First Lights of Christmas

4 Replies

First Lights of Christmas
The Abingdon Christmas Extravaganza Festival is a month away on Saturday 29th November. The first lights were being put up today in preparation. This included several red and white Christmas Trees down Stert Street, and assorted lights down Bath Street and West St Helen Street.

The larger street decorations will follow in the coming days.

A large number of shops are already well prepared for Christmas. Others will have to first take down Halloween pumpkins before turning on the real glitz for the biggest commercial festival of the year.

A Tale of Two Gravel Pits

1 Reply

The largest of the Radley Gravel Pits was pumped dry at the start of 2004. A fence was erected, and the pit was pumped full of fuel ash slurry from Didcot Power Station.

By the start of 2006 when featured on this blog there stretched a black morass, partly covered by reeds and grass.
Two Radley Lakes
A fence still surrounds the area – marked by lifebuoys; but now ten years since the gravel pit was filled, trees have grown to cover about half of the area, and are colonising the other half.
Two Radley Lakes
Nearby Thrupp Lake was saved from a similar fate by the Save Radley Lakes campaigners. It had already matured into a lake.

Street Advertising in Abingdon – How times have changed

7 Replies

There was a time, not so long ago (probably about 5-6 years), when the Vale of White Horse District Council had a strict policy towards roadside advertising, and local organisations did not feel they could promote their events effectively to passing traffic.

Now the policy seems far more lenient.
Street Advertising in Abingdon
The road barrier, left in place because of troubles with the River Stert Culvert underneath, has become the temporary town noticeboard.
Street Advertising in Abingdon
You cannot have missed there and elsewhere that Sweet Charity by Abingdon Operatic Society is on this week. The musical at the Amey Theatre follows a dancer through the night clubs of New York in search of love, and includes well known songs such as: ‘Big Spender’, ‘The Rhythm Of Life’ and ‘If My Friends Could See Me Now’.
Street Advertising in Abingdon
The system works well enough so long as events are local and are removed soon afterwards – not always the case: Mad Up Reunion in Reading back in May is still up at the end of October on Stratton Way.

Italian Market in Abingdon Today

5 Replies

Italian Market
Today, on the Abingdon Market Place, Abingdon and District Twin Towns Society (ADTTS ) had a stall with a lot of information about one of our twins – the beautiful city of Lucca – in Tuscany, Central Italy.
Italian Market
There was also ‘Italia in Piazza’ – an Italian Food Market, with pasta, bread, cheese, hams, olives etc.
Italian Market
There was an opera singer singing Arias (thanks to Steve for this picture. Steve was on the Friends of Radley Lakes stall who were also there with a Tombola and sale).
Italian Market
Elsewhere in Abingdon there are already many Italian influences, especially food outlets. The Ask Italian Food restaurant is situated in a building that could fit into an Italian Piazza – surrounded by Olive Trees.