Monthly Archives: February 2014

South Abingdon Traffic Calming Survey

The three roads that connect the Drayton Road with Wilsham Road in South Abingdon all have traffic calming measures. Caldecott Road has speed bumps. Saxton Road has a 20 MPH Home zone with narrowing and chicanes.

Preston Road has the notorious chicanes at the top end where drivers leave a trail as their wheels cut up the road. Some cars even bump into the chicanes.

Then there is a long stretch down Preston Road where junctions are mixed with parked cars – where vehicles can go fast.

So what would work best?
a) Better enforcement of speed limit
b) More traffic calming, speed bumps, chicanes etc..
c) Reduction of speed limit to 20mph
d) Safer Road crossing
e) More Off road parking
f) Other.

And where is that most needed?

MP Nicola Blackwood in Abingdon to review local trains

Thanks to Mike for a preview of the Abrail 2014 exhibition. He says …
 
Alas, the passenger service from Abingdon was closed in 1963 and when, in 1983, the MG car factory was closed, the station and railway line, that had sat there since 1856, went with it to be replaced by an old peoples home, a supermarket and a bus service.

So Nicola Blackwood, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, will have to be content with reviewing much smaller trains when she opens the Abingdon Model Railway Show. The show, staffed by a team of 170 drawn from the whole of the south of England, will bring together 25 working layouts, 20 retail trader outlets plus Club and Society stands and demonstrations to provide a veritable modelling extravaganza.

The 38th annual Abingdon Model Railway Show is the largest model railway exhibition in Oxfordshire, and is on Saturday, 1st March at the White Horse Tennis and Leisure Centre, Audlett Drive, Abingdon. Entrance price is £8.00 per adult and accompanied children under 16 are free. See admrc.org.uk for more details.

(The pictures are from the blogs visit to the 2009 exhibition.)

Every Day To Be Happy and Inspired Learning Together


Passing Larkmead School at the weekend I was impressed by their logo and motto.

The schools in Abingdon have the following mottos (taken from their web sites):

Caldecott Primary School – Happy Learners, Aiming High.
Carswell Community Primary School – Happy Together, learning for Life.
Dunmore Primary School – Great to be Inspired, Inspired to be Great.
Fitzharrys School – Together Everyone Achieves.
John Mason School – Excellence Through Creativity.
Larkmead School – One Community, Individual Minds, Creating Futures.
Our Lady’s Abingdon – Altogether a better education.
St Edmund’s Catholic Pimary School – In our school every day we learn, love and pray.
St Nicholas CofE Primary School – Learning Excellence.
Thameside Primary School – Every Child, Every Chance, Every Day.

Taking the frequently used words, and putting them together, I get the motto “Every Day To Be Happy and Inspired Learning Together.”

Beat Cancer Sooner


The Cancer Research UK shop in Bury Street have been having a repaint, and a refit. The shop is 20 years old now and is well supported by shoppers and donors alike.

Their window says “One day we will beat cancer. Help us make it sooner.

The shop re-opened this morning. There to re-open the shop were two specialist nurses, the Mayor and her baby daughter, and Penny Clover, one of the Abingdon town criers, and Clare who sent me an email letting me know about the refit.

P.S. Dedicated to all those for whom it won’t be soon enough.