Bun Throwing - June 2006

The Mayor Cllr Peter Green was ready to throw the first bun.

And here are the sea of faces ready for the buns. The church bells starting ringing, and the buns started raining down.

And here is just one of the 4500 buns being launched (to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the Abingdon charter)...

and being chased down below (as featured on Abingdon Wikipedia).

Then people like the Gottfrieds here (from the World of Bun Throwing Blog) took home their bounty.

Before the Bun Throwing

This house in Saxton Road is geared up for Englands first world cup match against Paraguay this afternoon.

This mum is taking her three children, complete with flags, into Abingdon, on this sunny morning.

Here are visitors from some of the twin towns, gathering for the start of a conducted tour around the Abbey, and down to St Helens Church.

At the bottom of West St Helens Street, next to the church, were a display of MG cars. Inside the church there was an MG motor club exhibition.

Also on display in the church are the new bells. A lot of the money for the bells was left fifty years ago by Edgar Humphrey. The large bell enscription read "Edgar Humphrey 1870 -1856 By whose benificence this ring of bells was installed in the Church of St Helens. Praise Him upon the loud cymbal". On the back of the bell Rev Michael Goode's name is moulded.

In the Market Place, the Schongau band (one of Abingdon's twin towns ) played.

The Flag throwers from St Niklaas (a Vale twin town) also performed twice. The green flag is Abingdon's.

The road to Dorchester had to be closed for a couple of hours because of a serious accident down that way.

Copies of the new book "Cameos of Abingdon" were on sale for £8-50. And there were 450 copies of a facsimile copy of the Town Charter for sale for £4-50 to celbrate Abingdon's 450th charter year.

Abingdon Fines - Past and Present

Abingdon is blessed in having so many good local historians who write about the town. "Abingdon - Past & Present" by Elizabeth Dury and Judith Thomas - shows, side-by-side, the same scenes in old Abingdon and in new Abingdon.

To emulate the book, in my rather slap-dash way, I took this photograph on a lay-by outside Abingdon, going towards Drayton, of a fairly old road sign. It cannot be that old though because Abingdon has only been in Oxfordshire since 1974. But it got the sepia effect.

Next, I crossed over the road, and took this picture in the Abingdon-bound lay-by opposite. The fines have gone up.

Close by people have been filmed and prosecuted for fly tipping. In this case the fines can get quite hefty.

Twickenham House

Joseph Tomkins built Twickenham House in 1756, and this year the building celebrates its 250 Anniversary. The main house, at 20 East St Helens Street, is a fine Georgian brick building of classical proportions.

At the side is where the carriages would have been driven and horses stabled.

The front door has classical columns and a pediment (that is the triangular top) with a moulded frieze.

The main entrance for cars is to the corporate car park from Turn Again Lane. They still have a croquet lawn behind the hedge in what would have been the stable area and back garden.

Twickenham House is currently the head office of a company called Harding & Yorke Ltd who specialise in Customer Relations.

Their web site has a virtual floor mapof Twickenham House with names and roles of people on each floor.

E & R GOFF

Located on Bridge Street, E & R GOFF is one of a number of newsagents in the town centre. Its main selling point is that it is open seven days a week, and is convenient for the river. Although floor space can get a little cramped and crowded.

As well as selling newspapers and sweets and a few groceries, lottery tickets and postcards, it has a photocopier, and sells fishing supplies and licences. The window display one side is aimed at children's pocket money: toy cars, water pistols, and jewellery.

During the summer months it also has an ice cream and lollipop freezer, and a Slush Puppie crushed ice drinks machine outside on the pavement.

Curious that it has such a large and permanent advert for the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail is a national tabloid which runs the Ideal Home Exhibition and has done since 1908. It has regular articles on property prices. Todays headline is "Hundreds of Foreign Convicts to stay in UK." The Mail do not take kindly to asylum seekers, or the European Union.

Market Place Car Park

The rear of the post office has a plaque saying built 1954. The flat brick facade reminds me of the old regal cinema.

Primeco who run the Abingdon Post Office have announced plans to redevelop this building, which was once the sorting officer, into flats with an undercroft for parking cars.

It is not the most attractive place in Abingdon. The view from the new flats will be over the backs of the precinct shops, a delivery area, an agglomeration of waste containers, and the Market Place Car Park.

A little further along are some clanky steps which lead up to rooms where children go for music lessons (keyboard and drums mostly), behind what was the Modern Music shop but which is now Dawsons music shop.

Saints Alive

The musical Saints Alive was performed by singers, musicians, and actors from the churches in Abingdon tonight. The score was good, and well conducted by Ian Miles who does a lot of Concerts in this area. Most of the cast were not so used to performing.