Abingdon Urban Race 2023

Leave a reply


The Thames Valley Orienteering Club returned to Abingdon to run the Abingdon Urban Race today Sunday, September 24th.

Over 200 competitors participated in the event, which saw them navigate a series of checkpoints around the town using maps.

The race started in the Abbey Gardens, with different course maps available, and different age categories. Competitors could be seen running through the town’s streets, parks, and alleys, clutching their maps and searching for their next checkpoint. They last orienteered Abingdon in 2017.

What is Orienteering?
The aim is to navigate between checkpoints on a special orienteering map. There is no set route so the skill and fun come from trying to find the best way to go.

In competitive orienteering, the challenge is to complete the course in the quickest time.

See https://tvoc.org.uk/ to find out more.

A wild ride

1 Reply


I saw this new post box topper on the Market Place this evening. It’s a sign that autumn is coming, and it’s been a really rainy week. The puddles on the roads have been growing and shrinking and growing and shrinking again and again from all the rain.

The previous topper, which I didn’t write about then, showed pupils returning to school at the beginning of the month. Then, all the problems with RAAC concrete started. One Abingdon school closed in the first week because they might have had some RAAC but didn’t. Then another Abingdon school discovered they did have RAAC and closed the week after. I didn’t know what RAAC concrete was before this month, but I do now. RAAC is a lightweight form of precast concrete, frequently used in public sector buildings in the UK from the mid-1960s to the 1990s. It was invented in Sweden in the 1930s and has limited durability, and must be monitored. As should most concrete. I don’t expect the multi-storey to have a RAAC problem, but it has been partially closed for a long time now.

Autumn will bring a lot more shocks and thrills. For one thing Abingdon Street Fair posters have been let down in empty shops as a reminder that Autumn could be a wild ride.

Historic Abingdon Landmark on the market

5 Replies


The Friends of the Abbey Buildings Trust have put the former curator’s house on the market. The house located at Checker Walk (incorporating 18 Thames Street) is grade II listed and is thought to be of 16th-century origins and much restored. The front downstairs room was also used as a changing room for the Unicorn Theatre and the office of the Friends of Abingdon but is not generally open to the public.

The sale of the house is an opportunity for someone to own an Abingdon landmark. For sale details see https://www.thomasmerrifield.co.uk/properties/12119143-checker-walk-incorporating-18-thames-street-abingdon-on-thames/.

This could be to release funds towards the enhancement project to make the next-door Grade I listed Abbey Buildings fully accessible, weather-tight and with adequate modern services to allow for all-year use.  The Abbey Buildings project was granted round one development funding of £256,000 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, allowing it to progress with its enhancement plans towards National Lottery Heritage Fund second round funding, where a final decision is made on the full funding award of £2,500,000.

The Abbey Buildings were acquired by the Friends of Abingdon in the 1940s.