MG Exhibition

On the top floor of the museum is the MG exhibition. It will be there for a year, opening at weekends and usually manned by one of these men. In their heyday MG cars were made in Abingdon, and these two men worked at the MG factory.

Old Police Station

In front of the Old Gaol (mentioned yesterday), there are other buildings which are to be developed alongside. Most are pictured on the left of today's Bridge Street picture, and are:

* 1,2 Bridge View
* 25,27 Bridge Street
* The Old Police Station
* 4 Turnagain Lane

The Old Police Station is another Grade II listed building

1856 - Opened
1999 - Closed when a new police station opened away from the town centre.

NOT USED SINCE. But there are some interesting cells should the Old Gaol indeed become a prison again as suggested in a comment yesterday.

Old Gaol

The Old Gaol is an important part of the view approaching Abingdon from the south. Nowadays it is shielded by trees, but when it was first built the construction was stark and unusual. It was the first prison to have three wings from a central tower.

A brief History of this Grade II listed building

* 1811 the Old Gaol was opened as a prison (built by prisoners during the Napoleonic wars)
* 1868 it ceased to be a prison
* 1874 it became a grain store
* 1975 it was sold to the Vale district council and opened as a leisure centre
* 2002 closed on opening of the new leisure centre.

NOT USED SINCE. But there have been various initiatives

A consultation began looking at 3 options ranging from the people's favorite:
a 420 seat theatre and cinema, library, museum, and exhibition space, pub / restaurant / bar

to the least favourite option - commercial use with no community space.

A first report suggested that option 1 was feasible. A second report after a further years work showed it would be too expensive for all the partners, and the report was pessimistic about getting lottery funding.

So now the Vale District Council is looking for commercial developers

The selection procedure has 2 stages.

On 13th July up to 8 developers plans could be shortlisted by the Vale. The plans need to meet certain Vale criteria to go through to stage 2 of the selection process:

These are:

* contribute to visual look of area
* encourage access to the courtyard, ground floor and riverside gardens
* make good use of the central riverside location and historic building
* be good value for money in terms of sale price, and if housing is included, it should have a mix of affordable housing

The second phase will involve further-developing the plans and putting in a formal 'money' bid to the Vale

Community meetings have taken place over the last 2 years to see whether a community scheme could run the Old Gaol.

Since March, when the Vale sought expressions of interest from developers, a group called COG (Community in the Old Gaol) has been formed to act as a pressure group to try to ensure:

* the freehold and public ownership is retained
* public access to the river frontage
* some community space

COG express an interest in working together with developers. COG have a petition with about 3,500 signatures that continues to grow. There is also a Cog Blog.

Personally I would like to see something like a cinema / theatre with some events for young people.

Dress Rehearsals

The building on the right is the office of the Friends of Abingdon, an organisation that have saved a lot of our ancient buildings. It is also used as a dressing area for the Unicorn Theatre, in the Abbey Buildings, alongside. The players cross through that dark passageway to backstage.

Tonight the Abingdon Drama Club were rehearsing for a performance of The Cripple of Inishmaan which is being performed from Wednesday 4th - Saturday 7th July 2007 at 7:30pm.

Beauty and Blight

The winner of an Abingdon Herald / VOWH (Vale of the White Horse) photography competition on the theme Beauty and Blight showed grafitti next to trees

Here is some more graffiti with flowers.

Abingdon Marina Park

The public slipway looking towards some marina houses.

The water has an oily film near the 'No Fishing....No Swimming' sign.

On the far side of the park are views across the Thames, towards swift ditch...

and Didcot Power Station.

UFO

Are these early morning cyclists gazing at the source of that shadow?

Tromp l'oeil windows

As the Old Gaol and surrounding buildings await a developer to be chosen by the district council, the area remains vacant. The boards on the Old Police Station windows have been painted to make tromp l'oeil windows.

Tesco mobile tromp l'oeil

I'll have to go now... I 'm just going to have to complain... No I didn't read the small print when I bought the mobile!... Thats not the point!... I definitely didn't give them permission to build a trolley park in my garden.

AbITs Public Meeting

Last night there was a public meeting at the Guildhall to listen to, and ask questions of the Councillor in charge of Oxfordshire's roads - and his advisers. The first phase of the new town centre traffic system (AbITS) was put in last year and people at the meeting, although polite, had very strong opinions. It has not worked as people were told it would during the public consultation, three years ago, when 64% of people were in favour of the scheme.

There was still a lot of animated discussion on the way out.

There were many points made during the meeting but to summarise for people who didn't go and who are interested: town centre businesses were suffering loss of trade, some journeys were taking much longer (coming home from Culham...), some turnings were difficult (out of West St Helen Street, right from the brewery, from New Street). In response the County Councillor said that, local councils (Vale and Town), and the chamber of commerce, and local people had agreed to the scheme. It was also said that more changes were to be discussed next week at the AbITs steering group: to get the SCOOT system working better (move Bridge Street lights nearer town), to put in better signage to get more people using the peripheral road and Stratton Way southbound, to introduce a straight-on filter at the Stratton Way / Ock Street junction, to discuss the details of changes to Stert Street, etc. etc. This meeting is on 28th June at 2 PM in the Guildhall.

Grey Poplars

There are a number of large grey poplars, and willows, alongside the pitch and put course bordering the River Thames.

Abbey House and Gardens

Its that time of year again. Time to put out the bedding plants and put on a bit of a show.

Both views look towards Abbey House: the administrative centre of the Vale of the White Horse District Council.

Save Our Local Traffic Wardens

The resident parking wardens help ensure that there are parking spaces for residents in the town centre. In Goffs, the newsagents, there is a 'Save our Local Traffic Wardens' petition. Change seems inevitable to the current system, but we do not want to loose our local wardens. It would be hard to better their community spirit.

Mayor's Civic Service

Here the Mayor of Abingdon, and councillors, are returning from the annual civic service at St Helens Church.

New Ock Street Mayor

Mr Roger Cox was elected the Mayor of Ock Street this afternoon, and given the sword of office by the Mayor of Abingdon, Councillor Lorrain Oates.

He defeated the previous mayor, Mr Stuart Jackson, who has been elected Mayor of Ock Street 11 years running. Stuart was one of those chairing the new mayor down Ock Street: preceded by the the Ock Street Horns.

Rod Licence

From tomorrow, adults in Abingdon will need a rod licence to fish the Abingdon waters, and not just a town fishing permit. The town took legal advice to protect the ancient fishing right but it seems in vain.

Blue Shirt or Mystery Man

The third Sunday of June is fathers day. So what should we buy him: blue shirt, Robert Ludlum novel, Top Dad card or Mystery Man comic book? (the selection is in the window of the Helen and Douglas House charity shop)

The History of the Takeaway

There will be a series of lunchtime history talks in St Nicolas Church at 12.30 p.m. starting next Wednesday ("you are welcome to bring your own lunch"). This year the running order has:

• 20th June 'The Restoration of St Nicholas' Church In 1880/81-changes and riddles' Mr Dick Barnes
• 27th June 'The History of Harwell, 1905-1955' Mr Nick Hance MBE
• 4th July 'St Nicolas Church during the Civil War' Revd Peter Doll
• 11th July 'Reform and Improvement in 19th Century Abingdon' Mr Trevor Davies

Next year, I would like to hear a talk on the 'The History of the Takeaway in Abingdon'

Humped Zebra Crossing

Outside John Mason school nothing much to be seen at this mid morning hour: one 4X4, but no humped zebra, and no herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the Wootton Road...

Marketing Suites

The white building with the ring of pillars that fronted Penlon Place has gone. All that remains are the roses and a circle of earth.

However the marketing suite for the Riverside Collection is still there - for the time being.

Wild Flowers in June

Ox-eye daises stretch from Rye Farm all the way to where Swift Ditch leaves the Thames.

Also in abundance alongside the farm road are mallows, and poppies.

A mound of mallow and cow parsley hides Kingfisher Barn.

But there is no escaping the daisies.

Fete Accompli

This could well be the final fete at Dunmore Infant School. Dunmore Infants are to merge with Dunmore Junior and become Dunmore Primary School for 3-11 year olds.

New Footbridge

This picture is taken from the new housing development called 'The Riverside Collection' and shows the future position of a footbridge to Abbey Meadow.

This model is pictured on a bill-board near the Barrett Homes marketing suite. The Vale council planning control committee will meet in a couple of week to discuss the real bridge design.

The design will incorporate motifs from the Abingdon Sword.

Abingdon Art from A to B

Neave Mews has a central sculpture. It is called the Abingdon A and is designed by Bews and Gorvin. At night you may only see the inner-A.

Nearby on the brewery development this piece, called Barrel, was created by Walter Jack in 2002.

The Underpass Mural

The 1970s mural decorating the Stratton Way underpass was looking very tired, and so the artists have returned to repaint the whole thing, and bring it up to date.

Here the artist is giving the finishing touches to the Ock Street horns held by the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers . The ownership of these horns has long been contested by a rival group: the Hemmings Traditional Abingdon Morris Dancers.

A Load of Cobbles

The cobble-layers are having a good 2007 in Abingdon. Not only is the Market Place getting re-cobbled, but also this corner next to St Helens Church has been given a new clean set of cobbles.

This once neglected spot was overgrown with weeds until a few months ago, now look at it: drizzled with wood shavings.

3 High Street

A-Plan Insurance is a place for people who prefer to deal with their insurance brokers face to face rather than trust moneysupermarket.com, kelco, or confused.com on the internet.

The building at 3 High Street was hidden in scaffolding much of last year, but now we can all see that it is a fine-figure-of-a-building.

Scenic Lake - dumping ground for big business

There were crowds in the Abbey Meadows this weekend enjoying the open air pool and the water jets. There were queues at the ice-cream kiosk, and Waitrose was busy at lunchtime, selling out of those serve yourself salads.

Elsewhere in Abingdon there was a steady flow of cyclists going past Radley Lake. The lake is likely to be drained and used as a dumping ground for ash from Didcot Power Station. A lot of the trees have already been destroyed, and native birds like kingfishers have gone.

But these locals are still putting up a fight (my dog joined them for the picture). They have been trying to stop RWE nPower by proving that the Lake has been used recreationally (that is like a Village Green) for at least twenty years, and they would be glad to hear from more witnesses. The Radley Lake public enquiry begins again on 20th June.

Most people get to the Radley Lakes along this cycle track.

Tesco Scenic Route

Most people drive to Tesco along the Marcham Road. But there is an alternative scenic route which begins on Mill Road.

In the distance Tesco can be seen beyond this overgrown, little used footpath...

where wild roses have taken over.

On one side of Mill Road are 'set aside' fields

Cross over the River Ock and a wheat field stretches towards the Tesco store.

The scenic route follows the meanderings of the River Ock. (Orpwood Drive can be seen on this shot.)

Then the path leaves the river and takes you round a shady track

until Tesco appears through an opening.