Monthly Archives: October 2018

Boarded-up this Halloween

Buildings Boarded up
Old Abbey House has been boarded-up in the last week to avoid further vandalism and attempts to break in. The building has been little used since Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council and the Citizens Advice moved out in May 2014. Old Abbey House is now part of the bigger ‘one public estate’ review of council buildings in the town centre being carried out by Oxfordshire County Council and partners. A year ago it was suggested the building could be used as the start of new Council housing but that is now subject to the bigger review.
Buildings Boarded up
The boarding at the upper reaches hotel is a longer term measure while the hotel leaseholder reviews opportunities for future development which the owner of the buildings, the Vale of White Horse District Council, will allow.
Buildings Boarded up
I have heard no reports of haunting at these two buildings.

41 – Abingdon Town Bus

Abingdon Town Bus
The 41 Abingdon Town bus was withdrawn when the County Council withdrew funding for a lot of the subsidised bus routes, but has been re-introduced with a year’s funding of £30,000 thanks to Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council.

In addition to the old route of the Town Centre and Fairacres and South Abingdon the bus now also connects with the Leisure Centre and Hadland Road Community Centre.
Abingdon Town Bus
The bus stops on Stratton Way
Abingdon Town Bus
instead of the war memorial, which means there are not a lot of buses stopping at the war memorial anymore – just the S8 to Wantage.

WW1 War Memorial Tour

War Memorial Tour
On Saturday, 3rd November 2018 between 10:00 – 15:00 Mr Hemmings Traditional Abingdon  Morris Dancers will be visiting the war memorials of local villages remembering the end of WW1 in which many local Morris men made the ultimate sacrifice.
War Memorial Tour
Morris Dancing had a revival in the years before WWI but then according to Mr Hemmings web site there is no record of dancing during the war, and it was another twenty years until dancing in public became a regular event.  Joe Hemmings from 123 Ock Street, of the  Ock Street Morris Men,  was killed in action  at Contalmaison, France in February 1916.

Abingdon Artists Exhibition – Autumn 2018

Abingdon Artists Exhibition
Abingdon Artists had an exhibition last week in the barn next to the Barns Cafe at Christchurch. There were pictures on a variety of themes and locations. The Abingdon Herald has a feature in this week’s paper: Eclectic exhibition as Abingdon artists given free rein.

Here are the pictures where I could identify Abingdon landmarks …
Abingdon Artists Exhibition
County Hall – by John Rawling
Abingdon Artists Exhibition
Abingdon Bridge – by Mike Brain
Abingdon Artists Exhibition
Old Gaol and Bridge Street roofs – By Caroline Harben
Abingdon Artists Exhibition
St Helen’s Wharf and Abingdon Bridge – by Barbara Payne

To find out more about Abingdon Artists visit www.abingdonartists.org.uk.