Monthly Archives: January 2021

Unicorns in Abingdon

Leave a reply

The Unicorn
The Unicorn is a mythical beast that has been used by the people in Abingdon for centuries.

There is the Unicorn Theatre (pictured above). There has been more than one Unicorn Inn in Abingdon. There was one on the west side of East St Helen Street, pulled down in the nineteenth century (1), and another at the Square that was to become the Rising Sun Inn(2) and is now Abingdon Fish and Chips. There is the Unicorn School on Marcham Road that specializes in educating students with dyslexia.

Recently I saw an interesting tweet by the Vernacular Architecture Group about Unicorn House on East St Helen Street …
The Unicorn
There is also information about Unicorn House on the Abingdon Buildings and People website which says the name Unicorn House is modern.
Unicorn House
There is a blue plaque to say the William III stayed her in December 1688 when on his way from Torbay to London to claim the Throne.
Unicorn House
It is one of the largest houses in East St Helen Street and is between The Merchants House, and St Ethelwold’s House.

References:
1. A History of Abingdon - J Townsend (1910)
2. Inns and Alehouses of Abingdon - J Smith and J Carter (1978)

Bridge Street: Parking Permits, Beer to takeaway, and floods receding

6 Replies

Down Bridge Street
Most people, who are part of the residents parking scheme, in the town centre, will have an out of date parking permit. The Town Council Office, down Bridge Street, has not been open to allow people to renew their permit since the March lockdown last year. An out of date permit is therefore allowed.
Down Bridge Street
The Broad Face were serving beers and burgers to takeaway. Some people were drinking their beer overlooking the River along Bridge Street.
Down Bridge Street
There were fewer people this afternoon looking at the water levels now they are going down.
Down Bridge Street
The government’s flood warning information site shows the river level over the last 5 days. The highest recorded by the monitoring station was on 9th January 2014.
Down Bridge Street
The site https://floodassist.co.uk/river-data/gauges/oxfordshire/1503th-level-downstage-i-15_min-masd/abingdon-lock shows the last 2 weeks and how the river level rose on Christmas Day and peaked on Boxing Day.

Abingdon New Year Walk 2021

2 Replies

Christian Aid Walk 2021
The usual choice of two guided walks did not happen this new year’s day. Neither the Boundary Walk or Christian Aid Walk went ahead as a large group walk.

I did see two Christian Aid walk leaders checking the churches had put up their poster – with a Letter. The Church-In-Abingdon (CiA) Christian Aid Walk 2021 is ‘self-directed’ this year and can be done anytime during January. The aim is to visit 9 CiA churches and find a single letter at each church to make an anagram of a word connected with the Christian Aid’s Christmas Appeal. Participants will be asked for the ‘word’ they have found. Sponsors are invited to make a donation via the Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/abingdon-christianaid-walk2021or838.
Christian Aid Walk 2021
At the church where I found the letter ‘H’, I also saw a bush called ‘Euonymus hamiltonianus’ or ‘Winged Spindle Tree’. It still has a few leaves and many capsules which have split open to reveal orange berries.