Shop Windows Displays in Abingdon remember November 1918

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A lot of the shop windows in Abingdon town centre have poppies and WWI displays as we near the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI on November 11th 2018.
November 1918
Gemini Hair and Robert Stanley Opticians  are displaying large poppies.
November 1918
Fat Face has the Abingdon WWI Roll of Honour, showing men from Bridge Street who served together with pictures of them and their families.
November 1918
The Abingdon Flower Club has a double display in the Community Free Space. On one side are poppies and military symbols;
November 1918
and on the other side is a reminder of the women’s suffrage movement, that led to women over the age of 30 who owned property getting the vote in 1918, together with all men over the age of 21.

What were you reading in November 1998?

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November 1998
The window display of the Bookstore in Bury Street, Abingdon has a big twenty because The Bookstore first opened in November 1998.

As always the Bookstore has a display of the latest range of books and cards to attract you inside.
November 1998
As well as books, maps, children’s books, gifts and jigsaws, and cards, there are Abingdon Christmas Cards.
November 1998
What were you reading in November 1998, when the Bookstore first opened?

Barnardo’s legacy in Abingdon

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Barnardos legacy
I don’t know why Barnardo’s don’t get a mention on the information boards, but I have read that in 1974 Bardardo’s gave a strip of land at the town end to Abingdon Town Council to help create the Ock Valley Walk. The Vale District Council owned the adjoining land which allowed the footpath we now know from St Helen’s Court to Drayton Road.
Barnardos legacy
Caldecott House was a Dr Barnardo’s home, housing about 35 boys and girls between 1952 and 1971, and about 35 boys from 1945 to 1952 so the strip of land was left over after the sale of the house, which was demolished to create the St Amand Drive Estate.
Barnardos legacy
Barnardo’s still have a Charity Shop in Abingdon at Peachcroft; and run after school and holiday clubs at Kingfisher School. They could also still run the Summerfield Resource Centre on the Wootton Road.

Remember Remember

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Remember Remember
This blurred image was taken during an evening’s walk in Abingdon this evening. There were lots of fireworks.

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
We see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

Guy Fawkes was a Catholic in the days when opinion was polarised between Catholics and Protestants. The fifth of November was set as a day to remember his attempt to blow up King and parliament and it has not been forgot.
Remember Remember
There have been attacks on the government and the Houses of Parliament since Guy Fawkes’ in 1605. A bomb exploded under the car of Airey Neave, the MP of the Abingdon, in 1979.