Dunmore By-Election

Julia Bricknell and Dr Evan Harris are seen here on the River Stert with a team of local volunteers.

Julia was elected yesterday, as possibly the youngest ever Abingdon Councillor (at age 21) - by residents of Dunmore Ward in a By-election. Dr Evan Harris MP will face the voters of Abingdon and Oxford West next May in the national election.

Here, in Julia's Ward, is a typical street scene - looking across the Dunmore Road peripheral road, where the Breakaway Club van is parked, towards DearLove Close. I am ashamed to say having done this blog for nearly four years that I didn't even know there was a DearLove Close until a week ago.

I looked it up in John McGowan's book 'The Origins of the Street Names of Abingdon' and it says 'The name DearLove Close was probably given by the developer in 1964. No other information is available.' I was hoping it would have a good story. Something like... It comes from the Anglo-Saxon Deorlaf = Dear or Precious Relic. During excavation to make this Close a gold Saxon Love token was found.

Cargo Abingdon NOW OPEN

It would be interesting to find out what stores have moved in where Woolworths used to be. The only three I know are Cargo in Abingdon (pictures here), New Look in Solihull, and Tesco Extra in Ulverston.

Cargo have some opening offers, and have taken over all of the store. However they have not done a lot of work transforming the store so this could be a temporary arrangement.

I was in Witney yesterday and the Cargo there has closed while they redevelop the Woolgate Centre. The Witney Blog says that when it re-opens in 2010 it will be in a larger store. Cargo will also be opening another store in Oxfordshire and 6 more nationally over the next few months.

I should have said the work on Ock Street is mostly on the pavement so should not cause great delays, and on Friday and Saturday there is a sale of pictures painted by Abingdon Artists at Saint Nicolas church, as well as the Craft Fair at the Old Abbey Buildings.

High Street / Ock Street Work Begins

The £450,000 scheme to refurbish High Street and Ock Street has begun.

So we will probably have a couple of months of this.

I did think the flower beds at the end of Bath Street were also getting refurbished since the Town Council notice board has been chopped down. But have learned that that area is to be used for portacabins, and cutting down the noticeboard was just one of those mistakes that happen. Something similar happened in Grove where the village Christmas Tree got axed despite being inside a fence. Grove are going to get a better tree out of it. Maybe we will get a better notice board and garden area afterwards.

Not The Abingdon Marathon

There are a large number of white powder markings around Abingdon. I did hear one person saying it might be rat poison. Another - probably jesting - tasted a bit off their finger and said it was Cocaine. Another said it was flour or chalk laid as part of a run, but Not The Abingdon Marathon.

Does anybody out there have any better ideas?

Poppy Appeal

Poppies were delivered to the shops last Saturday.

Last year Abingdon raised an outstanding amount of £20,793.20 for the Poppy Appeal - a 63.32% increase on the year before giving us a trophy from the Berkshire Country Royal British Legion Manager.

(Abingdon Legion still comes under the Berkshire County Organisation in the British Legion World!! As it does in the Geneology and quite a few other Worlds).

Mary Cadogan, our co-ordinator would like to thank all the people of Abingdon for supporting the Poppy Appeal and without them we could not have raised such an amazing amount of money.


The Poppy Appeal is in many peoples thoughts with the present conflict in Afghanistan and we are raising money to help the solders and their families both young and old.

The poppies in Abingdon will be on sale for the next three weeks prior to Remembrance Sunday which is on 08 November 2009.

There will be also be street collectors in the town centre and outside Tescos, Waitrose and Fairacres Retail Park, and door to door sellers around Abingdon from 24 October 2009.

If anyone would be interested in becoming a poppy person this year helping sell poppies they can contact Mary Cadogan at the Royal British Legion, Spring Road, Abingdon tel: 07867 658159.

Abingdon Marathon 2009 - Last 22 Miles

... Near the half-way point runners returned to Abingdon along Preston Road . Number 1075 had a good lead by this point.

Harry has a picture of the leading lady at this point on his blog, and since I have already shown her near the Wharf and the Oxford Mail has a big feature on her, here is one of the second place lady as well, Number 1127.

The race was well marshalled with lots of volunteers. Well organised by Abingdon Amblers...
They were even trialing the latest electronic gadgetry. Each runner had a chip so their exact time was transmitted to a results boards as they crossed the line. The results are available at ChipTiming.co.uk which has the winner, Number 1027, as 2:28:37. So I nearly got it right on this picture...

There were a lot of runners still to come in. This is the 25 mile point on the Wootton Road.

And here is a runner going down the underpass, next to the Abingdon Marathon Mural. (By the way that little old lady came 668th with a time of 04:47:35 - far from last.)

Abingdon Marathon 2009 - First Four Miles

A minute or so before the start this little old lady was trying to mix it with the fast runners at the front - until the stewards asked her to move back.

This is the start proper.

The early leader at the four mile point was 1087.

Followed a little later by the chasing group.

387 was the first lady through, not that far behind.

Some residents of East St Helen Street brought a table and chairs outside. The race began at 9:00. So this would have been about breakfast time.

And here she is again - not doing too bad at all - at the four mile point.

To be continued...