Martin Smith led the two hour walk round the Abingdon 1556 Boundaries starting at 11:30 this morning. Martin has been leading the boundary walk since 2006. The 1556 Abingdon boundary was written with no map and is described with very little punctuation, mentioning many features that are difficult to interpret. For example…

“… and from thence by and through another publick way a little turning towards the North untill you come to a certain Crooked little Ditch inclining towards the East, which said little Ditch together with the aforesaid publick way…”

so Martin does very well to find his way round every year.

Next on today was fun in the parks. As always Abingdon Operatic Society were dressed up to publicise their next production… The Pirates of Penzanze (Mon 25th to Sat 30th October).

But more to the point, shiver me timbers,  there are only a few days left to practise your pirate lingo as the International Talk like a Pirate Day is on September 19th, a chance to unleash you inner buccaneer me hearties.

This group were from Headington in Oxford, and the young lad was very excited to hear he would be appearing on the Abingdon Blog. He asked me to make sure it was on so he could watch it when he got home. Fame at last.

Fun in the parks ended with the traditional tug-a-war – children against the adults. At one stage it looked even stevens.

The compere then said ‘we need more children‘ and as in every other year the children won easily in the end.