WW1 War Memorial Tour

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War Memorial Tour
On Saturday, 3rd November 2018 between 10:00 – 15:00 Mr Hemmings Traditional Abingdon  Morris Dancers will be visiting the war memorials of local villages remembering the end of WW1 in which many local Morris men made the ultimate sacrifice.
War Memorial Tour
Morris Dancing had a revival in the years before WWI but then according to Mr Hemmings web site there is no record of dancing during the war, and it was another twenty years until dancing in public became a regular event.  Joe Hemmings from 123 Ock Street, of the  Ock Street Morris Men,  was killed in action  at Contalmaison, France in February 1916.

Abingdon Artists Exhibition – Autumn 2018

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Abingdon Artists Exhibition
Abingdon Artists had an exhibition last week in the barn next to the Barns Cafe at Christchurch. There were pictures on a variety of themes and locations. The Abingdon Herald has a feature in this week’s paper: Eclectic exhibition as Abingdon artists given free rein.

Here are the pictures where I could identify Abingdon landmarks …
Abingdon Artists Exhibition
County Hall – by John Rawling
Abingdon Artists Exhibition
Abingdon Bridge – by Mike Brain
Abingdon Artists Exhibition
Old Gaol and Bridge Street roofs – By Caroline Harben
Abingdon Artists Exhibition
St Helen’s Wharf and Abingdon Bridge – by Barbara Payne

To find out more about Abingdon Artists visit www.abingdonartists.org.uk.

Abingdon Poppy Festival

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Poppy Festival
Sea cadets
Poppy Festival
and Army cadets were in Abingdon today, with stalls on the Market Place, and selling poppies in the town centre.
Poppy Festival
The Mayor, Councillor Margaret Crick, and Ena Mitchell, a war widow now aged 100, were also there to support the event.
Poppy Festival
Clare, who organised the selling of poppies in Abingdon and the festival, is seen with Richard, from the MG Car Club, who invited along some red MGs.
Poppy Festival
That included a 1966 MG Magnette, specially decorated with silhouettes and poppies. The owners, Jeremy and Judith, from Aylesbury told me that the MG Magnette has done 55,000 miles in all that time.
Poppy Festival
The display case at Abingdon Library has a leaflet from the Signing of the Armistice in 1918.
Poppy Festival
2018 is the centenary of the end of World War I, and 5000 of the poppies sold this year in Abingdon have 1918-2018 printed on the leaves.

Wood Carvers in the Community Free Space

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Wood Carvers
In the Community Free Space members of the Oxon & Bucks Branch of the British Woodcarvers Association were still hard at work after the other shops around them had closed. The club was formed in May 2005 by a group of enthusiastic amateur carvers together with tutor Brian Eastoe.
Wood Carvers
As in previous years visitors are invited to see the craftsmen at work, see some of their finished works, and vote on the favorite work created in the last year. They will also be in the Community Free Space tomorrow (Saturday 27th October). There is also a Poppy Festival on the Market Place.
Wood Carvers
I then went to the library and on the way up the stairs took a picture of the panel that the wood carvers designed for the 450th anniversary of the Abingdon Charter in 2006.