The Mellstock Band are performing a show called‘Christmas Frolics’ in the Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon on Wednesday 4th December at 7.30. Tickets £15/£12 (students and under 18)  from Mostly books  or davetownsendmusic.com

This will be a celebration of dance, drink and general misbehaviour as carried on at Christmas in many villages until about a hundred years ago, and will include convivial harmony songs, rousing dance music, and Thomas Hardy’s poetry set to local tunes.

Thomas Hardy gave a lot of places new names in his novels. Mellstock is his home village Bockhampton. His characters also ventured to Alfredston (Wantage), Christminster (Oxford), and Lumsdon (Cumnor). What would he have called Abingdon?