Earlier this year there was graffiti on the Abingdon underpass mural which has now all been cleaned away or touched up.
Behind Henry VIII is Thomas Pentecost, the last Abbot of Abingdon, who with his twenty-four monks received pensions after surrendering the Abbey to the King. Unlike the Abbot of Reading who was imprisoned and executed for not being so obliging – who became a martyr.
Facing them through the tunnel is the cleaned up St Edmund of Abingdon, and a picture of The Egyptian Vase coming to this town. I cannot remember what that story was all about.
The mural starts with pre-history, runs down one wall, and then back along the other.
It end in modern times with mummers, morris dancing, and town crying.
Today (3 August) is St Ethelwold’s Day. He restored Abingdon Abbey in the 10th century, was made Bishop of Winchester in 963, died in 984 and was buried at Winchester in the Old Minister. He was a great art patron and might well have approved of the underpass mural.
The otter is in honour of HMS Otter, a submarine Abingdon had links with in the 1980s when the mural was first painted. Isn’t the vase something to do with glass dug up in Miss Pickering’s garden in East St Helen’s Street (or was it from the Barrow Hills dig)?
Wonderful set of murals. As a resident who walks through the subway several times a day I always enjoy them. Shame on those who deface them.. Thanks and congratulations to those who cleaned them. (I and other nearby residents had tried several times without success.)
I am trying to contact Margaret J ones the artist who painted the Underpass but I don’t is still with us
I had the good fortune to have a piece of her work that she painted as a greeting card for my father’s 80th birthday . his painting measures 7 feet by 4 feet
Because of our name (Cole) Dad always called Mum Queen and the painting depicts them as a comic couple Margaret and her husband joined the celebration dressed as a King and Queen
It is hopped that that the painting will be on display for our Queens celebration
GOD BLESS THE QUEEN