The footpath starts off near Allparts on the Ashville Trading Estate. The red line on the map, taken from https://footpathmap.co.uk, shows that a lot of its length is through houses.

After the electricity substation on Byron Close, the footpath heads between the back garden fences of Byron Close and Ely Close.

It then opens up a little as the path skirts fields. I have seen it overgrown on some occasions but this year it looks well cut back and walkable in all but one place.

I was sent an email at the start of the lockdown saying that the path had been blocked by a fence. I walked the path for the first time this evening. It is a little dangerous to clamber over one obstacle.

There used to be a dogleg route round the foundation of a WWII shelter. The path has been blocked at this point before and opened up again at the insistence of Oxfordshire County Council. The email is asking for pressure to be put on Oxfordshire County Council so that it is opened again.

The footpath appears to follow closely the towpath of the old Wilts and Berks Canal and passes another WWII Pillbox.

At the far end is Mill Road.

Abingdon nightlife is still closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and there were a lot of people out walking this evening on the banks of the River Thames in Abingdon.

We crossed Abingdon Bridge.

Then walked along, seeing St Helen’s Church silhouetted with the sun setting behind.

Somebody has hung up masks from a tree, and they caught the last sun of the day.

We then walked back towards Abingdon Lock. There were lots of geese and insects about in Rye Farm Meadow.

The Environment Agency said on May 7th ‘Government restrictions due to Coronavirus 2020: these restrictions aim to stop all non-essential travel and minimise contact to slow the spread of the virus. A transit van is blocking navigation in the Iffley reach. Osney Lock has a mechanical failure. Sandford and Abingdon Locks have been damaged through misuse. Marsh Lock currently has a tree blocking vessel passage. Sunbury Lock has a sunken boat in the main channel above the lock cut.’

The water in Abingdon Lock is looking stagnant through not being used.

There is a long narrow pathway over the weir and people walk both ways, and so advice is given on observing social distancing rules.
Back in Abingdon there is a shop in Lombard Street that is between lessees, and the windows have been covered with newspapers from April 1st and before.

It includes Prize Sudoku and people panic buying toilet paper.

These days the supermarket shelves are full of toilet paper. When I went shopping last week, for a house I support, the things on the list that I could not find were self raising flour, and soda crystals. It varies. The previous time it was eggs and frozen fruit.

The Abingdon Health Walks scheme offers three walks a week from the White Horse Leisure and Tennis Centre (Monday, Wednesday and Fridays – 10.15 am meet in the café); and a Gentle Walk  from Preston Road Community Centre (Thursday).

The walks do not cost anything but you do need to register with them beforehand.  BETTER who run the leisure centre, has recently helped by providing public liability insurance and DBS checks for walk leaders – things necessary these days, so walks can continue as they have since Viv Boorman started them in 2004.

They also organise social events and the photo shows 50 members on holiday in September walking the Golden Cap National Trust trail in Somerset.

To find out more information on Abingdon Health Walks, ask at the leisure centre or contact Viv Boorman (Volunteer Scheme Coordinator) by emailing vivboorman531@btinternet.com .

On Monday there were the Friends of Abingdon Bank Holiday Walks. In the morning I saw them leaving at 10:30 on what was a sunny day:

The 1556 Boundary Walk – with Councillor Helen Pighills and the Town Crier.

The Lost Abbey Tour – with Ian Jardine, of the Twin Towns Society

Alternative Flowerbeds – with Cliff Marshall of Abingdon Carbon Cutters

Rivers of Abingdon – with Martin Buckland, an enthusiast from the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust.

I did not get pictures of the afternoon walks as I was holding a board saying  Art About Abingdon and led that walk. It was based on the Art About Abingdon leaflet the Vale produced about ten years ago. It was interesting researching more detail on the artworks.

The walk starts from Abingdon Bridge and is along the Thames Path, passing St Helen’s Church on the right.

Near where a board walk has been  placed over some boggy ground, Abingdon Marina comes into view on the other bank.

Just before the red DANGER sign, in the middle of the river – where the navigation channel to Culham Lock divides from the main flow, there is a cutting, in the opposite bank, that will one day become the Wilts and Berks Canal.

Follow the Thames Path until you come to a steep up and over footbridge. Turn right over the bridge and follow the path by the hydroelectric power generator, round Sutton Pools towards Sutton Courtenay. On reaching a road turn right. All Saints church is sometimes open and worth a look round. There is information about Eric Blair (pen name George Orwell) in the church. His gravestone is in the churchyard with other celebrities including Herbert Asquith, Primeminister 1908 to 1916; David Astor, newspaper publisher; and less well known, but very pretty with the snow drops rounds the gravestone, is the painter, Joyce Haddon.

Continue along the road over Ginge Brook until you come to a turning for Peep-o-Day Lane / Sustrans Route 5. Peep-o-Day starts as a causeway, and then becomes a road for a while – quite wet and muddy with lorries going from and to the quarry. Then after some concrete blocks the way  turns back to a cycle / footpath.

Beyond the quarry there are some private fishing lakes to your right. One is called Phil’s Lake. The water treatment works to your left can smell a little. Then comes Abingdon Marina.

Follow the road until you come back into Abingdon and the view of St Helen’s Church.

The circular walk is probably about 5-6 miles and very pleasant on a sunny day.

It was my wife’s birthday and after a meal near Oxford we went on a birthday walk beside the River Thames in Abingdon. St Helen’s Wharf was busy with birds after a boat stopped to feed them.

We walked over the bridge and along the causeway towards Culham.

Then we walked back along by the River Thames. There were huge mounds of wild Michaelmas Daisies beside the River, and out on the River oarsmen from Abingdon School were rowing by Abingdon Marina.

As we got near town my wife took this picture of The Old Anchor Inn.

I took one of the tall almshouse chimneys, looking like spaghetti in the River.

She took one of Abingdon Bridge.

The meal was at the Trout Inn. My wife is reading La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One by Philip Pullman, where the Trout Inn features extensively.  She says there are also mentions of Abingdon – there could be a future blog post about The Book of Dust – Abingdon.

Back to school this week for many. Clarkes shoe shop in Abingdon was busy the weekend before last. The barbers were busy last weekend and I ended up queuing in both.

Unlike previous weeks, there were not many families in the Abbey Meadow play area this evening. A couple were eating a large packet of crisps gazing out over the weir. A man was looking down the river from the Abingdon Lock fence.

We walked on, and as we looked back the man, and the crisp eaters were still there gazing at the River Thames. I took this view of the County Hall Museum seen through the lights on Nags Head Island.

Then this one of the sky with the clouds in long furrows. We bought the Abingdon Herald from the Co-op on the way home and looked first at the two page feature of the Wallingford Bunkfest last weekend.

What a remarkable event that is – taking over the town centre for three days.

The Friends of Abingdon organised some Bank Holiday Walks. There were four in the morning and four in the afternoon. In the morning (seen here) you could discover Abingdon Abbey, follow the steps of St Edmund of Abingdon,

circumnavigate the Abingdon Borough boundary from 1556,

or visit some alternative flowerbeds created by the Abingdon Carbon Cutters.

There were six alternative gardens: at Station House, in the Abbey Gardens (Pictured), beside the public toilets in the Abbey Grounds, by the kiosk of the Open Air Pool, alongside the new play area in the Abbey Grounds,

and the wild flower garden in the Abbey Meadow.