Every day except Sunday the Wilsham Road is an all day car park. There is just a five minute walk to town from this road. Parking there avoids commuters getting stuck in any early morning traffic jam into town, and it is free. But you have to feel for the residents who loose their scenic view across the river, and parking for their visitors.
We went out for a drink and got to see an Aunt Sally match at the Old Anchor Inn between the Anchor Inn and the Cross Keys ‘C’ team. According to one member of the ‘C’ team they are better than the ‘B’ but not so good as the ‘A’.
This game is played in Oxfordshire and Berkshire pubs and involves two teams of eight players throwing six sticks each per leg. The largest number of ‘doll’s scored per team wins each leg.
If a player fails to score in a leg, it is called a blob.
Mr Sandy Thomas makes windmills as a hobby. He can use discarded recycle bins for the blades – they are not quite as good as pedal bins but they do.
He also sometimes gets donated tins of paint – the brighter the better. He has a good eye for what will be useful at Car Boot Sales.
It all began when his wife bought a windmill from a Garden Centre, and Sandy thought he could do better .
The display outside his house near the centre of Abingdon has even featured on BBC South Today.
The Mayor Making began in the usual way with the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers welcoming people in.
In the first half of the ceremony the outgoing Mayor, Duncan Brown, presented the Mayor’s awards. One was to Stuart Jackson a former leader of the Morris Men. Very well deserved, as were the others. Duncan has raised a record £10,000 for his charities during his year as Abingdon’s youngest ever Mayor.
But somehow all that got forgotten in what followed. There followed lots of votes.
Normally there are just a couple of votes. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are voted in unanimously. But this time everything was fought over, way past the main council committees, even down to who would represent Abingdon Town Council in outside organisations like the Prince Albert Memorial Trust and River Users Group. The Conservatives won all votes by 11-10 or 12-9 depending how the solitary Labour voter chose to go.
Sandy Lovatt, seen here on a local TV report tonight talking about the army, is the new leader of the town council. That is equivalent in town council terms to Prime Minister.
Mike Badcock is Mayor. Unusually for Abingdon, this did not go to the next person in line but to a Conservative nominee – voted in by 11-10.
Peter Jones, another Conservative, is Deputy Mayor, and was voted in 11-10.