Spruce Up, Sing Out, Sew & Explore: More Things Happening in Abingdon!

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Spruce Dry Cleaning is back in business after a short break. This blog mentioned they were closed for a while. They’re open and ready to clean your clothes again!

Abingdon Passion Play Open Info Night: This Sunday, 7:45pm at Trinity Conduit Centre in Abingdon.

Lots of roles: Singers, backstage crew, stewards, helpers…even actors (they need more!). Help make the play a success! It’s happening June 22nd in the Abbey Gardens.

Sew with One Planet Abingdon! Join their sewing machine class, happening every other Tuesday. No experience is needed; perfect for beginners. Learn all the basics!

The next author event at Abingdon Library features local writer Peter Adamson talking about his book ‘Landmarks in Time – The World of Wittenham Clumps’. Tickets are limited, and early booking advised. Places may be reserved by email to Abingdon.library@oxfordshire.gov.uk or at the library counter. Tickets are £2 and include a welcome drink.

Join Agnostics Anonymous this Tuesday, February 6th, from 6pm to 7:30pm at St. Helen’s Parish Centre.

Local speaker John Barton will be asking the question: “Do you have to believe everything in the Bible to be a Christian?”

This event is open to anyone curious about faith, doubt, and what it means to be Christian.

Spot the difference

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Abingdon High Street, from a postcard, dated Oct 9 – 1905. The message says ‘Dear Hilda, I hope you will like this one fore your collection this street is full up with the fair this morning. With much love from Louis.’ It shows Cheapside House above what is now Howden Insurance (corrected).

Abingdon High Street 2024. Can you spot any differences?

P.S. Click here to see how other City Daily Photo bloggers illustrate the theme of “street corner.”

Abingdon Library’s Windows and Beyond

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Built between 1973 and 1977, Abingdon library is part of The Charter, originally devised as the Broad Street North Redevelopment scheme, while Abingdon Borough was still in existence. (Abingdon’s local authorities all changed in 1974). The Charter, when finished, was run jointly by Oxfordshire County Council and the new Vale of White Horse District Council. It housed the library, medical centre, doctor’s surgery, social services, pensioners’ day centre, and a multi-storey car park.

The charter has dark red bricks, a variety of grey slate roofs , walkways on different levels, and plantings of trees and bushes.

The library also a view towards Poundland and Broad Street.

Another window has a view towards the decorative wall that holds The Charter foundation stone (1973) and the official opening stone (1977). The wall looks like part of an old castle, possibly a reminder of 1556  – the original Abingdon Borough Charter.

Saturday’s Holocaust Memorial Day

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The Monday Market came back to life after last Monday’s winds. No more missing canvas covers or missing stalls, just people doing their shopping and chatting.

But the flag above County Hall … was it missing? Half-mast maybe? As I looked, the white flag lifted a little, and at first, I thought it said “World Women’s Day.”

Ah, but no! The flag must have been put up for Saturday’s Holocaust Memorial Day.

On January 27th, the world remembers the horrors of the Holocaust. This day was established by the United Nations in 2005.

It marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi concentration camp where millions of people were murdered during World War II.

It remembers the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, as well as the millions of other victims of Nazi persecution, including Romani people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and people with disabilities. There were two Jehovah’s Witnesses with their trolley of leaflets beside the Market Place, and during the day on the Market Place, many jews, people of Romani descent, homosexuals and people with disabilities.