The Advent Candle was lit

and the 2nd Abingdon Beer Festival began at the Abbey Buildings. The Friends of Abingdon have joined forces with Abingdon’s Loose Cannon Brewery to organise this event. Local beers and ciders were available. Local bands were playing and there was food on sale outside.

It also runs on Saturday 2nd December from 6pm to 11pm, so somewhere to try after the Christmas Extravaganza Fireworks. Entry is free and tickets costing £7 buy 2 pints or 4 halfpints.

I enjoyed going to Jumble Sales as a youngster in the village where I lived from the age of 10, and still have some of the prize finds from back then.

On Saturday, St Helen’s Church and Trinity Church both had their Christmas sales – events not unlike those jumble sales.

At St Helen’s Church there were stalls in the south aisle – with a long table of books down the centre; a jewellery stall under St Helen’s Window; new painting by local artists either side; and refreshments along most of the south wall.

Bric-a-brac and crafts were on sale opposite the refreshments, and then a raffle and children’s toys.

At Trinity, the Christmas Fair was in the Conduit Centre – the church hall that once served as as school room, but now is more of a Community Hall. There was a rectangle of tables at the centre with people selling cakes, pickles and jams, jewellery, bric-a-brac, and raffle tickets.

Other stalls were round the outside, including a Traidcraft stall, books and toys and crafts; and fund raising games run by uniformed organisations.

As at St Helen’s Church, there was an area for people to sit with refreshments and enjoy each others company.

I did get some good finds, but best of all, coming out of St Helen’s Church, I got a nice picture of a Robin on the churchyard wall.

On the Market Place this morning the sun was out and people could enjoy the Local Excellence Market. Added Ingredients had a stall where you could sample and buy their products.

The Market Place will be busy now for three Saturdays in a row. This Saturday was Local Excellence, Next Saturday is the Christmas Extravaganza, and the following Saturday is the Craft Market.

That means that some of the stalls, including Vallis Green Woodworking, will be there three Saturdays in a a row. I first photographed Simon, from Vallis Green, about 8 years ago at a very wet event where he was one of the few stall holders to brave the weather.

This evening at St Helen’s Church there was a choral concert by Vox Coelestis. They are no ordinary choir. Formed in 2005 as a collection of musical friends they sang first on a one off basis to raise funds for the organ appeal at Holy Trinity, Coventry. Since then they have come together to perform 14 concerts and raised over £16,000 for a range of charities. And this evening they performed their 15th concert to raise funds for the Abingdon Bridge.

Singers are drawn from cathedral and chamber choirs across the UK. They were very very good. I loved the pieces where they sang from different places in the church. In one piece the sopranos were situated round the church singing a plain chant, and the rest of the choir gathered to sing from the front.

The Abingdon Bridge often has to help young people going through difficult times, and the music was by composers who had had their own sufferings. From Shadow Light – out of times of great mental anguish, distress and illness, beautiful choral music had been created.