A couple of days in Abingdon

Monday morning was a bit of a late start - though not for Helen and Andy who'd already been into town and back before I even emerged from the boat!  Maybe they've had more practice than me - yeah right, lol!  They were heading off to Sonning only a little hung over, and still very chirpy; such a pleasure to see you all again, enjoy the rest of your holiday!

We had a walk into historic Abingdon after lunch, and were enthralled with the town, it has such a relaxed feel, and was recently confirmed as the oldest town in England, having been continuously inhabited since the Iron Age.  The Council certainly seem to provide a wealth of opportunities for locals and visitors to enjoy.

The view from across Abingdon Bridge

We visited Abingdon County Hall Museum, housed in a glorious Grade 1 listed building from the 17th century, and along with a diverse display of artefacts from Neolithic times to the present day, also houses a fascinating time line of England's history and different 'periods' of time since the Iron Age - I wish they'd had something similar when I was at school, I may even have comprehended the history of my country.

Abingdon County Hall Museum

 

 

 

 

 

A sign found during conversion of an ancient building

 

 

 

 

 

The centre of the town - very well kept with lots of floral displays

A variety of architecture

More views of the Museum

A few gargoyles on The Guildhall, spotted as we walked along Abbey Close

 Old hospital buildings

   Not sure about the green, but a quaint old building              Our Lady's Convent School

We'd heard there was a launderette in Abingdon, and eventually found it late on Monday after asking at the Information Centre in the Council Offices - it's a bit of a walk from the boat so Barry visited on Tuesday taking a large bag of towels and sheets on his bike, while I caught up with some clothes hand-washing (it's too expensive to do it all in the launderette!). 

After our visit to town on Monday we walked back through the Abbey Gardens, which also house a heated outdoor pool open daily from late May to early September and obviously very popular with local people as they were filled with families and youngsters having fun while we were in the area.  It's refreshing to see children participating in outdoor activities, rather than them staying in and playing on their x-boxes or whatever the latest computerised games are nowadays!

 

     Unsure as to what this monument is                Peeking through the Abbey ruins

The moorings at Abingdon are fabulous, though space is at a premium with a five day time limit advertised, and many boats stayed the same three nights that we did which must've made it challenging for others to find a slot.  They certainly embrace boaters here.

Northern Pride moored opposite the Abbey Gardens - facing the wrong way!

Ruins of the old Abbey

Returning to the boat on Monday evening we were treated to an outstandingly dramatic sky, with one half being dark and daunting whilst the other was bright and cheery - consequently producing an amazing light ...

  Abingdon Bridge over The Thames

 

What a welcoming, friendly sign - well done Abingdon!

We also found a glazier to cut some cratch glass for the front of the boat which was a relief - we've been searching for one since we arrived in late May!  Barry took the cardboard template to them on Tuesday morning and they had it ready within a couple of hours, so once we'd collected it he spent the afternoon fitting it.  It's such an improvement on the cracked glass and rotten wooden frame we had previously.  A very productive couple of days!

 

 

 

 

Barry prepares the cratch frame for its new glass

 

 

 

 

 

On Tuesday evening Barry went for another long walk around Abingdon, discovering more delightful scenes ...

 St Helen's Church by The Thames

 'The Old Anchor' at St Helen's Wharf

 Night shot of St Helen's Church with the moored boats in the foreground

Looking down 'Vineyard' from the town centre

The view of Old Abbey from under the museum - for the atomic bloke Barry met while taking this shot

   Pretty Petunias (I think!)

Oxford to Abingdon leads to a 'dry' boat (nothing to do with the drought!)

Sadly Kim had to return to her home in Brighton on Sunday, we loved having her on board for six days.  Barry had found a 'short cut' across Queens Colleges Cricket grounds to get us to Abingdon Road - well he thought it was until we got to the exit gate to find that we'd walked through private property and said gate was firmly padlocked!  At some time a rather muscular person must've had the same problem and bent two of the railings a little - Kim being so slim managed to easily slip through the gap, I attempted it and almost got my head stuck - I could see the firemen laughing as I swiftly removed myself from the horror!  Barry bent over and I climbed onto him, hitched over the part of the gate without the spikes on and jumped down - I'd like to say I did so nimbly but I'd be lying!  Anyway, no injuries incurred.  Barry deftly climbed up and did jump down like a child, not sure how he does it!

 

 

 

Kim doing her Houdini impersonation, though was a little harder to escape Sandra's hug

 

Kim found her car, 'Bertie', happily parked outside Sarah's house and set off home.  Barry and I had a coffee with Sarah, and discovered that she'd recently acquired four ex-battery hens, but unfortunately one was already gone, seemingly slaughtered by a ferocious fox as there was a trail of feathers further up the garden - bless it!  I was saddened to see the state of these hens in comparison with my daughter Lisa's hens (see blog post of 6 June - 'Family and foul play'), it reiterates why I only buy 'free range' eggs, though as Lisa says, that's no use unless I also buy free range chickens!  How dense of me, I never really thought about that!  I shall make it a mission in future to look out for it now I've seen the state of these poor hens after living in such confined spaces.

     A battered ex-battery farm chicken                Sandra and Sarah say farewell for now

Returning to the boat we finally left Oxford after two weeks in and around the city - it's almost the longest we've stayed anywhere, being marooned in Evesham during May 2009 for over three weeks holds the record.

The journey to Abingdon cruises through some charming scenery, with just a couple of mechanised locks on the way.

Oxford University Rowing clubrooms - a notch above the rest 'What, what!'

  Couldn't resist just one more rowing shed photo

Looks like the Jamaican bob sleigh team, now a rowing team at Oxford - is that Mr T at the back?

 

 

Isis Farmhouse from the river

 

 

 

 

 

 Sharing Iffley lock with cruisers

 

 

 

Looks like a dolls house, but a full size version!

 

 

The Kings Arms pub close to Sandford Lock 

 

 

 

 

 Holding on in Sandford Lock

 

 

 

The fields are looking very dry

 Large and little!

 How cute is this boathouse?!

 Nuneham House and Park looks over the Thames not far from Abingdon - no access to the public unfortunately

Barry had heard the sounds of motorbikes in the background for a while, and just past Nuneham railway bridge we came across a swarm of motocross riders at a place called Culham Park where they apparently held the  British Motocross MMX Championships September 2009.  It looked terribly dangerous but lots of fun!

Wow! what great timing catching the start of a motocross race from the top of the boat

 A bit of a scramble up the hill - how do they manage not to bump into each other?!

Shades of green blend stunningly with the boats and river 

 While here there's a startling contrast of brown, yellow and purple with the greens

 Looking back at Abingdon Lock

We arrived in Abingdon around 1600hrs and found it to be a very busy place, with lots of free moorings, and found a handy place with enough room for our boat and Wand'ring Bark - though they were a good three hours behind us at this point.  We were a little reckless in that we didn't do our usual neat parking to enable other boats to moor up as we were hoping to 'save' the spot for Andy and his crew - luckily no passing cruisers felt like stopping next to us so by then time they arrived the space was still there and we moved along for them.

It was good to see hoards of families having fun in the park opposite, how fabulous that the weather is being kind during the school holidays (so far!).

Our first glimpse of Abingdon - a very busy area though no trouble getting a mooring

 We went under the bridge to see if there was a spot closer to town but decided to turn back

We had a splendiferous evening of fun with Helen and Andy who'd travelled all the way from Thrupp. Barry taught them his card game, we drank rather too much boat brew, and ate some naughty nibbles - Andy partook of rather too much of Barry's special recipes and just missed a win by putting the wrong card down in the last round!  He was mortified bless him!  Ah well, there was lots of singing too, Andy and Helen seem to have a song for most sayings, and they got funnier as the night (and home brew) wore on - by the end of the evening and the week with Kim we had a 'dry' boat!  Barry will have to get busy ...

Dan, Sandra, Helen and Andy attempting 'Six Handed Rummy' after a few drinks

A beautiful huge Scotch Thistle (I think!) at Iffley Lock

Thanks to 'Sarah' for pointing out that the 'naked thistle' on yesterday's blog was in fact a 'teasel'. She said "they're an interesting plant because they were used in times gone by cloth workers to raise the nap on woollen cloth - the prickles being ideal for this purpose!" - how cool, we love receiving such interesting information.

A short trip to Christchurch Meadows & some partying madness

Barry spent much of Saturday morning chatting with the owners of the boats moored in front and behind us, relishing a good chin wag with the brothers on the working boats, Archimedes and Ara - they gave him a website to check out but unfortunately it's no longer viable so they may want to update it?  You can, however, contact them via Tom Hill on 07973915146. They'd taken three days to travel to Oxford from London to do some coal deliveries and then they're turning back heading to Beale Park, Lower Basildon, for the Inland Waterways Association Festival and Boat Show on the August Bank Holiday weekend. 

Barry obtained a price list from them and we were dismayed to discover that we could've bought the 4 litres of 'loo blue' from them for only £9.00, having just paid £14.99!  What a difference, how can Boatyards justify such an extortionate profit I ask myself?

The low arched Osney Bridge in the background, with Archimedes in the foreground ...

and Ara alongside, with one of the brothers who run the boats from Little Venice in London

We left our mooring before we had to pay £5 a night taking a short cruise for a lunchtime drink at 'The Isis Farmhouse', Iffley Lock, an unusual riverside pub in that it has no roadside access.  Beer was once delivered to here from the river and apparently during the 19th century the owners received 5 shillings or 7 shillings and six pence (depending on the side of the river) for every corpse they retrieved - crikey, they must've been dangerous times!

It's only open Wednesday to Sunday and sells a restricted, though very healthy sounding, food and drink menu. In fact most of the drinks are organically produced so I sampled a rather delicious cider.

 Leaving our mooring at Osney Bridge; a bit of industry alongside the river here but it doesn't detract from the beauty 

 

 

The very popular 'Head of the River' pub adjacent to Folly Bridge 

 

 

 Folly Bridge and the island with a variety of shapes and sizes of buildings, including the offices of  Salter's Steamers passenger boat services

 The new buildings on the left look so out of place!

 Christchurch Meadow on the right

 

 

Narrowboats 'Emily' & 'Bronte' - one pulls (or pushes?) the other!

 

 

 An array of University Boathouses and a river full of punts - looks like fun

 Probably one for every College?

We're sort of becoming accustomed at weekends now to seeing a variety of party boats with all girl or all boy occupants, presumably they're mostly hen and stag parties.  A small cruiser pulled up while we were at the Isis Farmhouse, with five blokes on board, two of whom were shirtless and given short shrift by the Landlord who suggested they attire themselves decently or they wouldn't be partaking of his wares! They duly succumbed and returned to the boat to dress a little more appropriately, though their language was a lot worse when they got back to the garden but didn't draw a comment which I found rather hypocritical seeing as there were a number of small children around - it's bizarre what people can take offence to!

Another small cruiser that pulled alongside had 'Groove Armada' painted on it's side.  Kim sort of noticed this but didn't think too much of it until we'd departed when she exclaimed that maybe it really was her favourite 'bands' boat (they're actually DJ's I think!) and we suggested returning to check it out but we didn't.  Their single 'At the River' is one of my favourite tunes, and to think we could've met them 'at the river' too, possibly a missed opportunity?!

    Refreshments in the garden of The Isis Farmhouse 

 Returning to Christchurch Meadow to moor

        Yet more punts!                      Our visitor for a couple of hours while he went shopping

We were again fortunate to find a precious mooring, this time opposite Christchurch Meadow, which is a short walk to Sarah's house on Sunday morning for Kim to collect her car.  Shortly afterwards there were no moorings to be had, so the gentleman above asked if he could moor up alongside us and leave his dog on the boat while he did a spot of grocery shopping - we happily obliged and Kim got her dog petting 'fix' keeping him calm while his owner was away.

We thought we'd try and bit of Oxford night-life eating some delicious Thai food at a delightful pub called 'The Old Tom', a historic hostelry with friendly and happy staff (always a bonus in our view!): 

"Great Tom, in the Tom Tower, usually called Old Tom, is Oxford's loudest bell. At 9:05 every night, it rings 101 times. The tradition arises from the original number of students in the college -- plus one added in 1663. Five minutes after nine was once the time that the Oxford Colleges closed their gates and locked their doors. Great Tom was rung to indicate that each of the original 101 students was safely inside the gates.  The Old Tom Pub across the street from the Tom Tower since 1769 is, coincidentally, at Number 101 Aldgate."

We almost missed the bells ringing - well I missed them completely as I was paying our bill but Barry managed to catch the last few peels!  The issue for the students being 'safely inside the gates' probably originates from the fact that around the time that the University was first opened, the local inhabitants were not at all pleased to have them around and 63 students were murdered during a protest march! 

   A short stroll into town

The Old Tom (and Kim!)

We had a final drink in The Head of the River, before heading back to the river and the boat!  The most surreal sight accosted us as we walked back along the Thames Path - one of the Salter's party boats was returning with a boat-full of women dressed as sailors and as it headed back to town it was booming out Michael Jackson's 'Thriller', at the point where the voice of Vincent Price is describing hell, looking like a dark spectre with flashing lights - it was spectacularly spooky!

I took advantage of the situation once we were back at Northern Pride and had a bit of a dance on the path as they slowly made their way back to base at Folly Bridge - well it was so dark no-one could see me! 

 

 

 The Head of the River lit up - and the flashing lights of the disco diva boat!

  

 Looks like a couple of naked thistles