Shopping – Page 4 – Abingdon on Thames Town Council

Abingdon Town Council crest with grey background

Retro Fair at the Guildhall

Ruby’s Retro Fair at the Guildhall, held for the first time today, was a hit with the hundreds of visitors who enjoyed the quirky mix of vintage clothing, china, linen, kitchenware and jewellery.

Abingdon's outdoor Craft Fair at Christmas

The Abingdon-on-Thames Craft Market takes place at Abingdon Market Place. December is the market focusing on Christmas, one week after Christmas lights main switch on and celebration. Summer Craft Market has real style and variety.

Local craftmakers showcase and sell their high-quality, handmade crafts, including jewellery, woodturned items, textiles, leather goods, preserves, cakes, photography, and glass items.

There are also craft stalls at the quarterly Local Excellence markets but the specialist events have so much to look at and a special atmosphere especially for Christmas shopping with unique, well-designed local items for lovely gifts.

For further information about this event, please see the town calendar or email markets@abingdoneventspartnership.co.uk

Other craft fairs in town include Abingdon traditional craft fair in the Abbey buildings (which has information on the Civic Society’s and Abbey Buildings Trust sites) late Autumn. This is followed by a series of events to reflect the seasons. Examples include the NSPCC craft fair and events in St Nicolas, St Helen, Trinity churches and each community centre in town.

Crafts fairs at Guildhall include Ruby’s Vintage, Eben Lark and Etsy events.

Abingdon Farmers’ Market

Have a look at the list of traders and bear in mind that many of them take orders in advance.

The Thames Valley Farmers’ Market visits Abingdon Market Place on the third Friday of each month. This friendly market gives shoppers the opportunity to sample and buy fresh produce from the local area while meeting local farmers, growers and producers. TVFM is a co-operative, run for and by traders who feel passionately about bringing quality local produce to local markets.

Shoppers enjoy the chance to speak to growers and producers at their stalls. All the traders are inspected and accredited (the ‘FARMA’ scheme), so are guaranteed to be genuine producers; ask them about their products and they will know exactly where and how the food on sale was produced.

The third Friday of each month, 8.30 to 1.30pm slightly shorter than the town’s Monday market which also has fresh produce. Come and enjoy!

The general TVFM facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/tvfmc and people can also sign up for a newsletter about their local Farmers Market at the TVFM website.

Country Market

The Abingdon Country Market is an indoor market which is very popular for excellent home made produce.

10.00 am to 12.30 pm on second Saturday in each month. Note the dedicated cooks and producers need a break in January. So 9th February is the first of these tasty events in 2020

Look out for the sign in town on West St Helen Street alongside the Salvation Army coffee shop and hall. This is opposite the Co op and Post Office.

For sale and to order are homemade cakes, preserves, bread, eggs, plants and flowers (in season, locally grown) flowers and vegetables). Crafts and gifts are for the appropriate time of year.

This market, formerly at Guildhall, has its origins in the national WI market scheme which allows it to link with other parts of England to get hampers and celebration cakes to people.

If you would like to order something you are welcome to leave a message for the organisers in the town’s Information Centre or in the Salvation Army Café. Lemon drizzle cake and marmalades are very popular as orders and there is a huge variety with new items each month.

Local Excellence Market

Local Excellence is a market at which local food producers, craftworkers and retailers sell their goods in Abingdon Market Place. The Local Excellence Market gives Abingdon shoppers the chance to sample foods, beers and crafts from Oxfordshire and nearby.

The market starts at 9am and packs up at 2pm, sometimes later. Held on occasional Saturdays through the year, it is very popular with people who are at work all week and miss out on our weekly markets on Monday or the local farmers’ market on the third Friday in the month. Local Excellence is the largest market held in Abingdon-on-Thames.

Dates for local excellence markets in 2023 can be found below.

For more information on Local Excellence markets or to book a stall, please contact Abingdon Events Partnership.

Abingdon's own Local Excellence Market is back

Markets in Abingdon-on-Thames

A market town that still loves its markets

Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town that still enjoys the unique atmosphere of a lively market. Our town centre has a lovely Market Places run by the town council and overlooked by the beautiful County Hall.

The Market Place hosts a range of community events and stalls through the year, together with a weekly Charter market, a monthly Farmers’ Market which takes place on the third Friday of the month, as well as regular craft fairs.

Local Excellence Markets also take place throughout the year, organised by Abingdon Events Partnership. For more information please see here.

The Market Place is available for use by local community groups to give out information, who have charitable purposes or who operate on a not-for-profit basis. In order to use the Market Place for an event you need to make a booking with the Town Council well in advance. For more information and booking forms please see here.