Abingdon Artists Spring Exhibition

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The Abingdon Artists Spring Exhibition shows work from around 50 artists. Co-chair Jonathan Leach praised the impressive breadth and depth of work on display. The exhibition runs from Monday, 10th March, to Saturday, 15th March, at St Helen’s Church.

Cllr. Alison Rooke, Honorary President of Abingdon Artists and Chair of Oxfordshire County Council, attended the exhibition and enjoyed viewing the artwork.

Marion Owen is pictured with three of her paintings, among the many pieces on display. Each artist can submit up to three works.

In addition to artwork and cards, visitors can enter a raffle to win Spring Fever, a Chinese ink and watercolour painting by Tricia Wormald. Depicting a rooster — a symbol of prosperity and bravery in Chinese culture — the piece is inspired by the artist’s two decades of keeping chickens.

Tesco Works: What’s Changing?

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On arriving at the Tesco Superstore in Abingdon, visitors are now met with blue fencing enclosing large areas of vegetation.

The fencing surrounds the trees, bushes, and undergrowth, as well as the deep water storage areas and ditches.

In the area with a ditch between Tesco and the new hotel, the undergrowth and smaller trees have been cut back and chipped.

The fencing carries signs saying: “Building Infrastructure Improvement – Improving your environment for the better.” However, no details have been provided in what way it will be better.

Clearing vegetation will make the site more accessible for further development. As no planning applications are visible, my first guess is that this is a drainage improvement project — to try to reduce the frequent flooding of the Tesco car park.

But if anybody knows better then please let us know.

Next Week in Abingdon: Art, Music, and a Quiz

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Featuring another of Abingdon’s many notice boards — this one is outside Pedal Power in the Vineyard. Here are some of the upcoming events that caught my eye in the next week. There should be plenty of time to get on your bike for these events.

The Abingdon Artists Spring Exhibition is at St Helens Church from Monday 10th March to Saturday 15th March.  This is a show of recent works by many local artists. There will be original artwork and cards for sale and daily demonstrations.

On Saturday 8th March at 7:30 PM at St Helen’s Church the Abingdon & District Musical Society have a concert featuring:
Beethoven – Leonora No. 3 Overture
Dvorak – Violin Romance in F minor (Kate Bailey)
Brahms – Symphony No. 4 in E minor.

There will be a Charity Quiz Night supporting the Nasio Trust on Thursday 13th March at the Loose Cannon Brewery. For £4 per person you can test your knowledge for a local good cause.

The Abingdon Concert Band will be performing on Saturday 15th March and will introduce David Batsman as the Twelfth Musical Director (the 11th regeneration). The programme features music from Doctor Who, Star Trek (John Williams), Vaughan Williams, Nigel Hess, The Greatest Showman, and more.

If you’re reading this after March 15th, 2025, don’t worry — time may have slipped away and unless you are Doctor Who you won’t be able to get it back, but there is always more to come in Abingdon.

Wooden Bridges in Need of Repair

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Walking by the River Ock today, I noticed that three of the wooden footbridges had issues.

The first bridge had damaged railings, which had already been reported on Fix My Street. Both the district and county councils have been informed. However, responsibility for this weir bridge lies between two sections of the Ock Valley Walk, with one section managed by the town council and the other by the Vale of White Horse District Council.

The second bridge has been fastened with orange barriers, a temporary fix that is functional but not attractive.

The third bridge is missing a slat, which isn’t immediately obvious when walking across. I reported that on fix my street. There was not a category for ‘foot bridges’ so I reported it as ‘other’.

FixMyStreet is the project of a registered charity mySociety which has grown out of the community of volunteers who built sites like TheyWorkForYou.com.

Hopefully, repairs will be made soon before somebody falls through.