A new pathway is being laid under the archway at Twickenham House …
to the Old Gaol the other side – for this is now all part of one complex.
Girders and steel ties lay ready to be used as the skeleton for new buildings.
Older buildings are being merely refurbished.
It will be interesting to see how the barred windows look when people live up there as luxury dwellers – not prisoners.
You can tell from the thickness of the walls that St Ethelwold’s House is one of the oldest houses in Abingdon. The house has a Georgian front, with medieaval rooms stretching behind.
There has been a lot going on at St Ethelwold’s House this weekend. Yesterday there was an open afternoon.
I read in a leaflet called “The Fellowship of St Ethelwold” that Dorothea Pickering – the founder – hoped to create a small scale Benedictine Community at St Ethelwolds. Dorothea was interested in the history of Abingdon Abbey and named the house after St Ethelwold – a Benedictine monk who rebuilt and reinvigorated the Abbey in the tenth century. Nowadays, Bed and Breakfast, and the use of rooms for spiritual and community activities, ensure that St Ethelwold’s continues to flourish.
Another of Dorotheas interests was interfaith relationships and today – Sunday – there was a large interfaith gathering in the garden. People shared a picnic and were entertained first by a group of children singing and dancing…
Then with some Bangladeshi music …
That reminds me, Duncan Brown, the ex Mayor, invited followers of a number of different faiths to act as his Chaplain during the year he was Mayor.
Lots of people were out in town enjoying the occasional sunshine and the local excellence market.
The carrots and other produce on this stall were picked yesterday.
Duncan Brown, ex Mayor, bought some beetroot.
There were samples of very tasty Double Gloucester, and Blue Veined Cheddar, from Glastonbury.
Jill Carver, from Added Ingredients, had some very fine Olive Oil for people to try.
The carbon cutters had a bike that drove a food mixer making strawberry smoothies – just visible behind the Town Crier on the bike.
The local excellence market was on from 9:00 – 14:00 today.
Many Thanks to Stephen Gray, an artist based in Culham, for this picture of him with his own painting of the Swan Uppers.
Today was the day the Royal census of swans, or Swan Upping, came to Abingdon – the final stop in the journey up the River Thames.
I found them first at Abingdon Sailing Club where they had caught two adult swams and six young.
This has not been a good year for swans – a virus has killed many. The Swan Uppers only found three familes, today : one at Wallingford, another at Clifton Hamden, and this one in Abingdon.
The swans were weighed and ringed, a spike was extracted from the webbed foot of one of the adults, and then they were released to swim off as if nothing had happened.
The Swan Uppers continued their journey to Abingdon Bridge where they drank the traditional toast to The Queen.
They then went to the Broad Face for more drinks. Once the local brew had lubricated their vocal chords sufficiently the Swan Uppers treated the other people in the pub to a traditional Swan Upping sing song.