New signs have appeared along the Ock Valley Walk. The message is addressed to ‘Pet Owners.’
‘Please clean up after your pets and keep them under control’
Easier done with dogs… Cats make messes, but tend to do it in a neighbour’s garden rather than on public paths. Then they fight and wake all the neighbours.
Dog Owners are no longer being singled out.
The new notices mark a shift from the previous campaign where it was all about dogs.
It doesn’t seem long since I did News from the Abbey Shopping Centre but …
A planning application has appeared on the front of one of the large new units in the Abbey Shopping Centre to say that New Look will be moving there from their smaller shop. There have been other approaches for the large new stores but the Abbey Shopping Centre management are holding out for a couple of prestigious retailers for the two larger stores.
A new bakery has opened. Parsons are a family business with over 30 outlets in the South West, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
Both kiosks have been occupied for a while now, one by Hattons Gold, and the other by the Phone Box. Timpsons also re-opened quite some time ago. The fire only closed them for a short while.
The Community Shop have a display of volunteering opportunities including a side window dedicated to pictures of Abingdon Sea Cadets. The community shop will be open from 11:30 to 14:30 on Friday for anybody interested in volunteering. That is the same day as the Farmers Market.
Wild blackberries are abundant around Abingdon this year. People have been out collecting them with bags and plastic containers.
Beside the Sustrans cycle path, outer branches had been trampled down to create a path into the heart of one large mound of brambles, but the blackberries in the picture were just out of reach.
Preliminary archaeological excavations are underway in the field in North Abingdon, belonging to Radley College, for which planning permission is being sought.
A number of trial trenches have been dug, guided by the findings of geophysical surveys, and as always in Abingdon there are the prospects that there will be the remains of some old structures down there. I believe the last time the field had any excavations it was part of a study by students at Radley College in the 1970s. If anybody can remember the year or has any pictures that would be interesting to know.