Abingdon’s turbulent past

Abingdons turbulent past
When the curate at Trinity Church, heard that this week’s National Trust lecture was about John Creemer Clarke, he suggested that they move the lecture into the main church so that they could see the window dedicated to John Creemer Clarke by his children in 1906.

The National Trust lectures were at the Abbey Hall (the modern part of the Guildhall) before that building was closed for redevelopment and then moth-balled to save money.

This week’s lecture is ‘Violence and shenanigans: A look at Abingdon’s politics through the eyes of John Creemer Clarke’ and is on at Tuesday, 23 January 2018 – 2:30pm.’
Abingdons turbulent past
The What’s On section of the Abingdon Town Council web site says “an important benefactor of the Town, Creemer Clarke ran an important clothing business and helped found Trinity Church and the Cottage Hospital, and is represented on the mural in the Town.   He was involved in many aspects of Abingdon’s political life by becoming its MP at a time when elections seem to have been much more lively with a great deal of audience participation at local meetings. It was always a relief when there was no actual violence.

The speaker, Silvia Joinson, is “a retired history teacher and a witty presenter on Abingdon’s turbulent past.”

For anybody following this blog, the second meeting about the Guildhall, for those who could not squeeze into the first, was moved to the larger building of St Helen’s Church earlier this evening.

6 thoughts on “Abingdon’s turbulent past

  1. Mike

    I’ve often looked at the top of that window and wondered what Eric von Daniken would have made of it. Proof of Edwardian space travel, no doubt

    Reply
  2. newcomer

    Along with about 200 others I attended a dispiriting Guildhall meeting yesterday evening. As each minute dragged by with the marrow being sucked out of my soul it was confirmed that the TC will do what it likes regardless of what the public wants.

    At the moment it looks as though the TC’s plan is a politician favouriite … ill thought out building works. Adding ugly ‘exoskeleton’ to the building and ripping out some of the infrastructure, including a staircase which some people seem quite fond of …

    Much of this was in the name of ‘disability access’, though one chap commented that there were more disabilities than physical disabilities and what was to be done about those.

    Nevertheless, the Mayor virtue-signaled the accessibility issue throughout the evening almost as a threat to those there that disagreeing with the TC’s plan would be a stain on your soul, especially in a church.

    What’s obvious is the the TC has no idea what they expect to be happening in the Guildhall once this money has been spent … I’d suggest ‘not a lot’.

    One attendee rose to request that the TC stop hiding behind ‘confidentiality’. Massive round of applause, but there’s little hope of that happening.

    Reply
  3. Iain

    In case people are interested details of the ‘exciting plans’ are now materialising.

    Nothing on the town council website yet but the attached was highlighted to me on the County Council site:

    http://news.oxfordshire.gov.uk/long-term-future-for-abingdons-guildhall-as-a-community-hub/

    It’s somewhat light on any specofics, which I would take to mean this is a long term piece of work, but at least they have alluded to some sort of community engagement which would seem a step forward.

    Reply
  4. newcomer

    Interesting piece, Iain, mainly, to my mind, because The Vale is not being invited to the dance. Perhaps The Vale feel they’ve plucked all the low-hanging fruit from Abingdon’s Asset Tree. Of course, OCC might just be scoping-out Abingdon to see whether there are any opportunities for doing a bit of asset-stripping themselves.

    However, I fear we’ll be stuck with the same ilk of people occupying the councils’ ‘Ideas Vacuum’:

    To quote: “We will be looking at all the options with the town council and we would welcome ideas from people locally. We would expect the town council as owners of the Guildhall to consult fully with residents before and final decision was taken.”

    I imagine the put-upon souls of this town exhaling a communal cynical sigh at that.

    As mentioned to Iain the other evening, having been a vehement critic of the original Guildhall Cinema project, I think the initial expression/reading of the new project is worth looking at.

    This project doesn’t seem to involve any of the rate-payers (OUR) money, the cinema company will pay for the infrastructure, allow the space to be used for other functions and vacate the premises (with reasonable notice I presume).

    My words, paraphrased, to Iain were, ‘The TC would have to be pretty churlish not to give this serious consideration’.

    After yesterday evening I think the TC may be pretty churlish.

    Reply
  5. Kelly Simpson

    I was also at yesterday’s meeting. I felt the people there were totally patronised, even mocked and spoken to sarcastically, and guilt tripped re disabled access. The mayor read out a very long statement, with carefully selected statistics, then refused to give any more information or thoughts. That said, she clearly had a plant/mouthpiece in the audience.
    As usual the council will do as they wish, and councillors will follow the party line. We need a change – next election let’s have some independent candidates, preferably reasonably long standing Abingdonians, who actually care.

    Reply
  6. davidofLuton

    Unless the makeup of the Town Council has changed drastically since I left a few years ago, I do not think most town Councillors can be accused of not being “long standing Abingdonians.”

    Reply

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