After West St Helen Street was resurfaced, the on-street parking was not reinstated as before. Regulations have changed and dividing car spaces has become a highly complex scientific matter. Now NO guide markings are being used and cars fill up the available space as best they can.
We are lucky in West St Helen Street to have two of the finest photographic studios in the Vale. But in Paul Viney’s window for the last week the display of photographs have been joined by a stolen bike notice. Can you help Paul and the Police with their enquiries?
Lastly, The Property Weekly has moved. They can now can be found in Shippon – the closest village to Abingdon. Or is that Northcourt?
when did northcourt become a village?… did i miss that?
Northcourt was a village until Abingdon spread out and engulfed it in the second half of the last century. If you wander around the area near Christ Church and the Spread Eagle you can see distinctive villagey buildings. Down Northcourt Lane behind the pub is the old Manor House. It was a small private school when I was a kid.
I hadn’t realised it had become a village again either… it must have looked a bit like Shippon which for my money has the required field or two (and A34) between it and Abingdon.
Perhaps the illustrious Backstreeter is mischieviously stirring up a hot debate 🙂
Apart from the church and pub and historic buildings mentioned by Old Ghost, Northcourt also has a community centre, school and shops. What else does a village community need?
The old Manor House is still used as an Educational building, (at least in the 1980s).
Part of Abingdon College of Further Education (as was). I did a government funded Restart Course there, {remove me from Unemployment lists} which led me into PC Computer Based Accounts at Oxford College, (When Main Frame Computers became Dinosaurs!!. ) retrained me on PCs leading to the new ‘Blade Server’ systems we have today.
Pat – it should be perfectly clear by now. No village community is worth it’s salt; without a Tescos!
And cars in West St Helen Street don’t seem to park as well (when I have been there) as they did when there WERE guidelines .
The observer.
‘Old Ghost’ Thank you for the info, I didn’t realise Northcourt was once a village, but having taken a ride down there today… I can see it…. I’m still learning about the town in which I live…..
Of course Northcourt is/ was a village!
Orignally it would have been just a few cottages, the pub and Northcourt House. The terrace of houses were built about 1908. The house on the oxford rd/northcourt rd corner was built 1912. At that time there would then have just been fields until you got to Swinburne Rd
Take a look at this old ordnance survey map and you can see that Northcourt is represented as a village on the map, very similar to Shippon.
http://ooc.openstreetmap.org/?zoom=14&lat=51.67552&lon=-1.28339&layers=B0000
Wow, thanks for that Milihelen and Mr Green, what a lot I learn on this blog!
great post Steven. Anyone know anything about the hospital at the end of Barton Lane?
My daughter had her bike stolen from West St Helen Street some years ago too. It was locked. Nice bike, not very old. Sadly was never found even though it was reported to the police. Hope Paul finds the stolen X3 bike.
Kev, I know (as I was born there!) that there was a maternity unit called the Warren Hospital where the street named after it is off the Radley Road. Would that be it? I remember helping sort jumble for the Red Cross who had one of the buildings in the mid 70’s. It was an old Victorian affair, red brick and asylum-y looking. I guess it disappeared in the late 80’s to be replaced by the present housing. Hope that helps.