Exhibition – planes trains and automobiles

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Planes, Trains and Automobiles
The latest exhibition at Abingdon Museum features trains that once ran on the Abingdon branch line,
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
planes that flew from RAF Abingdon,
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
and automobiles made at the Abingdon MG works. The exhibition has interesting display boards and a series of films about the different transports. I have not seen them all yet but found the film about the closure of the branch line very good.

The exhibition is from 7th January to 26th March 2023 on the museum’s first floor, up 37 steps. Find out more at https://www.abingdon.gov.uk/event/exhibition-planes-trains-automobiles-7-01-to-26-03-2023

Storm overflow interactive map

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Storm overflow interactive map
To stop streets and houses from flooding, storm overflows act as relief valves and allow extra wastewater from drains and sewers to flow untreated into rivers. A new storm overflow interactive map has been produced by Thames Water. The map can be viewed at https://www.thameswater.co.uk/edm-map, and this evening at 21:00, the map showed that storm overflow was happening upstream and downstream from Abingdon.
Storm overflow interactive map
I think the site monitored nearest to Abingdon is the one pictured near the Abingdon treatment works and was not discharging.

Thanks to Newcomer for letting me know about this from an article he read in the Guardian at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/05/interactive-map-shows-thames-water-raw-sewage-discharges-in-england-rivers.

Now for eleven months without

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Twelfth Night
At Preston Road Community Centre, we had three Christmas trees, one in the large hall, one in the hallway and one in the lounge. There were also foil ceiling decorations in three of the rooms.
Twelfth Night
Today was the time to take them all down and store them away. As I wound the long string of lights, I wondered about leaving instructions for unwinding. One wrong move and they can get into such a tangle.
Twelfth Night
The rooms have returned to a simpler state for the next eleven months.

A chain gang of Mayors

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Mayors
Inside the corridor leading to the Town Council offices are portraits of all Mayors of Abingdon since Ewart Hemmings in 1978.

254 members of Abingdon Town Council have been Mayor since the office began when Abingdon received a charter in 1556. 98 members have served more than one year. The first Mayor was Richard Mayotte in 1556, and he served on three occasions.
Mayors
Between 2012 and 2017, there were seven female Mayors in a row. Six of them have been displayed together on the wall.

The first female Mayor was Mrs Agnes Challenor from 1950-51. When first co-opted onto the council, she said, “I felt it such a golden opportunity for a woman to get on to the council that I accepted it”.
Mayors
Albert Earnest Tombs held the office of Mayor for the longest time, five consecutive terms between 1932 and 1937.
Mayors
He later received an O.B.E. for his work rehousing people in Abingdon from slums. Despite all his house building, I don’t think a road has been named after him.

Thomas Knight was Mayor ten times between 1800 and 1832. That is unlikely to be beaten as since 1953, it has become usual for members to only serve one year.

In 1645-1646 there were three Mayors due to the death of the first two in office.

(Thank you to Jackie for the picture and newspaper clipping of A.E. Tombs. Most of the information came from https://www.abingdon.gov.uk/town-council/your-mayor/mayors-abingdon-thames-1556 )