Martin Smith led the boundary walk in 2006 (when I first started doing this blog) and was still there leading the walk in 2013. On both occasions he was accompanied by a town crier who rang the bell and announced to anybody in earshot that we were walking the 1556 bounds of Abingdon. In 2006 we all went into a private garden to see a boundary stone and were given mince pies – something I’ve not experienced since.

This year we could not follow the normal route along the Ock Valley Walk, which is still underwater, and so went down Caldecott Road instead. At one point we saw where the canal bridge would have been.

We also made a small diversion at Box Hill Walk to view where Fitzharris House once stood, and saw the Motte.

The other change from 2006 was that we could now cross the new bridge over what was the Abbey Mill Stream.