Argentan

Sint-Niklaas

Schongau

Lucca

Colmar

 PAST EVENTS 2026

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Europe Day Meal

Saturday 9 May 2026 - at Bella Napoli Restaurant, 29a Broad Street, Abingdon

About 30 Twin Town members and friends enjoyed an excellent dinner to celebrate Europe Day, appropriately at La Bella Napoli. It was a noisy, jolly occasion where we met old friends and made new ones.

The menu was largely Italian, though I enjoyed Belgian waffles for dessert, all washed down with a large glass of Malbec (oh dear, is that from Argentina – never mind if that is so, it’s from across the sea).

Unlike a certain fairy tale character ‘carriages for us’ were required around 9.30 pm - I think I can say without offence that everyone there was of a ‘certain age’ when midnight (at least for me) is not so attractive!

As a way of cementing European (and other) overseas friendships I think coming together over food and wine is one of the best. It is far superior to lengthy political perorations.

Our thanks to the ADTTS Committee for arranging the event and the staff of La Bella Napoli for making us so welcome and producing such delicious food.

Neil Hancox, 10th May 2026

Evening Meeting - The Story of the Little Basement Museum

Thursday 16 April 2026 - at Preston Road Community Centre

What links decoding the universe and the decoding of Abingdon’s long history? The larger than normal number of attendees at the monthly meeting heard that the answer is the curiosity, drive and determination of Dr Mike Russell. Mike is a scientist who worked at Harwell. He is also a very practical man, who when asked to take along an object he had built to his university entrance interview took along a spectrometer he had built. Later when building his own house, he built a crane on an old car chassis ‘to help with the heavy lifting’.

Mike’s fascination with the apparent random dark lines in sheets of mica led to discovery that they were caused by cosmic rays that were able to penetrate the crystalline structure of the mica. Mike also worked on quodons - no I had never heard of them either, but apparently, they are to do with how electricity can be transmitted through crystalline structures without it being conducted through that structure. Mike’s professional and indeed his private study may be said to have played a part in decoding the universe.

In the 1990s Mike bought part of a property in East St Helen Street that was to become the Waterline shop and later the Local Roots shop. There was a cellar beneath the shop that contained several tons of coal. Mike removed the coal and donated it to the local almshouses. Once the cellar was clear Mike was able to see that the original entrance to the property was below the current street level. Why was that he thought, who lived here then and how long have people lived in this locality?

Some of the wooden posts supporting the cellar roof were set on padstones, which appeared to come from the Abingdon Abbey. Dendrochronology dating of some of the timbers in the cellar suggest the timber was from trees cut down in 1500 with one sample even suggesting 1100.

In order to make the cellar more usable and before concreting the existing stone/gravel floor Mike decided see what was under the existing floor to see when people first began to live at this location. He dug a test hole 1m x 1m square about 1.3m beneath the existing basement floor level. He then proceeded to dig a borehole a further 1.3m down. The many items recovered are displayed in the museum and are arranged in the vertical order they were found. The lowest bits of ceramic were found at a depth of 1.2m and have been identified as iron age about 700 BC. Based on the average ground level rise in Abingdon the oldest find at the bottom of the pit suggests people have been living at this location for over 4500 years. This is supported by sedimentation analysis of the soil samples taken from that depth and columns of soil samples are again on display.

Mike has also found a well, constructed in the cellar which goes down to the present water table level 2.7m below the basement floor level and this can be seen. He also found a complete large pottery jar which when opened had a strong tobacco smell. A distinct motif on the jar appears on similar jars which have proved to be from Italy and originally contained olives.

Mike’s hard physical work in clearing the cellar, excavating the pits and boreholes and researching and cataloguing the finds helps confirm that people have been living in Abingdon for maybe 4500 years.

I have visited the museum and it is fascinating and I encourage others to visit it too. This may be easier now than in the past as I understand that in the future guided-visits may be arranged through Abingdon Museum at specific times.

Thank you to Norma and her team for the English wine and the buns. The buns were delicious and were another link to Abingdon’s long history.

Mars Street

Evening Meeting - Would I Lie to You?

Thursday 19 March 2026 - at Preston Road Community Centre

Numbers were a bit down on this occasion as the date clashed with a very interesting talk on Abingdon’s history, nonetheless we had about 18 people and several of them had stories to tell, some of which were true and some not.

Each volunteer would tell a story, then the audience could ask questions before deciding if the story was true or not.

Stella told us how she thought she was at a celebration but in fact it was a funeral.

Dave Dodds told us how he got away with a driving offence by blinding the authorities with scientific graphs.

Pete Dodd told us how when playing cricket, two players tried to catch the ball and managed to knock themselves out.

Richard told how he got drunk with a headmaster in Schongau.

Finally, we had Mohammed, our mystery guest. Richard claimed to be his English teacher which is why his English is so appalling. Howard claimed that Mohammed was a professional footballer and Stella claimed he was some kind of care worker.

It was a great, fun evening thanks to the people who came and especially to Susan, Nikki and all the catering team.

Richard Smart

Church Twinning Barn Dance

Saturday 28 February 2026 - at Trinity Church Hall, Conduit Road

It was a fun evening. Members of Abingdon Church Twinning organised a Barn Dance in the big hall at Trinity Church Conduit Centre. It was a fund raising initiative, with all tickets successfully sold. Alan Fisher from Abingdon Baptist was the caller directing the dances, mostly to plan (though a little chaotic at times when some dancers failed to fully grasp instructions). Most importantly, the committee members from the various churches had worked hard to prepare a generous ploughman’s supper, which was much appreciated. There were plenty of raffle prizes too. It was enjoyable company and we look forward with hope for a similar event in the future.

Brian Read

Evening Meeting - The Annual Quiz

Thursday 15 January 2026 - at Preston Road Community Centre

This was vintage, twinning entertainment!

Brian Read and Peter Dodd had once again put their brains together to produce one of their challenging and entertaining quizzes – and this one was no exception and well up to their usual high standard.

The first challenge was to choose a name for their team (eight letters, a vegetable or flower). A task already proving almost too much for one group who seemed unable to count to eight, and had to change their name. While some teams were struggling with the thinking up of vegetable and flower names, and simultaneously using fingers to count out the letters, other teams set to solving a sheet of dingbats (those annoying combinations of artistically placed and sized letters and/or numbers, which can be solved to give a related word or phrase).

general knowledge, geography and even a tasting round, where contestants had to taste a variety of flavoured crisps and guess the name of the flavour – including lobster crisps, and even beef and horseradish!

To give a flavour of some of the questions:
1. Which of these towns is Sint-Niklaas nearest to – Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent? 
2. What is the motto on the Abingdon coat of arms?
3. What was the traditional industry in Argentan?
(Answers at bottom of article)

A hugely entertaining quiz, and thanks to Peter and Brian for organising it.

Thanks too, to Nikki and Susan for delicious refreshments, including mulled wine.

The winners were the Daffodil team: Nikki, Howard, Phil, Nick, Connie, Stella (photo above).

Answers to Quiz questions: 1. Antwerp  2. Faith and Industry  3. Lace Making

Nick Marsh

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