AN OXFORDSHIRE woman has compiled a book offering the people of Abingdon a trip down memory lane.

Abingdon Through Time contains some striking photographs – including a man rowing down Broad Street during a flood in 1894.

Another picture shows a mock funeral staged at the MG factory as the last sports car left the production line in 1980.

Old street scenes are placed next to their modern-day equivalent to show how the town has changed over the past century.

Sutton Courtenay author Dr Pamela Horn collected the 180 photographs over three months after appealing for local residents and historians to dig out old photographs.

She gathered together the photographs from local historical collections and through an appeal in the Oxford Mail.

The 73-year-old said: “It was an interesting process and enjoyable because it made me walk around to take a closer look at the highways and byways.

“Abingdon is such an fascinating area, because it has reinvented itself over time.

“It went from being attached to the Abbey, to reinventing itself as a market town in the 1860s, then it became an established manufacturer and now it has developed several business parks.

“I think the saddest thing for me is the photo of Morlands Brewery, which was closed in 2000 and replaced with flats.

“If you’re young and want to learn about the history, or older and want to reminisce, there’s something for you in the book.”

A photograph taken at Morlands after the Second World War shows a traditional initiation ceremony where a man is being rolled along inside a beer barrel.

Following Dr Horn’s call for help, amateur photographer Les Hemsworth, of Cleveland Drive, Cowley, got in touch.

The 63-year-old said: “I started taking pictures of Abingdon in the 1970s and haven’t stopped since then. For this book I also took new photos and the difficult bit was composing them so a direct comparison could be drawn.

“I think it’s nice to document history so people can take a trip down memory lane.”

abingdon@oxfordmail.co.uk

  • Abingdon Through Time is published by Amberley Publishing, priced £12.99.