Age Concern, in Abingdon, have joined up with Help The Aged to become age uk.
And the news from the age uk website today is that …
Workers will be allowed to continue in their jobs after the age of 65 under a Government pledge to scrap the ability of firms to force employees out at retirement age. (If you can a job after age 35 that is.)
The practice of ‘bed-blocking’, keeping older people in hospital because of a lack of adequate after-care, is liable to get worse as council funding gets cut.
The latest newsletter from the Abingdon based architects West Waddy ADP is a history of some of the buildings they have been involved with. As an example …
St Nicolas school – formerly Boxhill Church of England School –
and Ward 1 of Abindon Community hospital were both designed by them about 1930. I am sure they both looked equally elegant when first built.
At Boxhill Recreation Ground there are three football pitches used by the boys, and girls, of St Edmunds Football Club.
Round the pitch area are four dogbins, the highest concentration of dogbins anywhere in Abingdon.
There are also three notices – including this one next to the Workhouse wall – requesting
“DOG OWNERS
PLEASE EXERCISE YOUR
DOGS AROUND THE EDGE
OF THE FIELD
DO NOT USE THE PITCH AREA”
But before every match or practice the pitches need to be cleared of dog pooh so the children can play football there.
This picture is taken at the junction of Boxhill Walk and the Wootton Road. The recent snow and ice have taken off the surface to reveal what look like layers of concrete beneath.
In the housing estates, and the early dual carriageways, of the 1960s I remember seeing roads made from large concrete slabs with joins between. I suppose they got ashphalted over. Concrete roads are far less common now.