The Unicorn School is growing


Builders are adding a new part to The Unicorn School in the old Premier Inn on Marcham Road in Abingdon. The Unicorn School helps students who learn differently, like those with dyslexia.

There is scaffolding outside the old hotel and builders are working inside, changing the hotel rooms into classrooms. They are putting in strong supports made of wood and steel, and adding a lift.

The Unicorn School, across the road, is already full and has 120 students. Lots of other students want to go to the school. Every year, 350 families ask for a place, but there are only 20 places.

The school bought the old Premier Inn and restaurant after the hotel moved to a new building near Tesco in Abingdon.

The building work will happen in two stages:

Stage 1 (Premier Inn changes – £2.4 million): This will add new classrooms for 120 more students. These classrooms will be ready for students to use in September 2025.

Stage 2 (Ock Mill changes – £2 million): This will add places for students over 16 to learn job skills. These places will be ready in 2026 and will help another 100 students.

If you want to know more about the new building and how you can help? Go to the website: https://www.unicornoxford.co.uk/support-us/ockmill/

Work Resumes at Abingdon’s Cattle Market Car Park


In Abingdon’s Cattle Market car park, fences once again surround the site, and machinery lifts the old asphalt.

The works were delayed after uncovering something far older than the car park and the cattle market that was on the site. Archaeologists identified layers of Medieval and Roman deposits, including pottery fragments. Human burials were found beneath the site, and the remains of a stone wall, possibly a former Bell Tower once recorded nearby.

The work has resumed to improve the car park, a project funded by Thames Water and managed by Vale of White Horse District Council. The planned improvements include resurfacing, a new layout, new lighting, and a rain garden to manage rainwater runoff and improve the carpark’s biodiversity.

The improvements are expected to be completed by March 2025.

Water Leak : Quiet Street


It has been quiet today in the Back Street (West St Helen Street), with none of the usual buzz of traffic. A Road Closed sign by the iron bridge has diverted most vehicles elsewhere.

The water leak started on Thursday, worsening through Friday and Saturday. Today, a Thames Water van and a lorry-mounted drill arrived to dig a hole.

I took this picture when work paused temporarily when a tool — possibly an angle grinder — broke and needed replacing. The hole bubbled with water, and there was a stream – a metre wide – running down the road. The team resumed work shortly afterwards. They turned off the water at a stopcock, pumped out the water, and clamped the pipe.

Water Table Signs Explained


The Stop the Reservoir signs, seen in the villages surrounding the proposed SESRO reservoir site,

are now appearing in Abingdon town centre.

They raise concerns about the reservoir’s impact, particularly the potential rise in the water table – up to one metre.

Explaining the Water table rise of one metre, the Gard site says, ‘On February 13th 2024 Thames Water gave a presentation on Flooding and SESRO  to Oxfordshire County Council, District Councils and other stakeholders . Its engineer from Mott MacDonald clearly stated that the Reservoir if constructed would cause a 1.0 metre rise in Groundwater level, requiring considerable ‘mitigation’. For the villages of East Hanney and Steventon this would greatly worsen existing flood conditions.’

The UK government has approved the construction of a £1.2 billion reservoir near Abingdon as part of a national water management plan. Local councils and community groups oppose the project, citing environmental concerns and lack of public consultation, and have initiated legal action.