Yes. Parts of Abingdon-on-Thames are at real risk of flooding, and the town's position on the river is the reason. About one postcode in six is at high risk on at least one flood measure. A few hundred homes are at high risk from the river alone. With climate change factored in, the flood zones spread to about a fifth of the town's postcodes. The town's name is said to mean a hill, but Abingdon was built in a valley.
The Environment Agency's river-and-sea flood zones cover a fairly small slice of Abingdon's postcodes. About 3% are in Flood Zone 3, the highest-probability band. Another 11% are in Flood Zone 2, the medium-probability fringe outside it. The two bands don't overlap, so together they describe the low ground near the Thames and leave most of the town outside.
The Environment Agency has 83 recorded flood events for the area. The most recent, in January 2008, was caused by local drainage and surface water, not the river. About 6% of Abingdon's postcodes have a recorded flood somewhere in their history. That record only shows where water has been before, but it's the nearest thing to local memory a buyer can look up.
The Environment Agency's climate-adjusted mapping puts about 21% of postcodes inside the flood zones, against about 14% in today's two zones combined. That's what a wetter future does to the map if the modelling is right, and the extra ground is where today's dry streets are most likely to stop being dry.
Insurance follows the risk. Homes in the higher-risk parts of town can face higher premiums, larger excesses, or insurers who decline altogether, while homes on the higher ground are usually insured like anywhere else. An indicative quote on the exact property, early in the process, tells you more than anything in a set of sales particulars.
Rivers, sea and surface water are rated together in the postcode-level picture, and it counts a postcode at the highest level it reaches on any one of them. On that basis about 16% of Abingdon's postcodes are high risk on at least one measure, 20% are medium and 43% are low. Because surface water is included, this picture covers more of the town than the river-and-sea zones do.
The Environment Agency's rivers-and-sea mapping counts 4,471 properties across the 202 postcodes it lists here, and only postcodes with some risk appear at all. Of those properties, 397 are at high risk, 386 at medium risk and 1,811 at low risk. Of the high-risk properties, 347 are homes. A few hundred named homes is a more useful figure for a buyer than any percentage, because the question is whether the house being viewed is one of them.
Whether anything stands between the river and those homes is a closer call than the word "defended" suggests. About 3% of postcodes sit in the high-risk extent with no defence modelled, and about the same share sit in it with a defence present in the model. "Defended" means only that the Environment Agency's model includes a wall or embankment there. It doesn't mean the house stays dry.
The nearest tide gauge is at Portsmouth, where the sea rose by about 2 millimetres a year between 1962 and 2023. It's a coastal measurement, and it matters to Abingdon only at a distance. Abingdon's flood risk comes from its river and its drains.
Flooding is one of Abingdon's weak points. Most of the town is clear of it, but a few hundred homes near the water carry a real risk.