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Abingdon-on-Thames, commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England, on the River Thames. Historically the county town of Berkshire, since 1974 Abingdon has been administered by the Vale of White Horse district within Oxfordshire. The area was occupied from the early to middle Iron Age and the remains of a late Iron Age and Roman defensive enclosure lies below the town centre. Abingdon Abbey was founded around 676, giving its name to the emerging town. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Abingdon was an agricultural centre with an extensive trade in wool, alongside weaving and the manufacture of clothing. Charters for the holding of markets and fairs were granted by various monarchs, from Edward I to George II. The town survived the dissolution of the abbey in 1538, and by the 18th and 19th centuries, with the building of Abingdon Lock in 1790, and Wilts & Berks Canal in 1810, was a key link between major industrial centres such as Bristol, London, Birmingham and the Black Country. In 1856 the Abingdon Railway opened, linking the town with the Great Western Railway at . The Wilts & Berks Canal was abandoned in 1906 but a voluntary trust is now working to restore and re-open it. Abingdon railway station was closed to passengers in September 1963. The line remained open for goods until 1984, including serving the MG car factory, which operated from 1929 to October 1980. Abingdon's brewery, Morland, whose most famous ale, Old Speckled Hen, was named after an early MG car, was taken over and closed down by Greene King Brewery in 1999, with production moving to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. The site of the brewery has been redeveloped into housing. The rock band Radiohead formed in 1985 when its members were studying at Abingdon School, a day and boarding independent secondary school. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 33,130. This is 2,504 more than in the 2001 Census total of 30,626, and represents just over 8% growth in the population. Abingdon is 5.5 miles (8.9 km) south of Oxford and 5 miles (8 km) north of Didcot in the flat valley of the Thames on its west (right) bank, where the small river Ock flows in from the Vale of White Horse. [edit] HistoryHistorically, Abingdon was made up of two ecclesiastical parishes: Abingdon St. Helen and Abingdon St. Nicolas. It was a municipal borough in Berkshire until 1974, when it was transferred to Oxfordshire along with a large part of northern Berkshire. Before 1835 it was known as an ancient borough. From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868), transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003 and found in GENUKI
[This is the start of an extensive article on the history of Abingdon as seen from the middle of the 19th century.] For more information about the 20th and 21st century in the town, see the Wikipedia article Abingdon-on-Thames. [edit] Research Tips[edit] Maps
[edit] Online Historical References
[edit] Nineteenth Century Local AdministrationEnglish Jurisdictions is a webpage provided by FamilySearch which analyses every ecclesiastical parish in England at the year 1851. It provides, with the aid of outline maps, the date at which parish records and bishops transcripts begin, non-conformist denominations with a chapel within the parish, the names of the jurisdictions in charge: county, civil registration district, probate court, diocese, rural deanery, poor law union, hundred, church province; and links to FamilySearch historical records, FamilySearch Catalog and the FamilySearch Wiki. Two limitations: only England, and at the year 1851. During the 19th century two bodies, the Poor Law Union and the Sanitary District, had responsibility for governmental functions at a level immediately above that covered by the civil parish. In 1894 these were replace by Rural and Urban Districts. These were elected bodies, responsible for setting local property assessments and taxes as well as for carrying out their specified duties. Thses districts continued in operation until 1974. Urban districts for larger municipalities were called "Municipal Boroughs" and had additional powers and obligations. Poor Law Unions, established nationally in 1834, combined parishes together for the purpose of providing relief for the needy who had no family support. This led to the building of '"union poorhouses" or "workhouses" funded by all the parishes in the union. The geographical boundaries established for the individual Poor Law Unions were employed again when Registration Districts were formed three years later. In 1875 Sanitary Districts were formed to provide services such as clean water supply, sewage systems, street cleaning, and the clearance of slum housing. These also tended to follow the same geographical boundaries, although there were local alterations caused by changes in population distribution.
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