The hottest day in May ever recorded in the UK saw temperatures in Abingdon reach 33°C.
The Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers, last seen at the St Edmund’s 850th celebrations (May 16th), began their day at the Harwell Feast. They took part in the parade and danced at the Feast before hot-footing it to Bampton for the Bampton Whitsun 2026 celebrations.
Back in Abingdon, Bank Holiday Walks were organised by the Friends of Abingdon. I caught up with a couple of the walk leaders after they finished. The 1556 Boundary Walk was partly led by the Town Crier, Cllr Penny Clover. It may have been the hottest Boundary Walk in 470 years.
The Lost Abbey tour, led by Dr Philip Kendrick, came 9 days after he led the same walk as part of the St Edmund’s 850th celebrations when the maximum temperature was 14°C according to https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/@2657780/historic
I’ll tell you what, it was super hot here in Stockport yesterday, it reminded me of a time many moons ago on a similar hot day but in August where we all went skinny dipping at abbey meadows at 5am to cool down, those were the days… The days without air conditioning!
Not often you get “hot” and “Stockport” in the same sentence!
The Lost Abbey walk was excellent and a good choice as we were in the shade or under cover for nearly all of it. I thoroughly recommend Philip if he does it again, but I expect that will have to wait until after the refurbishment now.