{"id":36108,"date":"2026-10-29T22:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T22:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=36108"},"modified":"2026-10-29T22:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T22:31:09","slug":"st-frideswides-way-orwellian-warnings-and-a-cow-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=36108","title":{"rendered":"St Frideswide\u2019s Way: Orwellian Warnings and a Cow in the Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026102903.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe second day of the St Frideswide\u2019s Way began in Abingdon, following the Thames Path towards Culham. The river at Abingdon was like a mirror.<\/p>\n<p>At Culham, I made a diversion to the church, only to find it locked. Looking at the empty noticeboard, I wondered whether it ever opened.<\/p>\n<p>I had high hopes for All Saints\u2019 in Sutton Courtenay, which has always been open on previous visits.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026102905.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThis time, however, a notice on the door said that it was closed because of the Abingdon Drama Club\u2019s production of 1984 (at the church where the author George Orwell is buried).<\/p>\n<p>Rather than following the Thames Path, the way kept south of the River Thames in order to visit the churches at Appleford and Long Wittenham.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026102906.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nAlong the way, the route passed the site of the new river crossing being built between Culham and Didcot.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026102907.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe surroundings had an Orwellian feel, with the land scoured to make a new road and notices at the nearby quarry warning: \u201cProperty under constant surveillance\u201d and \u201cKeep Out\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Things improved as the walk went through Appleford and Long Wittenham, on to Clifton Hampden, and along an interesting stretch of the Thames Path between Clifton Hampden and Dorchester, looked after by the Earth Trust.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026102909.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThere was, however, one final encounter to enliven the walk, as it grew dark. A cow had found its way to my side of an electric fence and ran around me in a semicircle, thudding the ground. In the gloom, I wondered whether it might be a bull. Fortunately, the situation never developed into anything like Orwell\u2019s <em>Animal Farm<\/em> where the animals take over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second day of the St Frideswide\u2019s Way began in Abingdon, following the Thames Path towards Culham. The river at Abingdon was like a mirror. At Culham, I made a diversion to the church, only to find it locked. Looking at the empty noticeboard, I wondered whether it ever opened. I had high hopes for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[168],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-walk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36108","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=36108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36109,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36108\/revisions\/36109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}