FA Cup Final in Abingdon

Mooring at the Thames in Abingdon, and adjusting the aerial to get better reception. This chap tweeked the aerial five or six times, until eventually disappearing inside for good. Still it was the best FA Cup Final for years. West Ham 3 Liverpool 3.

FA Cup Final in Abingdon

Mooring at the Thames in Abingdon, and adjusting the aerial to get better reception. This chap tweeked the aerial five or six times, until eventually disappearing inside for good. Still it was the best FA Cup Final for years. West Ham 3 Liverpool 3.

Cross Party Hospital Campaign

Town Councillors were taking it in turns to man this table outside Waitrose. This was a cross party campaign organised by the Mayor.

They were collecting signatures on their campaign to save Abingdon Community Hospital from being downgraded.People do worry that it offers a prime site for development, and people are worried that with the local PCTs (Primary Care Trusts) being in such a poor financial position, could see the site as a money spinner.

One man lamented that everything got sold off in Abingdon. Soon every building would be private. He remembered Abingdon in the 1960s having its own Concert Hall at the Corn Exchange. Now concerts took place at the Amey Theatre owned by the private Abingdon School.

One elderly lady remembered when the current hospital served as an isolation unit in the 20s and 30s, and another hospital in the Warren was for general nursing. She said she had lived in Abingdon all her life, as had her parents, and considered herself to be an Abingdonian through and through. Abingdon had always had a hospital, and a town like this should always continue to have one.

Spinning the wheel of Trade Justice

On the Market Place I span this wheel to see how trade justice treated the winners and losers. Apparently, I am very well treated by world trade, and consequently a winner, wheras people in some of the developing countries are losers.

St Nicolas

The church of St Nicolas, next to the Market Place, is one of the oldest buildings in the town and one of the few remaining from Abingdon Abbey. The church was used by lay people connected to the Abbey, and dates from 1170 AD. The doorway has round norman arches.

In the 15th Century, the Abbey rebuilt the Abbey Gateway, which you can see alongside , and also added the church tower.

In the North Wall of the church this narrow lancet window survives from the original 1170 church.

You can see how thick the wall is, and how dimly the church would have been lit by such narrow windows.

Other windows have been replaced in later styles to let in more light.

The communion table was at one time the dining table of John Blacknall, an important benefactor of the church. The eagle was his motif, and the initials IB are on the bottom of each leg (latin has no letter J. The letter I is = J. Therefore IB probably stands for Ioannes (John) Blacknall.)

In the screened off vestry area beside the alter can be seen this carving, thought to have been rescued after the destruction of the Abbey. It depicts the crucifiction of Jesus Christ.

For a long time St Nicolas has been kept open for people who wish to go in and pray, or escape to a quiet place. However, it is now only opened when there is a volunteer to supervise. This is because, last year the organ was vandalised, causing £2,000 of damage. The lady who was supervising gave me a guided tour, and pointed out all the features pictured here. I hope I haven't got too much mixed up.

On the choir stalls, etched into the wood, are various images of Green Men - a pagan image that the victorians liked and associated with resurrection. A Green Man is also to be found at St Helens.

Do You Recognise this Desk?

Its the reception at Abingdon and Witney College.

Co-op Redesign

A plan of the proposed redevelopment of the Abingdon Co-op site has been published by McLennan Architects, working for the Midcounties Co-op. The new plans differ significantly from the original plans that initiated public opposition and protests. I added the sunshine and the sign.

twere well It were done quickly

For anybody who likes to make a bit of a drama out of buying new shoes, there is a shoeshop called Lady McBeth in West St Helens Street.

Passing the shop at the dark of night one could imagine getting some Kicker trainers from the store:

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly"

A Green Mayor

This evening Abingdon Town Council elected a new Mayor. The gallery of previous mayors are in Old Abbey House. The ceremony to install the Mayor took place before an audience collected at the Guildhall at 7 PM.

This year Peter Green (pictured) became the Mayor. Peter is a retired RAF man who settled in Abingdon twenty years ago. He already devotes a lot of time to Abingdon. His wife Hilary Green was the Mayor three years ago. Peter said he is green by name and green by nature (environmentally).

Abbey Fish Ponds

When you cut through from Audlett Drive, there are many Cudlesacs. The looping branching roads lead nowhere for road traffic. But on foot it is a different matter. You can avoid the culdesacs and go via The Abbey Fish Ponds.

The Abbey Fish Ponds nature reserve is looked after by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT). The sign says that the earthworks were built to contain the fishponds in 1320 and should be treated with care, and that dogs should be kept on a short lead because of the grazing wildlife. As you can tell by the weaved fence it is a green area where conservation volunteers work. The nature reserve helps to conserve the fishpond banks.

This small steam may have supplied some of the water for the ponds. It runs the length of the nature reserve, from the Radley Road to Audlett Drive. The fishponds have been left as a rather boggy oasis among all the houses that surround.

At some places the dry reeds from last year surround areas of water, but none of them deep enough to host the carp that the monks kept to supply the Abbey with food.

You would have thought from this picture taken from the bank of the fishponds that you were in the countryside, but you are surrounded by recent housing estates in the town of Abingdon. So thanks to some old fishponds there are green areas to walk, where wildlife can thrive.

Borough Trophies

Before the local government reorganisation in 1974, Abingdon was a borough - which meant one local Council - not three. More local power, and less local confusion.

This garden in Saxton Road has a trophy from those days.

This drain cover says "Borough of Abingdon."

Behind this wysteria you may just about be able to SPY Borough of Abingdon on Thames. It's a very faded Broad Street sign.

Nice-to-have-trophies. But those times have gone.

Sustran Route 5

The Hanson Way is a cycle route connecting Didcot, Abingdon, and Oxford, and is part of a larger national route. It is made up of stretches of specially built paths, made by Sustrans. It was financed by money generated by the landfill tax, as a millenium project.

This sign guides the cycle path through the Abbey grounds. The path makes up part of the National Cycle Network route 5. There are 6 main routes in England, which follow a convention like road naming. Route 5 runs from Reading up through Birmingham to Chester and then along the North Wales coast to Holyhead.

The path follows the mill stream, then a blue sign says "Cyclists Dismount" to cross over the bridge.

There were more people out walking their dogs than cyclists, but here are a couple of not too serious cyclists on their way back into town.

Fresh vegetation surrounds the path. Stinging nettles and cow parsley grow up behind a seat made from interlocking railway sleepers.

The cycle path continues with the Barton fields nature reserve on one side, and the Science park the other, then parallel to Thrupp Lane and past Radley Lakes.

Sad end to football season

I do understand how football can be more important than everything else from past experience. Here is Jim Smith, the new Oxford United manager, near the end of yesterday's 3-2 defeat by Leyton Orient. Orient celebrated their promotion to League division 1, and Oxford were relegated to the conference league. 'Gutted!' is the word I think Jim is portraying here.

As to the Abingdon teams: Abingdon United finished in third place in the Hellenic League Premier division, and Abingdon Town were near the bottom of the same league, but having had a reasonable last few games to get them out of danger of relegation.