Scouts seen packing bags in Tesco in return for small change

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Thanks to the Mayor for this report …
Boundary Walk
“36 young people from Oxfordshire will be attending the 22nd World Jamboree in Sweden next summer. Jamboree’s are huge camps with Scouts attending from nearly every country on earth. Lord Baden Powell intended them to foster good relations between countries and promote peace. They’re great fun and they can change young peoples lives, I know, I attended one in Korea in 1991. Today they have been packing bags at tesco in return for small change. If you’d like to help you can also become a Jamboree mate. For a donation of £10 you will be informed of the contingent progress and even get a post card from Sweden.

Ahoy me hearties, boundary walk, fun in the parks , a bottle o’rum, and a dead man’s chest

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Martin Smith led the two hour walk round the Abingdon 1556 Boundaries starting at 11:30 this morning. Martin has been leading the boundary walk since 2006. The 1556 Abingdon boundary was written with no map and is described with very little punctuation, mentioning many features that are difficult to interpret. For example…

“… and from thence by and through another publick way a little turning towards the North untill you come to a certain Crooked little Ditch inclining towards the East, which said little Ditch together with the aforesaid publick way…”

so Martin does very well to find his way round every year.
Boundary Walk
Next on today was fun in the parks. As always Abingdon Operatic Society were dressed up to publicise their next production… The Pirates of Penzanze (Mon 25th to Sat 30th October).

But more to the point, shiver me timbers, there are only a few days left to practise your pirate lingo as the International Talk like a Pirate Day is on September 19th, a chance to unleash you inner buccaneer me hearties.
Boundary Walk
This group were from Headington in Oxford, and the young lad was very excited to hear he would be appearing on the Abingdon Blog. He asked me to make sure it was on so he could watch it when he got home. Fame at last.

Fun in the parks ended with the traditional tug-a-war – children against the adults. At one stage it looked even stevens.

The compere then said ‘we need more children‘ and as in every other year the children won easily in the end.

Heritage Day 2010 – Simply Fabulous Competition Result

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Heritage Day 2010 Shop Windows
42 shops took part in Heritage Day showing something of their own history. On the premises of Oxfam a company once sold coal and flour.

John Alder kept a small alehouse in Stert Street, where Mason’s wool shop now is. In 1867 he spent the money for the brewer’s bill to purchase a state lottery ticket, and won £20,000 (a huge amount back then) and became a great public benefactor. There is a blue plaque to his memory above the shop.
Heritage Day 2010 Shop Windows
David May contributed a display of Mays from a small shop to a larger shop and then an out of town carpet superstore. The pictures are currently in Added Ingredients.

The Newbury building society had a timeline of the society and also showed how their premises in West St Helen Street was a wool shop in 1960s.
Heritage Day 2010 Shop Windows
The Honey Pot had pictures of days gone by hung up in front of the fresh flowers.

But my favorite was another flower shop. Fabulous flowers once sold bikes and motorcycles. But today for one day, mixed in between the flowers, were oil cans, rusty engine parts, and the assistants were wearing overalls. Simply Fabulous!

Thanks to Hester Hand and Bobbie Nichols who arranged the shop heritage competition. 3 people managed to identify 41 out of 42 shops

1. Georgina Arnold

2. Rosemary Green

3. The Terry Family

but Georgina was the only one to answer the tie-breaker question:
‘Where was the hotel where you couldn’t get an alcoholic drink?’ and so got the prize.

Heritage Day 2010 – run entirely by volunteers who give their time and enthusiasm

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Heritage Day 2010
A few weeks ago I was asked for some picture to go into a couple of local magazines to publicise Heritage Day. I sent them a variety of pictures. Both magazines chose this one of Peter Gent and Lorraine Oates as their main picture. The costumes came from Centre Stage who were in Bath Street and are now in Coxeters.

Centre Stage still had those outfits and so I got them again. Lorraine redid her Anne Boleyn, but Peter Gent is not as fit nowadays, and so somebody else filled in during Heritage Day 2010. Here they are with a new Abingdon tradition – the Ashnah Belly Dancers.

The pictures I took this year don’t really represent the day very well but thanks to the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers who always help to make the day.

Ruth Cross from the Guildhall did a fantastic job. Her family are into steam engines and artifacts from the recent past and there was much to see from them. There was also displays by the Berks and Wilts Canal celebrating 200 years of the canal. They had walks, talks, and boat trips.
Heritage Day 2010
As usual the Country Market with cakes and jam were at the Guildhall, in the old rooms which are some of the most precious in Abingdon.

The Chair of the Vale was in her parlour to be photographed with all comers.

MGs from the MG Car club were on the Market place. But now I find I have no pictures of all the other open properties. The Merchants house had around 600 visitors. The museum gave up counting those who visited the pump room.

Many thanks to everybody who helped. This is a big community event run entirely by volunteers who give their time and enthusiasm.