The “twinning stone” at the junction of Preston Road and Bergen Avenue was erected in 1970 when the roads on the Sutton Fields estate in South Abingdon were named after the towns with which Abingdon was either twinned with or has a friendship link. Visitors from the twin towns are often take to see this stone and shown “their road “.
The stone had become illegible because of weathering. The twin towns society ADTTS approached the Town Council to see if they would arrange to get it cleaned but the reply was that no money was available.
ADTTS decided to have a go at cleaning it and the pictures show the Vice Chair of ADTTS Peter Dodd cleaning the stone last Friday.
Yes I saw that the stone was being cleaned. Well done. It is up to South Abingdonians to ensure that South Abingdon looks a nice place to live. I was thwarted though. Seeing the lovely spring flowers in villages I planted some daffodils on the green opposite Cotman Close. They came up only to be cut down by the Sovereign Vale contractors when they cut the grass. There is not a lot of asthetic thought in the planning and upkeep of ex council estates.
Regarding ‘no money…’, I guess it depends who owns the stone? If it is on a verge, the land is probably county council who may simply have given permission for it’s siting. The town council could have taken an interest but, assuming it went to a committee, I may have been a ‘resolved’ matter and thus less likely to be noticed by other councillors.
Talking about foreign links. Today is St George’s day. St George was a Roman soldier and believed to be Palestinian. They celebrate what he stands for “He’s presented as a knight full of peace and grace, riding his horse and always fighting evil, which is symbolised by the dragon. We write underneath in Arabic ‘God bless our house.'” I hope that we can celebrate this English day and have pride in our achievements.
Good for you Peter.
Well done Peter. I’ve always taken it that Coromandel means Thames NZ. Pity there’s only European or white nations on our list!
… and it is alleged that George’s dragon was slain nearby at Uffingon White Horse (The Dragon’s hump below the horse)
Its amazing what people can do
if they want to,
. Instead of running to the council all the time for hand outs
Yes John E you are right – because Abingdon already had a Thames Street, it was decided to use the name of the area round Thames NZ to mark the friendship link.
The twinning links themselves came out of the Second World War in the hope that enabling ordinary people in different countries in Europe to get to know each other would lessen the chance of another war starting.
Shame the Town Council just lost their Town Twinning Officer.