A few more flood pictures while it lasts:

From the submerged towpath looking towards Abingdon Bridge.

From about the same place looking towards the cricket / croquet pitch beyond the trees.

The blue childrens water feature shows above the water in the Abbey Meadows.

Looking from Abingdon Lock along the handrail of the submerged landing stage.

Branching from the Thames, the nearest of the two channels that rush away down swift ditch. A weir is down there somewhere.

Across river, and further upstream, a one-time lake, complete with rescue ring. The lake was filled with fly ash piped from a nearby power station about four years ago.

Nearby fields show how the land would lie without such industrial intervention.

Next to Abingdon rowing club, the old Kingfisher Canoe Club hut is being demolished. The rowing club has planning permission to expand, so they can hold more boats ,and will need the land taken by the old hut.

The canoes can be seen some way behind the fire of the old hut.

The new hut is nearby and all ready.

The Bishop of Oxford was at St Helens for a United Service of the churches in Abingdon.

Bishop John has been in the job about six months.

People stayed on afterwards for tea, coffee and biscuits.

Near the end of the service people remembered Rev John Stanbury from All Saints Church, Abingdon, who passed away today after a long illness.

Unusually for a Saturday the traffic was bad in town. It built up soon after midday when emergency vehicle sirens could be heard and some thuds that turned out to be explosions.

The Abingdon Herald reports that two gas canisters at a unit off Blacklands Way exploded.

Colwell Drive and the Fairacres trading estate were closed and people evacuated ( it must have been an unusual first day for the new Pets at Home store with their 10% opening offers).

Twelve fire engines were at the scene. The BBC says the unit belongs to Compact GTL, a new UK company that turns gas to liquids.

Elsewhere, the new path to the lock, repaired since July, was taking a bit of a battering from all the water.

The water level near Abingdon Lock was at 11 feet – a little way below the Jan 2003 high water mark.