Despite what this blog reported on April 1st, the monk has really appeared on the Marcham Road Roundabout this Easter Day morning – as a big surprise.
The work to lift him in and bolt him down must have happened early this morning.
It has been arranged by the Abingdon Freemasons, who really do have ties with the original monk, although not the hoax ones put on this blog on April 1st. The previous monk also had a Masonic connection as the original monk was sponsored by the Abbey Press which was run by one of their members.
I am very pleased the monk is back. It is a focal point for Abingdon.
Would be good if there was something MG on the roundabout adjacent to the Police Station and McDonalds outside what was the factory.
Couldn’t agree more. The Town Council are looking for ideas for “Welcome to Abingdon” signs so you could suggest it to them.
It’s a great time to do this; we’re rapidly approaching the point where the factory has been closed for 50 years – as long as it was ever open.
There is a MG garden on the corner of the double roundabout on Marcham Road/Ock street. It was opened in 2014.
True, but the MG garden isn’t really visible to anyone, unless you happen to be standing right next to it.
Who would support a MGBGT being displayed on the McDonald roundabout? The tree would have to be taken away.
I went to the National car museum and was interested to see the M G cars that they produced. They even had the roaring raindrop car that the magic midget pub is renamed as. I have never seen anyone in the M G garden.
I think whatever was placed on that island would have to be vandal proof, maybe also (much as I’d like to see it) a BGT might be too large.
Perhaps something like a 3 sided carved stone object with the octagonal MG logo on each face with each facing the 3 road entry points to the roundabout.
The installation of the “new” Monk took place early on Easter Sunday morning and was filmed – see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSwe53LTVCw – as you can see it involved much planning, organisation and many people (and it took place in pouring rain). Thanks to the Abingdon Masons who funded it, all those people involved in the actual installation (and preparing a foundation and base), and also those people who worked behind the scenes to facilitate it. PS I have heard that the removal of the “old” Monk (which is now serving as a bug hotel in the Town Council’s Boxhill Woods) also took place very early on a Sunday morning but involved just four people. All this goes to show what can be achieved when people work together in partnership.
Would of course also be nice if that roundabout became known as the ‘MG Roundabout’ rather than the McDonalds or Police Station roundabout, would require some kind of permanent visual marker to achieve that.
This household already refers to the roundabout at Fairacres as the ‘Stroppy Roundabout’ because it has a monk on. Glad that we can continue to do this.
I love the way the monk appears to hover …
The new monk looks great, happy to see him replaced