Last of the town centre Brown Field Sites in Abingdon

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Arts Festival Ball
The picture from about 1980 shows what was the Thames View light industrial park, with the Abbey Grounds behind.

Most of that area has already been redeveloped but some of the industrial units were kept going for a while – as it is was thought good to try to keep employment centres near the town centre.
Arts Festival Ball
The last units were demolished last year, and earth movers have been back this year reducing the pile of rubble. Plans are probably on the way for what will happen to this land.  But as yet nothing has come into the public domain as far as I am aware. Thames View is probably the last substantial area of land near to the town centre that could be built upon.

Bigging up the Arts Festival Ball and George Haslam

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Arts Festival Ball
The Swingtime Big Band plus Dorothy Shaw, Piano, have been practising, in the Old Magistrates Court, for the Abingdon Arts Festival Ball .
Arts Festival Ball
The band plays original arrangements by Glenn Miller, Count Basie and many more stars of the Swing Era.
Arts Festival Ball
Just checking out their leader George Haslam on Wikipedia, and I see he is an ‘English avant-garde jazz saxophonist.‘

Born in Preston, Lancashire, he has lived longer than most of us in Abingdon Oxfordshire, where he has helped ensure that people can hear British Jazz played in Abingdon pubs and halls, and has gone on to export jazz to places like Hungary, Cuba, Argentina, and Mexico.

Overnight Snow melting fast

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Snow
The overnight snow was already turning to slush when we went out at 9 am Sunday morning. Work continues in St Helen’s Churchyard. They dug so deep putting in ducts and pipes last week (under the path) that Oxford Archaelogywere on hand to check for remnants of antiquity.
Snow
A dozen or more trees near the Ock Valley have been chopped over the last week or two, some near the end of Hermitage Road, and others down the town end.
Snow
Evidence of dog walkers was to be seen everywhere in the snow. These paw prints and footprints were seen at the end of Healey Close where the estate meets the open space beside the River Ock.
Snow
This may, or may not, be the only snowfall this winter so some children were out making the most of it. There was just about enough snow left on the Caldecott Recreation Ground to make a smallish snowman.

Other places round about like Lodge Hill, Oxford, and Cumnor seem to have lots more snow than us in Abingdon.

Home Store & More – Closing Down Sale

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Home Store & More
All four Home Store & More stores are to close – including the one at the Fairacres Retail park in Abingdon – which opened in September 2010.

Home Store & More was, I understand, an Argos trial venture which did not become profitable in what is a difficult time for any startup. Sad news for the people who worked there. They sold bedding, towels and household goods – similar types of goods to those on offer in Beales (Comfortmaker) two doors away.