Abingdon, Oxfordshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abingdon is a market town in the Thames Valley in Southern England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district in Oxfordshire. Historically the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places which claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town.
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[edit] Geography
Abingdon is eight miles south of Oxford, in the flat valley of the Thames and is situated on the west (right) bank of that river, where the small river Ock flows in from the Vale of White Horse.
[edit] History
The site has been occupied from the early to middle Iron Age and the remains of a late Iron Age defensive enclosure (or oppidum) underly the town centre. The oppidum was in use throughout the Roman occupation.
Abingdon Abbey was founded in Saxon times, possibly the 7th century but its early history is confused by numerous legends, invented to raise its status and explain the place-name, since -don means a hill and Abingdon stands in a valley. In 1084, William the Conqueror celebrated Easter at the Abbey and then left his son, afterwards Henry I, to be educated there.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, Abingdon was a flourishing agricultural centre with an extensive trade in wool and a famous weaving and clothing manufacture. The abbot seems to have held a market from very early times and charters for the holding of markets and fairs were granted by various sovereigns, from Edward I to George II. In 1337, there was a famous riot in protest at the Abbot's control of this market and several of the monks were killed.
After the abbey's dissolution in 1538, the town sank into decay and, in 1555, upon receiving a representation of its pitiable condition, Mary I granted a charter establishing a mayor, two bailiffs, twelve chief burgesses and sixteen secondary burgesses, the mayor to be clerk of the market, coroner and a Justice of the Peace. The present Christ's Hospital originally belonged to the Guild of the Holy Cross, on the dissolution of which Edward VI founded the almshouses instead, under its present name.
The council was empowered to elect one burgess to parliament and this right continued until the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885. A town clerk and other officers were also appointed and the town boundaries described in great detail. Later charters, from Elizabeth I, James I, James II, George II and George III, made no considerable change. James II changed the style of the corporation to that of a mayor, twelve aldermen and twelve burgesses.
In 1810, the Wilts and Berks Canal opened, linking Abingdon with Semington on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Abingdon became a key link between major industrial centres, such as Bristol, London, Birmingham and the Black Country. In 1856, the Abingdon Railway opened, linking the town with the Great Western Railway at Radley. The Wilts and Berks Canal was abandoned in 1906 but a voluntary trust is now working to restore and re-open it. Abingdon railway station was closed to passengers in September of 1963. The line remained open for freight until 1984, including MG cars until the factory closed in 1980. The nearest railway station is now Radley, two miles away. The branchline is now mainly replaced by a cyclepath, whilst the land on which the station stood has been extensively redeveloped, and is now the site of a large Waitrose store and surrounded by hundreds of new flats and houses.
Abingdon was the county town of Berkshire and the magnificent county hall and court house, now the museum, was supposedly designed by Christopher Wren. However, Abingdon's failure to engage fully with the railway revolution, accepting only a branch line, sidelined the town in favour of Reading. The corporation was reformed, under the Municipal Reform Act 1835 and was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972. In 1974, under local government reorganisation, Abingdon became part of the non-metropolitan shire county of Oxfordshire and the seat of the new Vale of White Horse District Council, with Abingdon becoming a civil parish with a town council.
[edit] Economy
Industrially, Abingdon is best known as the location of manufacture of MG cars (1929–1980). The Pavlova leather works, now closed down, used to be a major employer. Abingdon was home to the Morland Brewery, whose most famous ale was Old Speckled Hen, named after an MG car. Greene King bought Morland for £182M in 1999 and operations were moved to Bury St Edmunds. The site of the brewery has now been redeveloped into residential housing.
Today Abingdon is close to several major scientific employers the UKAEA at Culham (including the Joint European Torus (JET) fusion research project), Harwell Laboratory, the CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the new Diamond Light Source synchrotron, which is the largest UK-funded scientific facility to be built for over 30 years. Many inhabitants work in Oxford or commute by rail to London, from nearby Didcot. The Army now occupies Dalton Barracks, which, prior to 1993, was the Royal Air Force station, RAF Abingdon.
Abingdon is home to the headquarters of Sophos, the anti-virus company. Research Machines, an educational computing supplier, commonly refer to themselves as being Abingdon-based, which is technically true - even though their HQ is actually in nearby Milton Park, Milton, they have an Abingdon post code (as does the rest of Milton Park). Penlon Intermed, a medical equipment company, are Abingdon-based, formerly based close to the site of the former railway station, although having recently moved to the outskirts of Abingdon, the former premises having been redeveloped as residential housing. Another major employer is the British head office of the German appliance company Miele.
[edit] Sites of interest
Of a Benedictine abbey there remains a beautiful Perpendicular gateway (common local knowledge, however, is that it was actually rebuilt out of the rubble and a little cursory examination of the patternation of the stonework will apparently divulge this) and ruins of buildings called the prior's house, mainly Early English and the guest house, along with other fragments.
The picturesque narrow-arched bridge over the Thames, near St Helen's Church, dates originally from 1416. St Helen's Church itself dates from around 1100 and is the second widest church in England, having 5 aisles and being 10 ft(3 m) wider than it is long.
The most distinguished landmark in Abingdon is probably the building which now houses the Abingdon Museum, which was formerly the county hall of Berkshire (the town was county town until it ceded that title to Reading in 1867): a building hailed as the "grandest town hall in Britain" and built by Christopher Kempster, who worked with Christopher Wren on St Paul's Cathedral.
[edit] Culture and folklore
A longstanding tradition of the town has local dignitaries throwing buns from the roof of the Abingdon Museum for crowds assembled in the market square on specific days of celebration (such as royal marriages/coronations/jubilee), although many residents are unaware of this, due to the rarity of occurrences.
The centre of town and the whole of Ock Street (half a mile) are closed every October for two days for the Ock Street Fair, once a hiring fair but now maybe Britain's longest narrowest funfair. The much smaller Runaway Fair, the following Monday, was for workers who had found their new employers too much to stomach within the first week!
Abingdon has a very old and still active Morris Dancing tradition, passed on by word of mouth since before the folk dance and song revivals of the 1800s.[1][2]
Every year a Mayor of Ock Street is elected by the inhabitants of Ock Street, he then parades through the town preceded by the famous Horns of Ock St.
The Friends of Abingdon's Unicorn Theatre, housed in the old Abbey buildings, is the site of first productions of many stage adaptations of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, by Stephen Briggs. Abingdon is one of several real-world locales to provide Pratchett with inspiration for Ankh-Morpork, a major city on the Discworld.
[edit] Twinned towns
Abingdon is twinned with:
It also has connections (through the Vale of White Horse District) with:
[edit] Famous Abingdonians
- See also Abbot of Abingdon, Abingdon School and List of notable Old Abingdonians.
- Saint Edmund of Abingdon, 13th century Archbishop of Canterbury: He was born in Abingdon, as were his sisters, Saint Alice of Catesby and the Blessed Margaret Rich.
- Stephen of Abingdon, 14th century Lord Mayor of London.
- Alain Menu, World Touring Car Championship driver, lives in Abingdon.
- Radiohead, the rock band, who formed when studying at Abingdon School, although they are commonly associated with Oxford, as that is where they played most of their gigs prior to being signed.
- Dorothy Richardson, novelist: She was born in Abingdon. She was the first writer to publish an English-language novel using what was to become known as the stream-of-consciousness technique.
- Matthew Taylor, Premiership footballer: He plays for Portsmouth F.C. grew up in the town.
- Thomas Tesdale, 16th century local benefactor and eventual founder of Pembroke College, Oxford.
- Dean Whitehead, Football League Championship footballer: He plays for Sunderland A.F.C. and was born in Abingdon.
- Lab 4, a hard dance act.
[edit] Schools
- Abingdon and Witney College: provides further education.
- Abingdon School: private, boys, 11–18. The thirteenth, if not the sixth, oldest school in the country.
- The Consortium: state, mixed, a partnership of schools including Fitzharrys School, Larkmead School, John Mason School. The Consortium also includes Abingdon and Witney College.
- European School, Culham: semi-private multilingual school.
- Our Lady's Convent: private, girls.
- St Helen and St Katharine: private, girls, 9–18.
- The Manor Preparatory School (for girls) is based 2 miles out of Abingdon in the old Shippon Manor House.
- Larkmead: secondary school
- John Mason: secondary school
- Fitzharrys: secondary school
