Reflections

The new sculpture in the Abbey Grounds with a line of poplars behind.

The trees along Victoria Road are in blossom.

Lastly a reflection of Tower Close in a puddle, but look more closely and you may see something is the wrong way up.

New Ramp

At the town council offices, the disability anti-discrimination act has given a good few jobs to ramp makers.

Abbey Grounds re-open

The Abbey Gateway looks complete, apart from perhaps a little remedial work where some flag-stones have got chipped. In any case more bollards have been added to stop the heavy vehicles.

The Abbey Grounds have been re-opened for over a week now. There may have been a ceremony, or that could still be to come.

Some areas have been recently reseeded with grass, and so for the present there are notices asking people to keep to the paths. But the paths are far more extensive than before, and you can do a circuit on the way to see Queen Victoria.

Trendell's Folley has also been opened up with new paths. All of these grounds were originally laid out by Mr Trendell who lived at Old Abbey House.

And stones like this now mark the likely shape of the great church of St Mary, which graced the centre of Abingdon Abbey.

Market Place work begins

These two New Season models look out from New Look at the start of the works on the Market Place.

The work is due to take 18 weeks. Firstly, the granite sets are being pulled up. They will be re-used, together with some already stored away when the sets were removed from Abbey Close.

The trees will all be replaced by liquid amber trees. The near one is already leaning quite severely.

The Market Place work will all cost around £280,000, half from the Town Council and half from the Vale of the White Horse. The Town has been putting aside money for some time. Another bit of money will come from the County Council to re-lay and surface the side road (next to the NatWest). It is cobbled like the Market Place. (And Abits will also be reducing the lanes and widening the pavements on the main thoroughfare during the year.)

The Market is to be held at the Civic CarPark during the works, and the stall holders will get a discount.

Tree Chopping

From some way away a buzz-saw could be heard.


The 2000-odd trees round the lake had been numbered. This is number 510.

Trees have been felled, left to be collected later.

The bailiffs have set up camp, where the protestors were, at the cottage called "Sandles". They were having a good laugh when I went past. There had been a silent walk-past protest earlier in the day. The Bailiffs could now relax.

My sister was one of the young women protesting at Greenham Common, and she was regulary shown the way out by the bailiffs. Many years later we discovered, through friends re-united, that one of the Greenham Common bailiffs had sat next to my wife, as a 9 year old, at St Werburgh's Catholic Primary School, Birkenhead.

A flock of geese

The River Thames looking down towards Didcot Power Station from off Wilsham Road.

A flock of geese coming in to land

Bird Lake

This latest accessory is to be seen at Radley Lakes worn by some nPower employees.

As everybody in Abingdon knows, there has been a long peaceful campaign of signing petitions and letter writing for about two years to try to stop what is now happening. Trees round Radley Lake are being cut in preparation for filling the lake with fly-ash.


nPower claims their employees are being bullied. Above is picture of one of the protestors talking to nPower employee's (picture from the Herald). nPower has brought out an injunction to stop access to all but the cyclepath that borders Radley Lake. Just a couple of quotes from protestors from this weeks Abingdon Herald:

"We are all law-abiding, ordinary people."

"It's very intimidating and quite scary."

"We all feel our civil liberties have been infringed by being photographed and filmed by men in balaclavas."

The Prince of Abingdon

The cover of the July 1st 1865 edition of The Illustrated London News has a picture of the Prince of Abingdon with great crowds around his feet, and clouds like mountain rising behind, emphasising the grandeur of this statue. You only need a few stone lions, and you have something to rival Nelson's column.

The Prince still looks very fine whether in silhouette, or

showing off his garters, high up there.

Weekly News Snowball Round-up

The Co-op are currently going through the tender process, getting bids from builders, to build the new store in West St Helen Street. So things are moving forward, if slowly.

The X15 bus is up for renewal, and the County may replace it with a lesser service. This service is essential for the Abingdon to Witney College as it connects A to W.

A direct bus to the JR hospital started operating late last November, namely the X13.

Since installing the Abingdon Bridge traffic lights the town has been quieter, but people coming in from Culham are experiencing long queues.

Most schools were closed because of the snow on Thursday and Friday but the snow had thawed on Saturday. It is half term next week.

The Net young people's cinema opened for the first time last Saturday.

The Market Place resurface and redesign starts this week, and the Monday Market will move to the Civic Car-park during the duration of maybe 18 weeks.


The Town Council put extra money into next years budget for youth projects such as the Net, Foyer, U13 mentoring, and the Bridge.

Thames Water have shown us how the reservoir will work: they may be able to combine an secondary drainage channel as part of the to-be-rebuilt Wilt and Berks Canal; the main supply tunnel will be bored from the Thames at Culham reach. Thames Water are suggesting an anciliary supply road across Abingdon Common ( from the Marcham Road west of the A34) .


But the environment agency isn't convinced a reservoir is necessary, nor I suspect are the people of Abingdon. Abingdon Common belongs to Abingdonians in some historic way and is held in trust by the Town Council.

nPower sent in masked bailifs to clear squatters from the cottage, called Sandles, beside Thrupp (Radley) Lake.

Last Saturday there was benefit gig at the Kings Head and Bell to help the campaign, and last night people calling for the Lake to be recognised as a village green met at Hadlands Road community centre.

I got a letter from the nPower customer retention managaer this morning saying "Sorry you're leaving us..."

Snowfall on Abingdon

This is one of the new Riverside houses across the Abbey millstream at about 7:15 A.M this morning.

This is the view from the bridge along the Thames to St Helens Church, steeple half-caked in snow.

These are just some trees by the river.

And somebody who lives on a barge wheeling their bike through the snow.

A bike covered in snow at the Market Place.

The County Hall and Market Place at about 8 A.M

At about midday, some students who had been let off college had made snowmen in the the grounds of the The Kings Head and Bell. Most schoools were out and so there were running snowball fights on the streets of Abingdon.

Leave only footprints.

Anybody living is Oxford will know of the area called Mesopotania (middle of water), where the path leads between two divisions of the River Cherwell to the University Park. Well, Abingdon has its own Mesopotania. It is called the Ock Valley Walk , and it has a brand new Nature board showing the flora and fauna you might find.

The education board has been some time coming, and has had a few re-designs, but now it is there and includes lots of wildlife. One lady commented this morning, "It also excludes a lot of wildlife."

Someone else complained that we did not need a board to tell us what is a willow.

At the bottom it says "Leave only footprints. Take only photographs"