Mr Fred Evans of Saxton Road in patriotic attire today, going to a fancy dress darts tournament.
Many thanks to Bob for another great picture.
Mr Fred Evans of Saxton Road in patriotic attire
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Monthly Archives: January 2013
Recycling Christmas Trees on the Market Place
The lights were taken off the Market Place Christmas Tree. Branches were then lopped off and fed into a wood chipper.
Soon all that remained was a spiny trunk.
The Abingdon public brought their own Christmas Trees.
Some dragged their trees, others brought them by car.
The Town Council Team then fed each tree into the chipper.
140 trees were recycled on the Market Place in January 2011. By January 2012 that number had jumped to 164.
This year 133 trees had already been recycled by midday. That number had jumped to 192 with ten minutes to go. The team were intending to stop at 3:00 pm but then there was a late rush of Christmas Trees.
The team stayed a little late by which time they had recycled 205 trees. Those tree chippings will help pave walks on the Ock Valley.
2013 Day 5 – Floods are Gone but Barriers Remain
Some people have started to ignore the barriers that are still in position either end of the Ock Valley Walk.
The water no longer covers the path, and so there seems no real danger. My guess is that somebody in authority has just forgotten to remove the barriers. But it does allow the birds a few more days without human disturbance.
News reports did say that 2012 was the second wettest year since records began.
2013 has started dry so hopefully that record will not be broken this year. The River Thames has returned to normal levels leaving the sandbags high and dry.
Fairacres – 5 years on from the £4.7m re-modelling and refurbishment
It is about 5 years since the Fairacres Retail Park had a £4.7m major re-modelling and refurbishment.
Post Christmas Sales are on all around the park, and Homebase had 20% off everything TODAY. In smaller print it said “if you spend £50 or more.”
Homebase, Pets at Home and Contact Electrical are much the same as five years ago, although Contact Electrical and Comfortmaker next door are now run by Beales – a company with 32 stores, whose original store opened in 1881 and is still at the same location in Bournemouth.
There are Closing Down notices in the window of Beales electrical shop. The smaller print says “TV & Audio Department”.
Argos is still there, alongside Subway, but the shop next door closed about a year ago, and is awaiting a new tenant.
Then there is Carpet Right who now sell beds.
Dreams, who sell hundreds of beds, might get their own back by also selling a few carpets …
and finally Vineys, an Abingdon original, now owned by Lee Longlands.
The look of the retail park and the names of most of the stores (apart from Vineys) are well known throughout the UK.
But the retail park is run by The Abingdon Mays who used to have their own chain of carpet shops, and they still do what they can to promote Abingdon Town Centre – where they started out.