Heart of Abingdon Trail

St Helens and West St Helens St with bunting 2022 - cropped to highlight bunting

Following the completion of the successful Lost Abbey of Abingdon Heritage Trail project, members of the Abingdon Area Archaeological Society and Friends of Abingdon formed a new group of volunteers with other interested members of the community to create a new heritage trail centered on St Helen’s Church.

Five historical interpretation boards have been designed along a short circular route starting in East St Helen Street, to St Helen’s church, the Almshouses, a board covering the Thames and Ock river frontage via Margaret Brown Gardens to finish the trail in West St Helen Street.

The boards are accompanied by a leaflet with a map and an audio tour. The audio tour has been recorded by volunteers under the direction of Holly King. The voices are Sue Scott, John Shore, Tom Bewley, Hector Macduff. The tour takes around an hour to complete.

The tour is made up of 24 mp3 files which can be played on most mobile phones. Either download the files to your computer or phone by clicking on the files at the bottom of this page.

£ 12,200 of the project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, £1,500 from Abingdon Town Council and £500 from Choose Abingdon.

Wheelchair access to the Esplanade (tour 16) on the river frontage is difficult as there are no drop kerbs. Instead of trying to cross the road, either listen to the descriptions from there or miss out that section and turn right to the Old Anchor pub where you can continue the tour (tour 17).