The new Christmas Olympic decorations have arrived in the Bury Street, Abingdon. We may have to wait a few weeks more to see them turned on.
At the other end of the precinct, the ABCD Film Society and the Abingdon Community Hospital League of Friends were sharing the Community Free Space on Saturday. The Film Society were giving out programmes of films for 2017/18. The Friends were selling raffle tickets to raise funds for the hospital. They could do with some younger members. So anybody interested in supporting them see The ACHLOF website.
Monthly Archives: October 2017
Abingdon Marathon 2017
Over 750 runners started the Abingdon Marathon at 9am this morning from Tilsley Park.
5 miles into the race the field of runners crossed Abingdon Market Place. They came via Radley Lakes, where volunteers had cleared the track in places from fallen trees after Storm Brian.
The mum who beat the marathon record for a mum pushing a buggy in 2015, has had a second child, and was back attempting to beat the record for a double buggy Marathon run.
A lot of volunteers help at the marathon. They were from many different Abingdon organisations. Cadets were giving out water near the sailing club nearly 6 miles into the race.
At the corner of Lambrick Way and Peep-O-Day Lane there was a gathering of spectators and marshalls. The course then went twice round by Lambrick Way, up through Drayton, Milton and Sutton Courtenay then back down Peep-o-Day Lane.
The race was won by Tom Charles, of Trafford Athletic Club in two hours 29 minutes and 29 seconds. Two weeks ago Tom finished second in the York Marathon in two hours 25 minutes.
Hilary Mott, from Cheltenham, was the first woman to finish in a time of two hours 49 minutes and 50 seconds.
The first two Abingdon Athletic Club runners home were Peter Akrill
and Thomas Coney. Both were inside 3 hours.
Out on the course people were running for the next couple of hours, encouraged by a lot of locals.
Marshalls did their best to keep the traffic flowing, without stopping runners, in the two of three places where runners had to cross busy roads.
More pictures on the Abingdon Blog Facebook page.
Polish War Hero who lived in Abingdon during the 60s/70s
Thanks to Steve for this
Stanislaw, aka, Rocky was a well known and much respected Polish man who took up residency in Abingdon after the war. It was rumoured that he fought in the Free Polish Air Force during the war and a recent obituary article in the Mail https://m.facebook.com/307SquadronProject/posts/833636720105369 confirms those rumours. The article is about a war hero living in Swansea and who died shortly after his 100th birthday.
In the 60’/70s he owned and ran Top Taxis in Abingdon, and lived on the Marcham Road. Steve says he was an amazing full of life character who lightened every room he entered! I hope the Mail does not mind me borrowing their pictures. If anybody has any of Stanislaw in his Abingdon days, or even Top Taxis, please send to backstreet60@gmail.com.
Mayor of Sint Niklaas, Town Council Meeting, and ‘I do not have 4 legs’
Thanks to Brian for this picture of the Mayor of Sint-Niklaas, Lieven Dehandschutter, with the Mayor of Abingdon, Jan Morter. During his time in Abingdon, Lieven spoke to about 300 children at St Nicolas School. It was the then headmaster of St Nicolas school who fifty years ago initiated the twinning between Abingdon and Sint-Niklaas. Lieven toured Abingdon with Jan Morter and had lunch at the Nags Head. He spoke as an invited guest to Abingdon and District Twin Towns Society on 800 years of Sint Niklaas. This was followed by frites with mayonnaise, waffles and Belgian beer. He also gave an interesting talk to Abingdon Town Council at the start of their meeting. He spoke on the subject of twinning.
This was followed by a talk by the deputy Director of the local Citizens Advice. She told members that the CA helped over 1700 people from Abingdon last year. The CA has very few paid staff – they rely heavily on volunteers and it is calculated that, in addition to financial savings for their clients, every £ invested in the service produces over £26 in public value (economic and social) and nearly £5 in direct savings to government.
As to the Town Council meeting there was a good turnout of members of the public.
Under Matters Arising from previous meetings they heard some good news: The X3 Bus will once again go to Oxford Station as from Monday 23 October – but only till 8pm and with variations to the route – it may not be possible to join it in St Aldates. Check before you travel!
The Town Council has now released its promised funding for the Family Centre at the former South Abingdon Childrens Centre.
The District Council have now approved the release of “S.106” money, their contribution, for the Lodge Hill slip roads so hopefully work will be able to start soon.
The matter which had brought most of the audience to the meeting was the discussion on the Guildhall and Abbey Hall. Over 1500 people had signed the online petition and nearly 300 had signed a hard copy. The two main issues of concern were the proposed loss of the Abbey Hall as a venue for community use and the plans to remove the 1731 staircase in the old part of the building to allow room for a lift and a narrower staircase. In response to these concerns, the Council agreed to look into ways of bringing the Abbey Hall back into use and to get professional advice on alternative ways to improve disabled access to the old parts of the complex, without causing irreparable damage
There may also have been a formal request for a public meeting about all of this. So that could be happening fairly soon.
After the Guildhall discussion there was a brief update on the Community-led Plan proposal. The results are still being analysed but the organisers were disappointed that more young people hadn’t taken part and that those offering to help with the follow-up work were mainly people already active in the community – they are keen to reach out much more widely. Hopefully they will find a way of doing that.
During the meeting there was a long discussion, followed by a vote, on whether the word Chairman should be replaced by Chair (or Chairperson) – which was was lost. Monica Lovatt was one of the opponents, and said ‘I do not have 4 legs’.