The Friends of Abingdon have given four days free entry to the Abbey Buildings, coinciding with heritage weekend.

You may wonder what these medieaval ladies are doing in the Abbey. Well, lady visitors were allowed to the Abbey. The Abbott was a power in the land, and his quarters became a hub of entertainment, and saw many Lords and Ladies and Royalty.

The oldest part of the remaining Abbey Buildings is the Undercroft – a stone vaulted area. Today, were displayed, large black and white pictures of the buildings in various states of repair. And a table with bread and cheese and grapes had been laid for a very authentic lunch.

The cheeses were bought yesterday from the Normandy Market. In the times of the Abbey people from the continent would bring wares to trade at important places like Abingdon Abbey. So French cheese was perhaps not too far fetched.

I just love the long gallery, but still struggle to get a half-decent picture. The passageway on the right would have given access to a number of rooms on the left, but nowadays it is just one big space – already featured in an earlier post as an exhibiton venue.

I know there were medieaval wall painting in yesterday’s post, but I did not want to leave out these wall paintings.

Lastly can I thank the Friends of Abingdon for all the help and information. They were really nice friendly people. Abingdon is well befriended.