Spring Festival

This years Spring Festival had a Tudor theme, since Queen Mary Tudor granted Abingdon a charter 450 years ago.

The town Crier announced that the spring festival opened the season of Abingdon in Bloom.

Children from Dunmore Infant School did the traditional Maypole dance

The Morris Men were also dancing,

and can been seen pictured with Peter Green, the new Mayor

Morning Deliveries

The first picture is the Royal Mail sorting office on Ock Street. A lot of the postmen and women start their day early to get the main round finished by midday. They sometimes get complaints from people who expect their post delivered before leaving to work at 8:30 or 9.

Before the round starts they have to sort their letters and packages into bundles. So the day can start at 4 or 4:30.

Most use bikes and colourful jackets. This picture is taken from Tower Close looking to Ock Street.

The milkman also starts his day early. This van is turning from Victoria Road into Bostock Road. Far fewer people take milk deliveries than ten years ago.

The Tompkins Family

OThis stone building at St Helens Wharf is now known as Fellows Court (or 60 East St Helens Street), and serves as offices for West Waddy, a well established Abingdon architect. But for a time in the 1700s the wharfside building was Tomkins Malthouse.

The Tomkins family, as well as being maltsters were also builders and bankers. A number of notable buildings by the Tomkins family are listed in Pepys visit to Abingdon.

One member of this family, Mr. Benjamin Tomkins, departed this life on May the 1st 1732, and bequeathed money to set up alms houses for four men and four women.

The interesting difference about the Tomkins Almshouses on Ock Street, when compared to the older Almshouses near St Helens Church, was the Mr Tomkins stipulated they were "FOR BENEFIT OF POOR DISSENTERS OF ABINGDON AND FOR BAPTIST MINISTERS." The Tomkins were also well known baptists.

Big Brother

On the Icons of England Website you can nominate and vote for the Icon that best represents modern England, and among others nominations is CCTV. Britain is the most watched country in the world.

These cameras mounted on a disproportionally-large large-green posts may give the impression that George Orwell's 1984 has arrived. However Big Brother doesn't get it all his own way.


There are procedures to be followed.

The use of surveillance cameras is limited by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act. The district council have this large public document detailing CCTV procedures.

1.1.4 The use of CCTV in the Vale is considered a necessary and suitable tool to help achieve a reduction in crime, reduce the fear of crime and improve public safety....

2.3.3 None of the cameras forming part of the System will be installed in a covert manner....

4.1.2 Cameras will not be used to look into private residential property....

Signs will be placed in the locality of the cameras. The signs will indicate:
i) The presence of CCTV monitoring;
ii) The 'ownership' of the system;
iii) Contact telephone number of the 'data controller' of the system....

Tesco Car Park Changes

A little while back, Tesco in Abingdon redesigned their car park. The main exit and entrance became two-way. Tesco revamped the car park in response to customer comments such as:

"We stopped shopping at Tesco. We couldn't get the wheelchair near the car door."

"We stopped shopping at Tesco. My car kept getting bashed by children opening car doors."

Tesco also added coloured zones to help people like me who get confused by the scale of the place.

They put in trolley park covers to keep half the trolleys dry.

They also fenced off an area for parent and child, and disabled parking, and painted it blue with yellow stripes. To help enforce the system, Tesco customer services give out stickers for people with children of of the right age.

Some of the parking bays are for people with a disabled badge

Other parking bays whave changed to people with a toddler badge.

Tesco have listened to the car drivers, but one does wonder if they listen to the environmentalists.

Lucky lucky Abingdon

I was reading a Witney Blog and see Witney are on their way to completing the refurbishment of their Windrush Leisure Centre. It involves "a nautical theme featuring porthole windows, wooden cladding and sail cloth used to form a canopy over the entrance. Costing £1.2 million..."

Our leisure centre has colourful flags and a wave-like curve over the entrance.

The White Horse Leisure and Tennis Centre, halfway down Audlett Drive, opened in March 2002, cost £10 million and took two years to build and is now a very good sports facility: it has been judged the best public leisure facility in Oxfordshire for the last two years.

It has:

• Sportshall
• Competition Swimming Pool
• Childrens pool
• Sauna and Steam Room
• Gym (fitness studio)

• Dance studio
• Squash courts
• Colourful courts for the kids.
• Cafe
• Waiting area with large screen TVs and view of pool, and art works.
• Creche

Con Club Car Park

A good way to get free parking used to be to join the Con Club. They have recently ramped up membership charges so it may not be quite such a good deal anymore. But then I'm not the best person to ask having had an insane fear of all things Conservative since Maragret Thatcher came to office.

A Northcourt Country Lane

It looks like a country lane, perhaps it still is to some people.

This view is taken just off the Oxford Road, looking down Northcourt Lane.

It looks like an old barn, perhaps it still is to some people.

This is the front of one of the tithe barns that now house Christchurch off Northcourt Road. It is nextdoor to the Abingdon United Football Ground.

Northcourt is a village that has been overtaken on all sides by the growth of Abingdon. By selecting the camera view, it can still be seen to retain a village character, and you can still enjoy a pint at the traditional village pub - The Spread Eagle.

Dragon Boats - 2006

I followed the crowds across... This group are only walking around from Wilsham Road on the opposite bank.

The T-shirt reads "Blessed are the losers for they determine the winners."

Hosted by the Rotary Club of Abingdon, the Dragon Boat Racing is now an annual event where as well as the races, there is a fun fair and lots of stalls.

Rotarians spend a lot of time and effort raising funds for charitable purposes. 'Service above Self' is the Rotary Club's motto.

The starter is trying to get the boats in line at the start of a race.

The 40 feet long dragon boats were propelled by crews of 16 paddlers, many of them dressed to a theme. This is the cops and robbers team. Each boat was guided by a qualified helm and kept in rhythm by a drummer seated at one end.

Each team raced at least three times along a 250m course. The 12 fastest teams then competed in two finals.

The race shown here was the runners up final (the 7th to the 12th fastest). The boat winning at the half-way stage, ended up finishing last. There had been a colission and the judges made them rerun the race. This brings to mind the bible verse "He that would be first in the Dragon Boats will be last"