The new hotel at Old Abbey House has been open since October 2023. The notice board was added more recently, which prompted me to check out customer reviews.

Guest reviews highlight the cleanliness of the rooms and the ease of the self-check-in system. While some guests would prefer a more personal touch upon arrival.

The hotel’s central location in Abingdon is seen as a major advantage. While the hotel doesn’t offer breakfast, guests have many breakfast options nearby.

One reviewer mentioned the sound of church bells ringing for ninety minutes one Tuesday evening.

A new shop opened in Bath Street yesterday, next to Tiffins.

It sells a variety of foods and drinks, English, Turkish, and Arabic, with some interesting cakes and bread. It also has clothes and household items. The shop also has a photocopier that costs 15p for B&W and 39p for colour.

They were open late this evening and will put up their opening hours soon. Good luck to them.

On Monday, 20th February, the Abingdon Thai Massage will move next door. Workpeople have been getting the new premises ready for a couple of months

A new cake shop will open on Stert Street on Saturday, 21st, 2023. The business, established in 2019, previously traded from Bayworth, a village near Abingdon, selling cakes made for special occasions.

This is the first new shop to open in Abingdon in 2023.

Pictures of cakes can be seen on instagram.com/lottiesbakeaway.

The Vale of White Horse District Council are urging us to support local traders as they confirm the free parking days in the run up to Christmas. In Abingdon they will be the Saturdays (5, 12, 19 December) .

December 5th is also Small Business Saturday.

People were volunteering in one the charity shops today, decorating the window and getting the shop ready to open. Such shops will be permitted to reopen from Wednesday at 1am.

The rest of the winter will be uncertain for traders. There could be further closures.

Oxfordshire will be in the new tier 2 …

Andy sent me a link to a recent amendment to the Fairacres Retail Park (Phase 2) planning application with reference P20/V2608/FUL. In it the developers are asking that the first 2 units be allowed to open in March 2021 before work is completed on the service and car park for the remaining 3 units, which would open in August 2021.

The hoardings are down on the car park side of the redevelopment, and work is beginning on the service and car park area.

Before redevelopment this part of the retail park contained: Homebase, Topps Tiles, AHF and Vineys. Topps Tiles have moved nearby to Colwell Drive. Vineys moved in with parent company Lee Longlands.

After redevelopment, Lidl was known to be taking the first unit. According to planning application P20/V2608/FUL, the second unit would be split between a gym and a Costa coffee outlet, and the last 3 units could be taken by the same company if agreement is reached.

The Nursery Shop is open and full of colourful stock. The sale earlier in the year was not a closing down sale, as some of us thought, but a change of owner.

As well as being colourful, their clothing is ethically made from organic sustainable sources. There is also have an online Nursery Shop.

They are well positioned on the Market Place and today looked out on the monthly Farmer’s Market.

Winds got stronger and gustier as the day developed. Stalls needed to be well secured.

Stert Street, Abingdon, at lunchtime today.

Stert Street, Abingdon about the turn of the century – 1900.

At number 55 was Ye Olde Printinge Workes. At the far end was W. H. Hooke. Both were printers.

W. H. Hooke is now Robert Gatward Jewellers.

So what did happen to Ye Olde Printinge Workes and W. H. Hooke. How did they become neighbours during the twentieth century, not once, but twice, and what has happened to them since the year 2000.

Find out in tomorrow’s installment of ‘Printing Neighbours.’

A dozen or more shops have reopened since Monday.

In Bath Street, they included Masons,

Clockwork Dragon,

and Eileen.

Eileen have a closing down sale that began a few days before the lockdown and is continuing now.

About half the shops in Abingdon town centre are now open. Most of the charity shops are still closed. The hairdressing / nail businesses are closed. Catering (that are not doing takeaway) are also closed.

Of the bigger clothes shops New Look was open with a welcome back sale. Fat Face, M & Co, and Peacock are still closed. They have started re-opening some stores elsewhere.

Traffic at the Ock Street / Stratton Way lights was beginning to stretch back to the junction with West St Helen Street at times.