While exploring Abingdon’s green spaces, I also discovered where the Abingdon Monk has been retired. The wooden monk once stood on the roundabout near Fairacres and Tesco. After toppling over once, it was propped back up with a splint,

but when it fell again it was found to be too rotten to repair. There was a split running from head to side.

Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council has now given the monk a new purpose as a bug hotel, placed among the naturally decaying tree trunks at Boxhill Wood. The sculpture was originally created for a Britain in Bloom project, commissioned by Abingdon Town Council and sponsored by the Abbey Press. People used to dress it up for festive and other occasions.

There has been talk of a replacement. Other towns have their own wooden monks (including one in Cirencester), but for now there is no Abingdon monk.