Abingdon Scout hut bird murals

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In the 2nd Abingdon Scout Group hut, there are bird murals painted on the walls by Jim Humphreys, a scout leader for many years. I saw Jim in town today and he mentioned the murals being shown on the internet by the Sunningwell School of Art, where he also paints. He gave me permission to borrow them for the Abingdon Blog.

Jim is a keen ornithologist and has done several birds including a Kingfisher

and an Osprey.

Jim is also one the Abingdon Guild of Town Criers, and part of the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers (normally as a fool) and a performer in the mummers’ plays.

Runaway Fair

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The Runaway Fair is the smaller fair, with children’s rides, on the Monday one week after the Michaelmas Fair.

The fair looked fairly busy today when children had finished school (see picture above).

It is called the runaway fair because:
a) children often runaway from school to go to the runaway fair.
b) adults used to runaway from employment taken at the Michaelmas hiring Fair and found new employment at the Runaway hiring fair.
c) a few childrens’ rides runaway from the main Michaelmas fair and come back to Abingdon.

Peregrine Falcon, Harvest and Baptism at Trinity

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Gareth, who is a keen bird watcher and works at Trinity Church, shared this picture taken by a resident in Conduit Road.

It shows a Peregrine Falcon on the steeple of Trinity Church.

In Trinity church today we had Harvest and the first Baptism since the start of lockdown. The harvest offering were not as big as usual and will be taken to the Asylum Welcome Food Bank in Oxford. The baby was carried round the church by Ian, the Minister, and slept through the whole event.

We hope the Peregrine Falcon will nest and make babies.