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At 4:55 he says that "In the 18th century Abingdon said no to the railway", which of course didn't arrive until way into the 19th.The other disappointing feature of this report is the poor poquality of the BBC picture, made in 1976 but looks more like the 30s or 40s.

Remember swimming there every weekend as a child in the 1970's... Would save up my 10p coins to slot into the Asteroids and Space Invader arcade games... Sport and culture 🤓

Wonderful! Thankfully, so much still recognisable today. Is there any film of the railway station?

Note the correct name is West St Helen.

By 1980 I was living in Abingdon. Unfortunately Morelands is gone and the Old Gaol was turned into a Swimming Pool is now long since closed.

Interesting to see the newly built precinct with work still going on at the end (woolies) ! 🙂

I remember seeing a class 47 in the yard in the early 1980's. Never saw the passenger service though.

This is 1987 onwards. It's easy to date because the archaeological excavations began on the Vinyard / Cattle market / railway station area prior to redevelopment for the Waitrose and new council buildings. As you can tell from the references to previous commerce, Abingdon was once a thriving and self-sustained market town. It had some wonderful architecture and history, being one of the oldest, if not THE oldest continually inhabited towns in England. The vandalism of the town began in 1960 and has continued over the years in a march to become a bland commuter town swallowed up in a sea of new build homes of little character. It once had a thriving tourist industry and was a nice place to visit. Now people are forced to look at Abingdon courtesy of a series of unnecessary traffic jams and 20 mph speed limits as they meander through to somewhere interesting.

Definitely 1990s. I watched them pass north along the A34 Oxford Western Bypass near Botley before turning off up the A420, thence I think they went via Cumnor and Farmoor over the toll bridge.

Definitely not 1980 ... the mural on the subway towards the end of the video featuring the morris dancers and parachute regiment was only painted in around 1985-86 ... and the planter in the Bury Street development was a fish pond back in 1980.

Interesting movie, I was there on that day, I remember the station being tidied in preparation. I was told they wanted to use a steam loco, but the one they had at that time was not suitable for the sharp curves.

I had a cine camera and regret not taking any film of Abingdon. After passenger services finished there were the MG cars going from there. There used to be a crane there, I remember that beoing cut up also the glass roofed canopy. The signal box, with weeds coming upthrough the floorboards reminded me of the film 'Oh Mr Porter.]. A Business man wanted to buy this and run trains, but the council wanted it redeveloped.

my home town

I went on the last proper passenger train out of Abingdon with my mother in the early 70s I think. Later my friends and I used to ride the mg export trains to Radley for fun. We never got caught!

Old school. Nice things you dad Bernard recorded. Added this as a link and a little tap up at the end of my new updated version of this!. th-cam.com/video/jvjDyzHuR10/w-d-xo.html

I remember the long bank holiday queues to get through Abingdon prior to the opening of the bypass

When Abingdon lost its railway it lost its soul it's never been the same since those responsible for its demise need hanging

7:09 And that car never did manage to find a gap in the traffic to pull out into Stratton Way…

I lived not far from Abingdon in the 70s , my friends father was a plumber who worked on the Old Gaol , he said the builders would refuse to work after dark in the area being made into the swimming pool after some builders etc said they saw a ghost of a former inmate of the Gaol on more than one occasion .

Fantastic footage. I had a flat in Old Station Yard, the building is visible on this film. I vaguely recall the station area being redeveloped as I was very young at the time. Nice to see it how it was. Thank you for sharing.

Good footage. Nice to see.

Hi Did write, give a push on a local facebook guess late last year. That TH-cam went of mine so comments I ever did went. So here we are again. Stuck a last year drone video on my new TH-cam and linked to this. th-cam.com/video/jrqduZZntJQ/w-d-xo.html

American spec MGs - you can easily tell, because they had three wipers. I was lucky enough to be able to buy a 'bare' body like this when the factory closed down, stuck an engine in it and 'found' some wire wheels - and all would have been fine if I could also have found the girl in hot pants. Oh well, there were plenty of other girls looking for an open-top ride ...................

A few years later they closed MG. The management of BL said there just wasn't a market for a front engined open top sports car anymore. Not long after that Mazda brought out the MX5 - a cross between an MG and a Lotus that actually worked and went round corners - and it became their best selling model. Another great British managerial success story.

Great video - Thanks for sharing! 😊👍🏻

Love this, the view from the Church shows the"new" building which used to house the "Busy Bee" newsagents in west St Helens (next ish to the old Electricity Board shop) which I worked on building 1988 / 89 ish so I think the footage is a bit later than '80.

Back when we used to manufacture goods 10:46 Thank you so much Margaret Thatcher for turning the nation into a nation of shop and call centre workers. Did NOT see Amazon and internet shopping coming did we Margaret.

Fella at 12:17 looks like one of singers from The Brotherhood of Man

I have a MG F and she is one of the cutest & loveliest cars ever made. A little lady

Health and safety what? :D

Such a shame this is all gone. Only thing left is the BR style concrete pillar wire fences, all rusted and mashed, tracing the line footprint.

Don't think this is TdF. Have posted a link to this on Twitter. Someone spotted a Tulip Computers team car at 2:18 which suggests Tour of Britain 1990-92. I am guessing 1991 as that had a Windsor to Birmingham stage (1992 comes nowhere near and 1990 had a Cardiff to Birmingham which I would have thought wouldn't come this far East)

"Don't vote for R. E. Mote"

Nice 36:14 🍌🍌🍌🍌

Abingdon UK

Factory had just 4 years left at that point.

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What was the presenters name? I recognize his face great hair style 😊

ive lived in Abingdon all my life iam now 50 ! :)

Wonderful - thanks so much for sharing this! I lived in Abingdon for 33 years! So many happy memories going swimming at the Old Gaol back in the 1970’s!