24 Hours Carol Singing Marathon – Long Furlong Community Centre – while mortals sleep

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Starting on Friday (yesterday) at Noon there has been a 24 Hours Carol Singing Marathon at Long Furlong Community Centre. Lots of groups have taken part … including Long Furlong School, regular choirs, the U 9s Football club, the 3rd Abingdon Guides.

Just before midnight The Street Pastors sang. After midnight followed 2 Dirty Dancing Ladies, then Swedish Lucia …

Into the small hours as frost formed outside there were late night turns …
24 Hours Carol Singing Marathon
2am …
24 Hours Carol Singing Marathon
3am …
24 Hours Carol Singing Marathon
4am …
24 Hours Carol Singing Marathon
5am …

24 Hours Carol Singing Marathon
In the final 30 minutes from 11:30am to noon there was a big finale with many people coming to the final carols. About 1200 people took part during the 24 hours.

They raised money for The Archway Foundation and Blue Sky Thinking. Find out more on their facebook page.

Abingdon Post Boxes (V.R to E.R)

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Abingdon’s first pillar box was erected on Ock Street on August 6th 1857 (According to The Postal History of Abingdon by G H R Homer-Wooff).
Abingdon Post Boxes
There is still a pillar box on Ock Street, at the front of the Royal Mail sorting office, but the initials E.R. for Elizabeth Regina show that it was put there after 1953 – the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Back in 1894 the Abingdon Directory shows that there were half a dozen post boxes in Abingdon:

  • Ock Street – Pillar Box
  • Park – Wall Box
  • St Helens Wharf – Wall Box
  • Vineyard – Wall Box
  • Northcourt – Wall Box
  • West End – Wall Box

Abingdon Post Boxes
Two of those wall boxes from the reign of Queen Victoria have survived:

St Helen’s Wharf…
Abingdon Post Boxes
and Conduit Road.
Abingdon Post Boxes
The latest Abingdon post box can be found inside the West St. Helen Street Co-op. It is made from shiney molded plastic, and looks like an oversized toy.

Status Trophies Sadly Missed

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Status Trophies
Cathy’s Sandwich Bar on Ock Street is where Mega Bonus once was. Status Trophies has closed. Audrey’s Flower Shop is now flats.
Status Trophies
In the Status Trophies’ window, with the blue screens, is a notice about the shops’s closure from a while back. They are missed by me and I am sure by others.

Reducing the Risk of Flooding

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The Abingdon Herald features three Abingdon Flood Prevention schemes which have a better chance of going ahead now that central government has promised an extra £2.3 billion towards improving flood defenses.

There is some information about these projects from the Environment Agency at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/programme-of-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-schemes .
Risk of Flooding
The most significant project would be the River Ock Flood Storage Area. That must mean holding water the other side of the A34 and releasing it more slowly. The project still needs a detailed business case, and funding agreement with partners. It could reduce the risk of flooding for 240 houses at a cost of £3.42m. Earliest start of construction would be 2016 to 2018. (Pictures from Ock Street, Drayton Road and near Caldecott Road in July 2007)

Alleviation for flooding of 2 properties by the River Stert, in Abingdon, could go ahead much sooner at a cost of £140K. The third Abingdon project would be a wall by St Helen’s Mill to protect 10 households from the River Ock – costing £0.57m.

The £42 million for the Oxford Western Conveyance is more complex, and has an earliest start of construction from 2018 to 2021.