What will it look like without the Didcot Cooling Towers?

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There were sail boats and rowing boats on the River Thames in Abingdon this morning, but unlike a year ago no steam was rising from the giant cooling towers of Didcot ‘A’ Power Station. The coal fired Didcot ‘A’ Power Station has been decommissioned and some of its transformers have already been transported away. The cooling towers, love them or hate them, will soon be gone.

More efficient, and less visible, gas powered generators have taken over at Didcot.

First Anniversary Beer Festival and Fireworks

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This weekend the Nags Head has a first anniversary Beer Festival with twenty beers. The most popular was the new Porter from the Abingdon based Loose Cannon Brewery. (The festival will continue on Monday and Tuesday at a discount for those beers that did not sell out.)

This weekend also saw the first firework displays of the year, including the Nags Head 1st anniversary celebration fireworks at 9:30 last night.

More fireworks tonight (Sunday 3rd Nov 2013) at Abingdon Town Football Club as a fund raiser for the Abingdon Sea Cadets. Tickets are £3 per person under 6’s FREE. The event runs from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

Saturday 9th November at Long Furlong Community Centre, Abingdon, will be the 2nd Abingdon Scouts Fireworks.

Army Cadets were selling poppies in Abingdon this morning

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Army Cadets were selling poppies in Abingdon this morning.

In 1919, King George V sent a message asking people to observe 2 minutes silence at 11am on 11th November to commemorate the 1st anniversary of armistice day.

The war must have affected everybody, and people were grateful to follow the King’s request.

In Abingdon, at the Pavlova leather works the siren sounded at 11am that Tuesday morning and the work force stopped working to remember in silence those who had not come back. All schools students were reminded of the occasion, and people in the streets, shops, and houses also observed the call for remembrance. The silence was most marked and moving in busy places. Wreathes were placed by the temporary cross at the Square in Abingdon. (Details from ‘Notes of the Week’ in that week’s Herald from 1919)

The use of poppies as a remembrance symbol started in 1920 in the USA, and came to the UK the following year.

Air Ambulance at Caldecott Rec.

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Thanks to Collette for this picture of an Air Ambulance taking off from Caldecott Recreation Ground in South Abingdon yesterday at 9:44am. Somebody was taken ill and the recreation ground was the nearest place to land.

The Air Ambulance may have been an exciting event for children on half term school holidays, but it was also an emergency.

Abingdon is not unfamiliar with Air Ambulances. One gave a display at The 2013 Abingdon Air and Country Show, and the show gave its profits to the Air Ambulance Trust – £9,300 in 2013.

The next Abingdon Air & Country Show is Sunday 4th May 2014 and preparations are well underway.