Author Archives: Back Streeter

Poppies and Murals and Remembrance Events

4 Replies


On Saturday, members of the Royal British Legion were selling poppies on the Market Place as part of the Local Excellence Market. When I passed by, the Mayor of Ock Street, Harry Knight and Roger Fox, from the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers, were manning the stall.

Local young artists have created a mural on the wall behind the Royal British Legion headquarters in Spring Road, Abingdon. The ‘Oxford Graffiti Crew’ could be behind this.

Inside the headquarters, Caroline Ritson was also painting a mural, to mark the forthcoming Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day commemorations.

Remembrance events in Abingdon

On Sunday 8th November, the main events will be:

10:00 am – Church Service: The official Remembrance service takes place at St Helen’s Church, East St Helen Street.

11:00 am – Act of Remembrance: Following the church service, a parade moves to the War Memorial for the wreath-laying ceremony and the two-minute silence at 11:00 am.

Other Church Services: Trinity Church on Conduit Road will also hold a commemorative service, joined by All Saints Church.

On Wednesday 11th November (Armistice Day), there will be another opportunity to observe the two-minute silence at 11:00 am at the War Memorial.

P.S. Having made various changes to the blog last week to bring the software up to date for security and for future ease of maintenance, I heard of one person getting a security warning. This was fixed by recreating a bookmark from https://www.abingdonblog.co.uk/.

Abbey Millstream Through the Year: October 2026

1 Reply


October ended with a sunny day. The millstream trees had turned to yellows and red.

Fallen leaves added to the colour. It was near the end of half term. Children were in the wonderful Abbey Meadow Playpark. Lots of people were out walking.

This male Mallard among the autumn leaves is regaining his breeding colours after the summer molt.

The usual water birds (swans, mallard ducks and moorhen)

had been joined by black-headed gulls. They have mostly lost their dark summer heads for the winter. They sit lightly on the water, floating like paper boats.

Hawthorn berries are an important autumn food for wildlife. They often remain well into winter.

And as the sun went down the red sky in the west gave the Millstream a fiery glow.

More on Halloween

1 Reply


Pikachu, the Pokémon character, was outside the Clockwork Dragon this morning, along with the Town Crier.

Children arriving at the shop in costume received a Halloween goodie bag.

The Local Excellence Market was also on today. Martin’s Abingdon Calendar has all the dates of the Local Excellence Markets in 2027 marked.

The market had some Halloween items, including pumpkins and gourds. I was told that everywhere else in Abingdon had sold out.

There were also plenty of sweets, cakes and biscuits made to look scary for the occasion.

The loud fireworks in the town centre this evening made me wonder whether Halloween is no longer just about adopting the American tradition of dressing up, but also beginning to take over from the November 5th fireworks.

P.S. October Millstream pictures to follow soon.

Halloween Flower Display

2 Replies


Fabulous Flowers have a colourful autumn display around the shop door.

The display of flowers and foliage in autumn colours: reds, pinks, browns and greens, has skeletons poking out near the top.

Pumpkins and gourds are displayed around the shop. There are also pumpkin and gourd vases holding floral displays,