Monthly Archives: January 2015

AGM of Abingdon Hydro

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AGM of Abingdon Hydro
The AGM (Annual General Meeting) of Abingdon Hydro takes place this Friday evening. There are 370 members of this community enterprise, so far, who have invested £675,000 in the scheme to generate electricity from the water at Abingdon Weir. More funding is still required, and the share offer has been extended

The next few months are likely to be crucial with some important decisions to be taken. The intention is to build the Hydro in 2015 to generate electricity.

During the AGM new Directors will be elected to join existing Directors; the annual accounts will be approved; and there will be a chance to ask questions.

Old Tradition revived for New Apple Trees

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Old Tradition
On Saturday 31st Jan 2015 (2.30 – 4.30pm) Caldecott Meadow, behind South Abingdon Children’s Centre, will see the revival of wassailing in Abingdon. Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers will lead the festivities round the new apple trees.

You are asked to bring along:

  • your pots and pans and wooden spoons to make a lot of noise 
  • ribbon and wool to dress the trees 
  • a plastic bottle to make your own shaker 
  • a jar to make your own fire lantern

In other towns and villages the tradition of wassailing the Apple Trees – some time in January – still continues, and was intended to produce lots of apples the following season by pouring some of last year’s cider on their roots. Read more at Here We Go A-Wassailing.

On this occasion the cider will be apple juice because it is an alcohol free family wassail.

Burst water main in Stert Street caused traffic chaos

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Burst water main
Arriving home this evening I was suprised to find that Stert Street was closed to traffic. The road has been seeping water for a couple of months, and work has started to fix it.

A sign says work to be completed on 23rd January. Until then the road will be closed overnight, and open during the day.

The road closure caused chaos during the daytime today.

I wonder why there was such a sudden need to take action in the middle of the day, when it has been like that for weeks.

B’ist thee a-gwaen to Ab’ndon faar?

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Ab'ndon faar
Fifty years ago or less, the speech of an Ab’ndonian would hardly have been understood by a person from the northern counties. and his dialect would sound strange to his grandson of today. He called a stone a “stwun”, a mole a “wunt”, – Wantage means the place of wunts – a pig a “peg”, and a sheep a “ship”.

He lengthened out his a’s so that yard became “yaard” and way “waay”. For “I am not” he said “I beant”, for “will you” he said “Oo’lt”. He would say “mwoast” and “mwoare” and “whum” and “wi”.

He used strange words like “unked” and “lear” and athert” where we would say uncanny, hungry, and across. “I” was used for me and myself, “he” for him, and “his’n” and “shis’n” for his and hers.

“B’ist thee a-gwaen to Ab’ndon faar? If thee b’ist I’ll see ‘ee theaar.”

(a short extract from ‘The School History of Berkshire’ by E.A. Greening Lamborn published in 1908 and no longer on the school history curriculum)