Discover Abingdon, Oxfordshire

Abingdon, England. View of Abingdon Bridge across the River Thames: Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AbingdonBrBu02.JPG
Author: Motmit


Abingdon is a market town in Oxfordshire, England. It has a population of 37,000 people (2012 estimate), and is claimed to be the oldest continuously occupied town in Britain. Abingdon is about 8.9 km (5.5 mi) to the south of Oxford, on the west (right) bank of the River Thames. Formerly a county town of Berkshire, it was transferred to Oxfordshire in 1974.

St Helen's Church, Abingdon: Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abingdon_Berks_St_Helens.jpg
Author: Motmit


Abingdon is said to be over 6,000 years old. The area has been occupied since the early to middle Iron Age. Despite this claim, the town is much more recent, dating to the founding of Abingdon Abbey during Saxon times, around the 7th century AD. It was named after someone named Æbba.

The ironic thing about the name is that Abingdon means "Æbbe's Hill", but the place is not on a hill, but a valley. A possible explanation to this is that it was relocated to a valley when the Abbey was built.

East Saint Helen Street, Abingdon: Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abingdon_-_East_Saint_Helen_Street.jpg
Author: Nigel Cox


The fortune of Abingdon was tied to its abbey, so when the abbey was dissolved in 1538, Abingdon almost sank to oblivion. A new lease on life came in 1790, when the Abingdon Lock was built. This, along with the construction of the Wilts and Berks Canal in 1810, made Abingdon an important transport link between industrial centers such as Bristol, London, Birmingham and the Black Country.

Today Abingdon has a developed economy based. It is home to a number of information communication companies sited at its business and science parks. There is a proposal to renamed the town as Abingdon-on-Thames. It was voted upon in November 2011, and is pending approval.

Abingdon Old Bridge: Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abingdon_old_bridge.JPG
Author: Krzysztof.Redzko

Visiting Abingdon

The most practical way to reach Abingdon by public transport is to take a train to Oxford, and from there, a bus. By car, take the M40 motorway until Exit 6, then head west on B4009 until Benson. Continue on the A4074 heading west until you see signage for A415 that leads to Abingdon.

Places of Interest in Abingdon

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.