Fire at District Council Offices

39 Replies

About 9 months ago the Vale of White Horse District Council (VWHDC) moved a lot of their staff out of Abbey House in Abingdon to offices at Crowmarsh Gifford – home of South Oxfordshire District Council, as part of a closer collaboration between the councils to save money. The space they released at Abbey House was then used by Oxfordshire County Council.
Blaze in District Council Offices
It was a shock to see those joint offices in flames on 15th Jan 2015. Two other buildings were also set alight, and a local resident arrested for arson.

Nobody appears to have been hurt.
Blaze in District Council Offices
Meanwhile, there were many comings and goings at Abbey House in Abingdon. An early police presence made people speculate that it too might come under attack.

Core people were moved to ‘hot desks’ at Abbey House. And we were told:

  • Services such as recycling and leisure run by external contractors would carry on as usual
  • Council Tax payments could be paid as usual.
  • Emergency services such as people made homeless, or dangerous structures needing inspecting, could contact the council number – the Abbey House number.

Most council employees were asked to work from home until desks were available.

Residents who wanted to contact the council, with non urgent matters, were asked to delay for a  few days until people and systems are back in place.
Blaze in District Council Offices
The sale by VWHDC of Old Abbey House (next door) was delayed because of a community challenge a few months ago. The delay was to give time for bids for community use to come forward. The Vale’s empty properties, like this, may get used again, bringing more Council employees back to Abingdon for a while.

Wildwood could be moving to Abingdon

16 Replies

Andy emailed me to say …
Wildwoods Menu
It looks like a restaurant chain are interested in the old New Look shop. They could also use upstairs, and knock through into Hallmark cards – whose future is currently under consideration.

The planning application for a change of use to a restaurant is Vale of White Horse application P15/V0055/FUL. (VWHDC website not currently working 15/01/2015 possibly because of the fire at the council offices in Crowmarsh)

The company is called Tasty Plc. They have two chains: Wildwood and Dim T.

There are already a number of restaurants in Abingdon, and more planned at the Old Gaol, but none in the Market Place / Bury Street area.

The large hedge, hiding the college, could soon be coming down

6 Replies

Abingdon College
External refurbishment of the Abingdon and Witney College D Block is nearing completion.
Abingdon College
The large hedge, hiding the college, could soon be coming down.

A lot of the rest of the college has already been rebuilt or refurbished. There is a fairly new art block; and more recently engineering buildings, and a vehicle maintenance workshop have been added.
Abingdon College
I found a picture of The North Berkshire College of Further Education, as it was called in 1967, on the ATV Television archive site.

The Short Film shows some mums doing an introduction to teaching course; and Mr Comely, the first ever college principal – appointed in 1963 – being interviewed about the course.

Mr Comely retired from the college in 1986, and then became a governor.

The College was renamed as Abingdon College after Abingdon was moved into Oxfordshire in 1974. Then in 2001 the college merged with Witney College to become Abingdon and Witney College. And the hedge has kept growing.

New Proprietor at 15 High Street (West Side)

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15 High Street
Work has begun to fit out the shop making up the west side of 15 High Street, in Abingdon.

15 High Street was The Lion Hotel until the mid 1940s. The premises was wide enough to make 2 or 3 large shops with restaurant or offices above. The west side of number 15 became Woolworths until about 1970. Since then it has been a Home Charm Ltd, Texas Discount Store, FADS, B-Wise and lately QC.

The new shop proprietor, called ‘Savers’, say on their web site “we aim to be the most competitively priced health & beauty products and household goods retailer on the High Street.”
15 High Street
They are recruiting: Sales Assistant and Assistant Manager.