, minor industries, and of course dwellings. But now it looks more like this old linked post.

On the way home, I dropped in at the newest shop on Ock Street. Its been there about two months and is called the Traditional Afro-Caribbean & Continental shop. There were two young ladies serving at the counter. One was braiding the others hair. (This is the premises recently vacated by The Movies .) I bought a bottle of Mega Malt (a non alcoholic malt drink) from their fridge. Not bad!