Monthly Archives: September 2019

Five walks in the rain

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Five Walks in the rain
There were five Heritage Walks setting of from Abingdon Market Place at 11 am on Sunday.
* Abingdon’s Boundary Walk
* The Rivers of Abingdon
* Heritage Art about Abingdon
* Abingdon’s Industrial Past
* Abingdon’s Blue Plaques

The rain began at 11 am at the same time as the walks. The rain was sometimes heavy and lasted for about two hours. But despite that about sixty people took part.

This was the first time for the blue plaques walk which covered four blue plaques:
Arthur Preston (historian and politician at Park Cresent),
John Alder (generous lottery winner at Stert Street),
Cecil Kimber (MG manager at The Boundary House),
and Daniel Turner (Baptist Minister and hymn writer at 35 Ock Street).
Five Walks in the rain
In the British Heart Foundation charity shop all the umbrellas in the store-area were brought down to sell to anybody who needed one.
Five Walks in the rain
At the temporary community shop the exhibition had over 600 visitors on Saturday. We all love studying the aerial photographs from 100 years ago to see what has changed and get into discussion with strangers.
Five Walks in the rain
Sunday was quieter with about 100 visitors. At the end the railway club put their banner in the window to attract people to their upcoming exhibition at Abingdon College.

Abingdon 1919 Homecoming film, 2019 re-enactment, and 2019 Heritage Open Properties

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Homecoming Parade
At 11 am today there was a showing of the 1919 Abingdon Homecoming film to a packed house at the Abbey Cinema.
Homecoming Parade
The film was accompanied by a pianist and showed the huge reception local people gave to the troops returning from WWI. There followed a short documentary made by the Friends of Abingdon. The documentary will be added too and include scenes from today’s re-enactment events.
Homecoming Parade
There was a re-enactment parade at noon that included some young ladies in white dresses carrying flowers.
Homecoming Parade
The 2019 Mayor of Ock Street was there, leading the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers.
Homecoming Parade
The 2019 Mayor of Abingdon-on-Thames was in the parade. The 1919 Mayor and Council were shown in the film. In the documentary after the film, the 2019 Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council were compared with the older, all male, 1919 Abingdon Borough Council.
Homecoming Parade
Some musicians helped lead the parade.
Homecoming Parade
The rest of the Abbey Brass Band followed and gave a real woomph to the sound, as did the Morris Dancers who sang along to a couple of WWI favourites.
Homecoming Parade
The event was organised by Heather Brown, and the Friends of Abingdon,
Homecoming Parade
and a team of volunteers.
Homecoming Parade
A short speech was made by the Mayor, and then the young ladies laid flowers at the makeshift memorial, followed by the older ladies.
Homecoming Parade
A stall allowed people to sample food from the Great War Cook Book. Some of the carrot marmalade can be seen here.
Homecoming Parade
As it was Heritage Open Day there were open properties to look round including Christ Hospital Hall where the archivist had put together an interesting exhibition.
Homecoming Parade
1-3 Ock Street has not changed a lot externally in one hundred years. This is now the premises of a Family Law firm called BH&O LLP and it was interesting to see the sympathetic restoration inside.
Homecoming Parade
I spent the afternoon at Trinity giving tours. We had our own historic film playing – Songs of Praise recorded in Trinity in 1980 and shown in 1981. The Mayor of Ock Street from 1980 was interviewed and chose the hymn – Lord of the Dance.

Join the Homecoming Parade and much more

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Homecoming Parade
For the last week the ex-Superdrug-Store has had an exhibition that featured a film made in 1919, of the Abingdon homecoming, when huge crowds welcomed the soldiers and sailors home.
Homecoming Parade
Boards have helped us understand a bit more about what it was like in 1919. The sea of hats is one point of note. On Saturday 21st the film will be shown at 11:00 am at the Abbey Cinema together with a short documentary examining the film. Then at noon there will be a parade with people in period costume, led by the Abbey Brass Band, marching along Bury Street to the Market Place.

It is part of Heritage Open Days. There will also be open properties to look round for free.
Homecoming Parade
In the Roysse Room the Abingdon Flower Club presents a 60th Anniversary Flower Festival – Fashion in Flowers.
Homecoming Parade
Back at the ex-Superdrug Store, the Abingdon Branch model railway can be seen.

The full list of open properties and events is at https://www.abingdonheritage.org.uk/.

I should add that the Merchants House in East St Helen Street is only open on Saturday ( not Saturday and Sunday ).
Homecoming Parade
And if you have time alongside all the heritage activities there are plenty of shops in the town centre, and a litter pick starting at the lock from 10 am.

Drayton Road Gas Leak

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Drayton Road Gas Leak
The road between Abingdon and Drayton was closed from early morning on 19/9/19 because of a gas leak.
Drayton Road Gas Leak
Most traffic trying to go south from Abingdon was turned back at the Preston Road junction. There was access only to Morland Gardens and Stonehill Lane, but not even pedestrians could get to Drayton along the Drayton Road, or from Drayton to Abingdon.

This caused wide diversions for Abingdon people who work at Milton Park or use Didcot Railway Station . They had to go the same way as everybody else out of South Abingdon. So the South Abingdon traffic was worse than ever – people turning and finding new routes.

P.S The road had opened with temporary lights at Stonehill Lane when I went past on Friday 20th at 8 am.