The Abingdon Country Market was at the Salvation Army in West St Helen Street today, and featured, as usual, the colourful craft stalls.

There were two book signing in town today. At The Bookstore two local ladies were in love with the same man and they both wrote their diaries – mostly about him. He was a musician, and all this happened in the 1960s. The diaries are now revealed, and published in a novel as ‘Only One Woman’.

At Mostly Books, former co-owner, Nicki Thornton, was signing books. She is now the author of ‘The Last-Chance Hotel’, winner of The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition. There will be another piece about Nicki’s book later this month.

Meanwhile on the Market Place a picnic started at around 3:30pm.

It could be the start of another great Abingdon Tradition – Rainbow Picnics on the Market Place.

In reverse order, latest to earliest …

There will be a second Great Get Together on 24th June. Sue says “we are hoping for a lovely day like last year, showing what a welcoming community Abingdon is.”

“This year we are also picking up on the work Jo Cox did on the problem of loneliness, and we are delighted that the Archway Foundation will be part of the day.”

The Abingdon and District Music Society will be performing “Missa Solemnis” on 16th June at St Helen and St Katherine.

There is also a ‘Joyful Singing Workshop’ on Tuesday 12th June thanks to Oxfordshire MIND.

In the window of Fat Face in Abingdon can be seen a Lego version of the Mayor of Ock Street Ceremony. It shows the newly elected Mayor of Ock Street being chaired shoulder high from Coopers Lane into Ock Street. In front of him is held a cow’s head, a trophy won in a fight between Ock Street and the rest of the town in 1700. The elected Mayor becomes the head man of the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers for the next year.

In 2018 two other sides will be there in Abingdon to dance on June 16th along Ock Street, and in the town centre – before and after the election of the Mayor of Ock Street. They include Bampton Traditional Morris, founded approximately 600 years ago, and the Berkshire Bedlam Morris Dancers, founded in 1977.

The 4th side on the Supermorris box, called Stealing Sheep, could be the alter-ego of the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers who appeared in this video …

Stealing Sheep – Apparition from Dougal Wilson on Vimeo.