A license application has been submitted to the Vale of White Horse District Council for 15 Market Place. It used to be The Nursery Shop and before that La Baguette. The new business appears to be called ‘The Old Mill’ and has applied to serve alcohol from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm indoors, and from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm outdoors.

15 Market Place is a Grade II listed building with original 17th-century features and an overhang. The overhang of this historic building has the advantage of increasing the available space inside without obstructing the street. Queen Street enters the Market Place at this point and is very narrow.

Queen Street is named after the Queens Hotel, which was built there in Victorian times. According to Agnes Baker, the lane had various names before Queen’s Street, including Otwellesland, Bryanneslane, Scholelane, Crab Lane and Workhouse Lane. Agnes Bakers says ‘But still the name of Otwell Lane Persisted with all the other forms, until in modern times it was somewhat unimaginatively renamed Queen Street’. Recently the Town Council proposed putting up a sign to say it is Queen Street with ‘(Formerly known as Otwell Lane)’ in small type.

Agnes Baker also mentions a horse-driven mill for crushing crab apples near this site, when it was called Crab Lane. That may be where the new business owner got the idea of calling it “Old Mill.”

Sources:
1. https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101368313-15-market-place-abingdon-on-thames.
2. Historic Street of Abingdon by  Agnes C Baker (p 22-23)
3. https://www.abingdon.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Draft-minutes-9.3.23-Town-Infrastructure-Committee.pdf