Abingdon claims, with some justification, to be the oldest continuously inhabited town in England — there was a settlement here before the Romans arrived, and the great Benedictine abbey that dominated medieval life here was one of the most powerful in the country. The abbey is long gone, dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538, but its ruins and gatehouse survive and are worth a wander.
What remains is an exceptionally well-preserved English market town, six miles south of Oxford, with a handsome seventeenth-century County Hall — now the town's museum — dominating the market square, and the River Thames curving through the southern edge of town past old wharves and a classic riverside meadow. The broad-beamed punts and hire boats on the Thames, crossed by the medieval Abingdon Bridge, make for a fine afternoon if the weather is with you.
Abingdon is an easy day trip from Oxford but makes a quieter and cheaper alternative base for exploring the upper Thames. The town's pubs are good, the market still runs on Mondays and Fridays, and the surrounding countryside — particularly the river walk past Abingdon Lock and across Andersey Island — rewards walkers. The unusually broad St Helen's Church on the Ock is the other architectural set-piece.