NAGS HEAD ISLAND

The main area of the island is below the bridge with the main channel on the right bank. Below the bridge contains a boat hiring company and a cafe: Annie's at the Boathouse.
Above the bridge is the Nags Head Public House.

ANNIE'S AT THE BOATHOUSE

Website (10am - 4pm) Breakfasts, lunches and teas
Parking: Hales Meadow Car Park and Rye Farm Car Park* are on Culham Road, Abingdon OX14 3NN which is located just off Bridge Street, south of the River Thames. You can park there and walk back over the bridge to the tea room.
These car parks are open 24 hours a day and chargeable seven days a week (including Bank Holidays) from 8am until 6pm. A valid ticket must be displayed at all times during the charging period - including the free two hours. Disabled badge holders can park free of charge (unlimited time limit), providing they display their badge correctly. If all disabled bays are full then a standard bay may be used.
*There is a height restriction on Rye Farm Car Park of 2m (6'6")

Nag's Head Island,Abingdon (Salters & Annie's at the Boathouse)

Abingdon Boat Centre, Salters

Boat Centre website. Chandlery, hire and moorings.

Abingdon Bridge Marine Ltd is a family firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Salter Brothers Ltd who has provided first-class hospitality on the Royal River Thames for over 150 years (est. 1858).
We offer a variety of hugely popular boat trips through some of the most beautiful scenery in England. During the summer our scheduled trips operate from Abingdon on the Upper-Thames.
We also hire out rowing boats, 6 and 8 capacity diesel day-boats which can be hired hourly or up to a full day between 10am and 6pm.
In addition we will be operating the Diesel and Pump out Facilities to be available daily in season.
We also have Moorings available on the Island.
Opening times: In season, Easter until the end of September - 7 days a week from 10am until 6pm.
During October we're open 6 days a week (closed Tuesdays) from 9am until 5pm.
November to Easter we're only open on Monday & Friday from 9am until 5pm.

Nags Head on the Bridge Island

Nags Head Island, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 3HX. 01235-524516 website
1906:  G.E Mitton -

The bridge ... is very long, and rests partly on an island. Standing on this, the Nag's Head Inn projects from one side of the bridge, and from it stretches out a small garden, with several orchard trees. The red tiles and creamy tint of the hotel walls show well in contrast with the grey stone of the bridge, and when the hotel is seen from the river above the bridge, with the tall spire of St. Helen's Church rising behind it, it is worth noticing.

1891: The Stream of Pleasure, Joseph & Elizabeth Robins Pennell -

[Below Abingdon Lock, going downstream] the channel is narrow and, owing to the deep fall, the stream is swift. It carried us quickly on until, all at once, as we watched the growth of the spire and the lovely arrangement of the town on the quaint old bridge, we were startled by the shouts of men on both banks. We were sitting up to see what was the matter, when crash, we went broadside on, against a stone wall, just here jutting out into the river and dividing it suddenly into two rapid streams, which pass out of sight under the low arches of the bridge.
It was well our boat was a broad-beamed family tub; this was the only thing that saved us.
The men on the banks, who had been rushing about with boat-hooks and life-preservers, looked immensely surprised when, instead of diving into the water after us, all they had to do was to seize the boat and hold on hard, so as to keep it from rebounding with the blow.
It was a ticklish business, and the worst of it was we had been swept up to the wrong pier, and had to trust ourselves again to the current, and come up with another bang at the raft of the Nag's Head Hotel, where the proprietor and a boy, armed with boat-hooks, anxiously awaited our violent arrival.
As there is nothing about this strong current in the many guide books and maps and charts of the Thames, we could not have been prepared for what is unquestionably one of the few really dangerous places on the river.
Even if we wished, we could not have thought of sleeping in our boat, when the proprietor of the "Nag's Head" seemed certain he had saved us from a watery grave, and literally dragged us into his inn. We had nothing to regret. We left the boat for another very old and rambling house, another good little dinner. Instead of being alone as at Sandford, men in flannels were in the coffee room, at the bar, and in the garden. Every time we looked out on the river from the inn windows or from the bridge, we saw a passing pleasure boat.

[ There is now no particular problem here. ]