History of The Society

In 1944 Abingdon was a small country town where many older properties were showing the effects of neglect during two wars and the intervening years of economic depression. As in other similar towns, some buildings of architectural or historic interest had already been demolished or condemned. A survey in 1943 had listed many sites in Abingdon which had been cleared or were proposed for clearance, and so there was a real risk that inappropriate buildings might be erected on sensitive sites. Out of this situation grew the Friends of Abingdon, as a civic amenities society which celebrated its 63rd anniversary in 2007.

The early years

Much of this informal history is taken from Dick Barnes’ excellent “History of the Society 1944 – 1994” (which contains more detail and is still available from the Society in printed form). The book records in some detail the foundation of the Society and its early years, and then follows through various topics which link the Friends' activities during those 60 years. It is mainly a selection from the wealth of material in the archives of the Society - the minutes of Annual General Meetings and Committee Meetings, Annual Reports, newspaper cuttings, and the title deeds of the buildings of Abingdon Abbey which the Society has conserved and put to use. The abbreviated forms "the Friends" and "the Society" are used, as appropriate, to refer to "The Friends of Abingdon". The Society's civic amenities activities have taken place against a background of change in Abingdon: the near quadrupling of the population from c.9000 to c.34,000; the transfer of the town from Berkshire to Oxfordshire; and the replacement of the Borough Corporation by Abingdon Town Council within the Vale of White Horse District.

Two informal meetings in March 1944, chaired by the Mayor (Mr J L Etty), prepared a proposal for a society to be called The Friends of Abingdon, with the objects:

1. To arouse in all people of Abingdon and neighbourhood a lively and practical interest in the town and its setting;

2. To help preserve what is best worth retaining amongst its old buiIdings and to encourage new buildings worthy of its civic tradition and character.

An Inaugural Meeting was held on 4th May 1944, in the Great Council Chamber. The Chairman was the Mayor, and the Member of Parliament for the Abingdon Division of Berkshire, Sir Ralph Glyn, was among the 113 persons present. The meeting confirmed the name and objects of the new society, and appointed a provisional committee to draw up rules and suggest a programme of activities.

The formation of the Friends of Abingdon took place against the wartime background of preparations for the assault on the Normandy beaches on 6th June, and the V1 "flying bomb" attacks on London.

The first General Meeting was held on 13th July 1944. The rules were adopted. Mr A T Lloyd, the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, was elected as President, and Mr A H Emden, Principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford, as Vice-President. The officers elected at the meeting included the Mayor as Chairman, Mrs Ursula Liversidge as Vice-Chairman, and Miss Agnes C Baker as Secretary.

The Abbey

It was agreed that the Society should be affiliated to the Central Council of Civic Societies. A lecture, exhibition and visit were proposed as future activities. Concern was expressed about the future of the burnt-out clothing factory in West St Helen Street, and about the provision of ladders at St Helen's church so that prompt action could be taken against incendiary bombs. The society had thus been launched with an Executive Committee of some standing and experience, and showed an immediate concern for practical matters in the town.

The informal meetings prior to the inauguration of the Society had rejected the alternative of forming a trust specifically to purchase threatened buildings, but the Mayor suggested the aim of purchasing one site and reconditioning the building on it as an example of what could be done, and mentioned the Abbey Cottages in Thames Street. Little could he have known what the consequences would be during the years to come. It was soon learnt that the derelict Abbey Cottages were threatened with demolition; although not yet actually the subject of a Demolition Order. The newly founded Society began urgent negotiations with the owner of the cottages, Mr W Dockar Drysdale of Wick Hall, and soon after the first General Meeting he offered to sell or lease them. A survey by Mr Walter Godfrey and the Ministry of Works followed, and showed that the cottages (now the Curator's house and the Unicorn Theatre) were actually domestic buildings remaining from the great abbey, rather than merely being built with abbey stone. By February 1945 the cottages and their gardens had been purchased for £400 and transferred to newly appointed trustees.

This increased the Friends' interest in the adjoining Checker and Long Gallery, which were held by the Abingdon Municipal Charities and leased to the Borough Council. Although the Borough was willing to transfer the lease to the Friends, neither they nor the Trustees of the Charity could find a copy of the actual lease. In the end, a donation by the Pilgrim Trust enabled the Friends to purchase the Checker, Long Gallery, and the brewery Fuel Store opposite for £450 in February 1946. Another piece of land with a barn, opposite the Checker, was given to the Friends by Morland & Co, the brewers, in October 1945. (The Pilgrim Trust aims to provide initial stimulus and encouragement to a wide range of charitable purposes, using the income from an endowment of some £2 million from Edward Harkness of New York in 1930.)

Shortly after VE-Day, in April 1945, a small enclosed plot of land was given by Mr James Lyell, a solicitor living at The Knowl in Stert Street. This land, described as stable-yard and premises, lay to the north of the Checker. Its sole access was over the car park of the Baptist chapel, a right of way which proved to be a source of trouble for many years. Another small plot of land, immediately to the north of the gardens of the Thames Street cottages and now corresponding roughly to the Friends' car park, had been the site of a cottage, No 13 The Abbey. The owner, Miss Selina Rogers of Sheen, sold the plot for £30. Abingdon Coaches operated their business from a garage at the bottom of Checker Walk, and had become accustomed to using this derelict land for turning and parking their vehicles. This, too, proved to be a source of trouble for many years.

The final transaction was the gift in 1948 by Mr Dugdale of a cellar running under the easternmost Thames Street cottage, together with an adjoining small garden against the west wall of the Checker. This led to a series of misunderstandings and recriminations later.

The old brewery yard immediately to the north of the Long Gallery and Checker was not included in the land conveyed to the Friends by Abingdon Municipal Charities and Morlands Brewery, but was clearly essential to the use of the buildings. This omission was corrected on the recent Land Registry plan of the property.

These transactions completed the acquisition, by purchase and by gift, of the range of abbey buildings from the Curator's cottage to the Long Gallery, and also the strip of land to the north of these buildings.

The first priority after the Friends had acquired the Thames Street cottages was to make them weatherproof and secure - and to call in the Borough ratcatcher. The next step was to convert the three cottages to the west of the covered passage or slype into an office and "rest room" at street level, and a caretaker's cottage above. Progress was delayed by wartime regulations requiring licences to be obtained for materials and labour. Some materials were recovered from the derelict stable on Mr Lyell's plot and the barn on Morlands' plot. Boards were taken from over the Long Gallery cellar to repair the caretaker's sitting room floor. There were many problems over the delays and price over-runs of the small building firm - to be repeated with other such firms in the coming years.

The grant from the Pilgrim Trust made possible not only the purchase of the Checker and Long Gallery but also some preliminary work on the interior of the four cottages between the slype and the Checker. The ancient doorway into the upper floor of the Checker was reopened and some of the internal walls were removed, which showed the potential of this building as a hall for lectures.

The more general aims as a Civic Society were not obscured by the pressing problems associated with the abbey buildings. In the early post-war years the Friends were able to intervene in a detailed and often practical way in matters of conservation and development. The Friends have continued to monitor planning applications and other developments as they have been announced, and have made submissions when appropriate. However, there seem to be fewer opportunities for the old style of personal intervention now that planning and conservation have become so formalized.