Hot Hot Hot Day

The Open Air Pool has re-opened this year after a campaign to keep it open. Its been closed for two years pending possible replacement by another water feature.

The day started hot
It started all sunny
Two jet lines got crossed
We thought it was funny

We had to go out
and go do some swimming
a queue stretched around
men, children and women

The play park was full
The swings were all swinging
The children had fun
The sun it was blinging

We wanted some fun
We wanted to play
We climbed over a fence
on this hot hot hot day...

Abbey Ground Changes

Work is progressing with the changes to the Abbey Grounds:

1. Car Park improvements have been done

2. The play area was re-equipped and moved nearer to the River Thames, and nearer to all the other activities on the Abingdon Riviera.

3. The ornamental lake has been dredged and landscaped. For much of last year, a pile of mud was to left to dry before being carted away.

In Progress

4 The Italian Walk and Rock Garden has been cleared, and are awaiting restoration. Mr Trendell, who first designed the gardens, seemed keen on half ruined features such as columns and arches.

5 Trendell's Folley - the one made to look like a ruined chapel - has been fenced off awaiting some work. Currently it is obscured by bushes, but the view will be opened out and it will become more of a focus.

Still to do

6 Archaeological investigations have shown the layout of the Abbey walls. The idea is to highlight their hidden presence with some markings, but keeping the open space.

7 The Formal Garden already has the original layout, but the paths may be resurfaced.

8 The Abbey Gateway will be resurfaced with traditional materials, and at the same time Old Abbey House will have a ramp added.

Abingdon's Vaulting Social Ambition

Reading last Sunday's Observer, there was an article called: "Our Little obsessions laid bare by Victoria Coren:

"...The launch of Google Trends, a new service which allows users to see which phrases are most frequently searched in which areas of Britain, reveals a nation determined to broaden its horizons.

In Abingdon, for example, the most popular search term is 'pony clubs'. For that, you are thinking, they could have used the phone book. But the second most popular search term in Abingdon is 'Prince Harry'. Clearly, this is about more than just hacking round the suburbs on a docile quadruped. It is the expression of vaulting social ambition.

Bath Street - cut in two

When Stratton Way was built Bath Street got cut into two halves, connected initially by an underpass, and now with pedestrian lights.

On one side is what has been described as a sensory garden - that is more for scent and feel than the normal way we take our flowers - as flamboyant blooms. It is made with herbs and dark irises and bushes for shade.

Old Market Place Trees

There are five trees on the market place. They have been there since the 1970s, but have had limbs cut off, and generally pruned. In the first picture are shown from left to right: a beech, ash, and a sycamore(it is leaning).

The two trees on the second picture, are what appears to be another sycamore (although quite different from the first). In front of St Nicholas Church is a silver birch.

Here is a final picture of the two sycamores (maples?), looking towards the County Hall. The different species of tree are all woodland trees.

They soften the look of the Market Place, particularly the beech which looks the most healthy of the trees. Each tree has a woodern seat round the base.

Dark granite sets path much of the market place. It has become a feature of the town and the Town Crier said that it will be kept when the Market Place is redesigned. Similar sets are used elsewhere in Abingdon on the pavements down Abbey Close.

Abingdon School 750th

This fine memorial in St Helens Church, might be easy for scholars of Abingdon School to translate.

IN PIAM MEMORIUM
JOHANNIS ROYSSE
OPPIDO ABENONENSI ORIVNDI
VRBIS LONDINENSIS CIVIS
SCHOLAE APVD ABENONENSIS FVNDATORIS
HOC MONVMEMTVM
RESTAVRANDVM CVRAVERVNT
SCHOLAE - ALVMNI - AMICI
MDCCLXXIII
SCHOLAM FVNDAVIT MDLXIII

I guess the general sense is that John Roysse founded Abingdon School in 1563. So, the question for me, is why are they celebrating their 750th year?

The school website says:
In 1563, the sixty-three year old John Roysse gave £50 to the Corporation of Abingdon and specified that it should be used to build a schoolroom that was to be sixty-three feet long for sixty-three free scholars.

John Roysse was helping to refound a grammer school already mentioned in earlier documents. The first mention was the endowment by Abbot John de Blosneville for the support of thirteen poor scholars in 1256.

Abingdon School moved from the Roysse room near the Guildhall to the present site in 1870. It is built in the style of the surrounding houses on Park Crescent (one is pictured). This style is well known from the large victorian houses in North Oxford.

Looking around the school, what is interesting to see is how much green grass they have available for sports activities. This particular stretch of grass has been marked out as a running track. Trinity Church is on the far boundary.

Flight on Thames Street

I got too close to these pigeons in front of the Abbey Buildings.

Artists at St Ethelwolds

St Ethelwold's House, off East St Helen Street, was open as part of the Oxfordshire Artweeks 2006. St Ethelwold's is a Georgian house with gardens stretching to the River Thames.

The house and garden are open usually for meditation, prayer, discussion, and worshops. The workshops have names such as:

• An intro to Neuro Linguistic Programming
• Poetry Group
• The Enneagram; linking personality to spirit
• A day of Stillness, Sound & Silence
  

The art was the work of the East Saint Helen Street Group. There were paintings, ceramics, and sculpture. All was displayed in the quiet rooms of the house. This room looks out to the garden.

Glasswork by Solidea Guerra: blue glass with dark filaments, encased in clear glass, are mounted on this windowsill. "In spite of the power of fire to change clay to glass - the darkness yet remains"

Church in Abingdon Floral Charter

All the churches in Abingdon have put together a floral display in St Nicolas Church as part of the charter celebrations. The display outside was the one display not done by a church but by the shop Fabulous Flowers .

This red and yellow flaming posey was to remember the fire that caused such damage to St Nicolas church in the 1950s.