Exbourne Road, a street of 31 houses in Abingdon, has 18 large poppies on display. Each poppy in a front window represents men from that house who signed up to answer the call of duty during WWI.
From one house, six men / lads signed up.
From this small street, 34 men signed up; six were never to return; eight were wounded; and the rest returned having been through the hardship and horror of war.
A cascade of poppies, one for each of Abingdon’s fallen in WWI, falls from the beams of St Nicolas church in the marketplace. The Abingdon Crochet group from Masons created the poppies to commemorate the sacrifice.
Events over the weekend include:
Abingdon Roll of Honour read by various people – St Helen’s Church
Saturday, 10 November 2018 – 9:30am
Civic Bun Throw – County Hall and Abingdon Market Place
Saturday, 10 November 2018 – 2:00pm
Remembrance Concert – Abingdon Town Band – St Helen’s Church
Saturday, 10th November, 7:30pm-9:30pm
Remembrance Day Service – St Helen’s Church and Abingdon War Memorial
Sunday, 11th November, 10:00am-11:15am
Ringing out for peace – Abingdon Market Place
Sunday, 11th November, 7.00 pm
Beacon Lighting – County Hall
Sunday, 11th November, 7:00pm-8:00pm
Bun throwing is a great Abingdon tradition. But is it an appropriate way to remember the horrors of WWI?
That’s a very good question PPJS?
There was a lot on the local and national news yesterday about towns where schools have involved their pupils in projects to research and commemorate people from their town, and how focusing on real people has really engaged their interest. The Exbourne Road and East St Helen St projects are a similar approach – have there been other similar initiatives in Abingdon?
It is right that we should remember the dead of the First World War in solemn moments but we are also celebrating the anniversary of the end of that ghastly war and Bun Throwing, bell ringing and even the fireworks displays still going on, are ways of doing this.
Let’s not forget that the young men who died in that war were just that: young men, who would have enjoyed catching buns or hearing bells rung. As we have our bit of fun we can reflect on those whose sacrifice made it possible.