A deer and stagecoach seen in Abingdon

5 Replies

Deer
Helen saw this deer as she came out of her house earlier in the week in the Northcourt area of Abingdon.

A little way behind the fence and ivy is the Boundary House Public House. The deer was startled and ran. Deer and modern traffic don’t mix well so I hope it got home OK.
Coach and 4
Deer were better suited to the lower speed days of the stagecoach. Elizabeth sent me this picture of a stagecoach passing down East St Helen Street earlier in the week (on the 11th during the Abingdon Street Fair detour).

Two horse-drawn stagecoaches set out on a 113-mile journey from Windsor Castle to Warwick this week and are currently at Kineton. They stayed at Henley, Dorchester-on-Thames, Stanton Harcourt, Hook Norton and Kineton on the way. Not many Public Houses can cater for a stagecoach and four these days, but I dare say the old coach houses of the Kings Head and Bell and the Crown and Thistle, in Abingdon, would have give them a good place to rest over.

The stagecoaches were raising money for Help for Heroes and The Household Cavalry Operational Casualties Fund.

Choose Abingdon Partnership – Annual General Meeting

6 Replies

A full report will appear on the Choose Abingdon website later in the week. So the best I can do is to summarise the partnership’s achievements and plans – as I understood them at the AGM. The partnership is a forum of councils and local business with an annual budget of 60K, and one paid partnership manager:  Heather Brown.

The following projects have been taken on by Choose Abingdon in the first 2 years …
Partnership projects

  • Whats On Leaflet – put about in town shops and often in the Round&About magazine to promote Abingdon events.
  • Gazebos Scheme – on hire every week – nominal fee to cover wear. Being used most weekends by community groups.

    • Partnership projects

  • Community Shop. Displays from community groups changing weekly. This week sees the Carbon Cutters including Abingdon Hydro.
  • Local Excellence Market – allows local Abingdon and villages to show off their wares, including local shops. Also gives a first chance to smaller craft producers to try out a market stall at low cost.
  • Positive Abingdon PR – Heather, the partnership manager is often to be seen in town going above and beyond, and she is always trying to promote Abingdon in local publications as a place to: visit, shop and eat.Choose Abingdon Loyalty Card Launch
  • Choose Abingdon Loyalty Card – seen as the partnership flagship as it links people and businesses in a 2 way communication benefiting both, and makes Abingdon people feel a part of Abingdon. There are now 1400 card holders.Choose Abingdon website
  • The Choose Abingdon website has been live for some time. This Friday an interactive Whats On will be launched once it has been preloaded with known events. That should supersede abingdondiary.co.uk.
  • Town Map boards… One has been out there at Rye Farm Car Park since June. The rest will soon follow. The information board in the Market Place will continue to be used for information, and an additional map be added nearby.
  • 52 Things to Do – a new local tourist booklet out in November, with local poems, artwork, and 52 things to do in Abingdon, Wantage and surrounds – has had much input from the partnership.
  • Walks will be added to the website and printed walk routes with nice artwork will be on sale soon.
  • A video will be going on Youtube aimed at attracting foreign journalists, and others, to talk about Abingdon during the Olympics and beyond.

Going forward, the partnership are now using management science techniques to plan what projects they should take on next in a more strategic sense. This diagram is my very simplistic understanding of how it works.
Abingdon Fair
Using something called segment analysis they graded 43 projects, according to how they affect various segment groups (young, old, independent traders etc.) with costs and risks against benefits. The high cost / high benefit projects are already underway by councils and Scottish Widows.

That has given Choose Abingdon a new list of possible future projects: those in small print on the diagram.

Clearing up after the Fair

7 Replies

Abingdon Fair
I got back to Abingdon at 1:45 am, having been busy elsewhere, and so missed the 2nd evening of the fair.

By 2 am there were just a couple of trailers being attached to lorries on the Market Place. Elsewhere all was clear but the road not yet opened : Street Sweepers were driving back and forth clearing up the debry …

So no pictures from Tuesday, just some of the more surreal pictures from Monday instead …
Abingdon Fair
I took this one into the Bellinger’s Sign: left side reflected, right side real.
Abingdon Fair
Cuddly animals on one side. Monsters over the road.
Abingdon Fair
Toffee apples.
Abingdon Fair
Un Fair.

The Fair may have gone, but the runaway fair will be here next weekend, as will the Apple Day at Caldecott School, and the Abingdon Marathon. So lots happening next weekend in and around Abingdon.

Abingdon Fair – Monday

9 Replies

Abingdon Fair
Normally Meteorite is next to Body Count in front of St Nic’s church.
Abingdon Fair
But this year Body Count was at the far end of Ock Street almost a mile away. The Abingdon Street Fair is that long.
Abingdon Fair
The Fair did look a little thin in places yesterday, during the setup, but rides have arrived since then. The Nottingham Goose Fair was still on up until yesterday.

Late in the day Super Bob appeared in the Car park of the White Horse Pub, and Froggit has appeared in front of the Tower Close Flats.
Abingdon Fair
Another difference this year is that the County Hall is still mostly under wraps – undergoing the museum improvements and half-century building maintenance job.
Abingdon Fair
The twirling light shone up into the sky by Hebborn’s Waltzer, from Oxford, gave quite a different effect when it lit up the corner of the County Hall – this year.
Abingdon Fair
The Prince of India joined in the spirit of the Fair by serving takeaways from the pavement. The Dil Raj handed out menus.
Abingdon Fair
Dads carried tired toddlers on shoulders…
Abingdon Fair
while Teenagers tried out more and more daring rides.

There was a little wind about, and a very fine shower late in the evening, but conditions were good. There were lots of people but not the normal crush.

Traffic from South Abingdon was very heavy during the early morning rush.