{"id":25027,"date":"2006-03-11T07:06:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-11T07:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abingdon.blog\/Abingdon2006\/2006\/03\/11\/the-friends-of-abingdon\/"},"modified":"2006-03-11T07:06:00","modified_gmt":"2006-03-11T07:06:00","slug":"the-friends-of-abingdon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=25027","title":{"rendered":"The Friends of Abingdon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag06\/06031103.jpg\" \/><br \/>When the friends of Abingdon were inaugurated in 1944 they had 2 aims:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">To arouse in all people of Abingdon and the neighbourhood a lively and practcal interest in the town and its setting<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">To help preserve what is best worth retaining amongst its old buildings and to encourage new buildings worthy of its civic tradition and character<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In their early days they achieved a great deal in acquiring the old Abbey buildings and some medieval cottages in Thames street which &#8211; after the borough rat catcher had dispatched the previous tenants &#8211; and restored with great care.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag06\/06031102.jpg\" \/><br \/>In the map above the most well known parts are:<br \/>A1 &#8211; Cottages converted to offices and curator&#8217;s house<br \/>A2 &#8211; Cottages converted to the Unicorn Theatre<br \/>B1 = Checker and Undercroft (Checker Chimney pictured alongside)<br \/>B2 = Long Gallery<\/p>\n<p>But their influence and help was felt in many other projects and campaigns. To take a few:<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag06\/06031104.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Saved the Carswell from destruction (pictured above)<\/li>\n<li>Restored the Abbey Archway<\/li>\n<li>Fought to save Fitzharris Manor House from demolition (without success)<\/li>\n<li>Put a memorial plaque to St Edmund in the wall of St Nicholas Church<\/li>\n<li>Fought the demolition of 35 Ock Street<\/li>\n<li>Supported the creation of the town centre murals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the friends of Abingdon were inaugurated in 1944 they had 2 aims: To arouse in all people of Abingdon and the neighbourhood a lively and practcal interest in the town and its setting To help preserve what is best worth retaining amongst its old buildings and to encourage new buildings worthy of its civic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}