{"id":34935,"date":"2026-01-30T17:21:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=34935"},"modified":"2026-01-30T17:21:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:21:05","slug":"abbey-millstream-through-the-year-january-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=34935","title":{"rendered":"Abbey Millstream Through the Year: January 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026013022.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe millstream leaves the River Thames close to the weir and passes under a humped wooden bridge.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026013085.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe water level in the millstream remains remarkably steady, even when the Thames is in flood. On the far bank there is a tangle of mossy trees, beyond which the buildings on Audlett Drive can be seen, including Snakes and Ladders and Protyre.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026013078b2.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe stream is overgrown with fallen trees and water vegetation. In January another tree fell across the water, creating an obstacle for a pair of swans that regularly travel up and down the millstream.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026013078.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nOne of the swans can be seen leaving the water and briefly using the bank to get around the obstruction.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026013032.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe stream then flows beneath the green girder Thames View Bridge.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026013080c.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThis bridge connects the Thames View houses to the Abbey Meadows, and here there is noticeably more birdsong, perhaps encouraged by garden bird feeders nearby.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026013081d.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThere seem to be robins every few metres along this stretch.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026013079c.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThere are also plenty of moorhen,<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026013031.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nducks and other water birds.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026013083.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nAt the end of Abbey Close is another bridge, where a sign politely says \u201cLove Abingdon\u201d and \u201cPlease take your litter home.\u201d I\u2019ll be visiting this stretch of three bridges throughout 2026 to see how it changes month by month.<\/p>\n<p>The millstream was created in the 10th century, when Abbot \u00c6thelwold rebuilt Abingdon Abbey. It helped drain the abbey grounds while also providing a controlled flow of water to power the abbey\u2019s mills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The millstream leaves the River Thames close to the weir and passes under a humped wooden bridge. The water level in the millstream remains remarkably steady, even when the Thames is in flood. On the far bank there is a tangle of mossy trees, beyond which the buildings on Audlett Drive can be seen, including [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abbey-grounds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34935","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=34935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}