2019 was a very special year for the Abingdon history community; the 100 year anniversary of the making of Abingdon's film of the Homecoming Parade for those who had served in the First World War. The film is a rare treasure with scenes of Abingdon town centre filled with jostling crowds in holiday mood, including close-ups and panning shots of officers and councillors.

In 2019 we held a recreation of the parade, ran an exhibition for four days in one of the empty shops on Bury Street, and showed the film for the first time in a century back on the big screen in the Abbey Cinema, with an interpretative modern video alongside.

The Festival was recorded on a legacy website which is now moved to these pages within the Abingdon Heritage Weekends website. A follow-on project to record images and details of all of those from the Abingdon area who served in WW1 was completed during Covid and is also linked to this website. Some of these people are also visible in the film. Connections are still being made.

 Photo credit above: Imperial War Museum - still from the Homecoming Film 1919