Category: Missed a ThameNews story?

DESPITE Brexit, Thame’s relationship with its twin town in France grows stronger, and this year’s anniversary walking challenge went a long way to buttress that bond – 60 kilometers in fact!

Four people from Thame, including the current Mayor, Linda Emery, walked for three days along the banks of the rivers Oise and Seine, from Méry-sur-Oise, through Auvers-au-Oise where Vangogh worked and eventually died, through Pontoise and finally on to Thame’s twin town of Montesson.

The gauntlet had been thrown down by a party of six Montessonaise who walked from just outside London to Thame over four days, along the the South Bucks Way back in May this year, to celebrate 15 years of ‘jumelage’. In both cases, the last day’s walking was shared by other members of the two towns’ twinning associations.

The Thame walkers, Linda Emery, Cynthia Jackson, Sonja Francis and John Francis, were met on the last day in the Forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye at mid-day, by a party from Montesson with a splendid picnic of cold meats, cheeses, bread, fruit and cider, before completing the walk to Montesson itself together.

Meanwhile, a coach load of Thame residents left Thame very early on the Friday morning, September 16 (the last day of the walk) to arrive simultaneously at Montesson itself to a Welcome reception, before dispersing with host families for the evening. The celebrations continued all weekend with fire works and a communal dinner, which included visitors from Montesson’s German twin town of Baesweiler, on the Saturday night.

Linda Emery was represented by the Deputy Mayor of Thame, Nichola Dixon, because Linda had needed to take a plane to Liverpool early Saturday morning, for a pre-planned family celebration. A local choir sang all three national anthems joyously as well as the EU anthem.

All the Thame Mayors present from the previous 15 years, David Laver, Jeannette Matelot Green and Don Butler, were called up to the stage and applauded for their contributions to twinning (Nigel Champken Woods was unable to be present but was mentioned).

The relaxed and amicable relationship that has built over the years between the two towns, and particularly that between the Mayor of Montesson and the man who was Mayor of Thame at the beginning of twinning, Don Butler, shone through as Nichola Dixon presented Jean-François Bel with an ‘I love Thame’ T-shirt. And, in appreciation of the efforts of the walkers, both the ‘Team GB’ English walkers and the ‘Walking Frogs’ as the Montesson team dubbed themselves (Bernard and Miriam Chevalier, Jacques and Huguette Fouché, and Christian and Catherine Beauvy), were presented with Olympic style medals.  Medals were also presented to the group of French cyclists who cycled all the way from Montesson to Thame in the same week as the ‘Walking Frogs’ treked to Thame in May. They were Elisabeth Charriere, Michael Gitlin, Jean-Pierre Piofret, Bernard Daudergnies, plus Jean-François Piofret and Michel Coffinieres. The Montesson-Thame Athletic Club are already thinking about what their next challenge could be, but have ruled out – for now – cycling to Thame’s namesake village in Nepal!

Two members of the Thame and District Twinning Association, John and Sonja Francis who stayed on in Montesson for two extra days, were proud to be invited to walk in solidarity with the Montesson Twinning Committee in the town’s carnival on the Sunday, waving the three flags of Montesson’s twinned town’s countries, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

After a very busy weekend which included a guided tour of the Château de Saint-Germain – the home of many French monarchs, exploring Montmartre, a Salvadore Dali exhibition or, in the Deputy Mayor’s case, a visit to the horse racing at Longchamp, the coach left for home on Sunday evening. Those new to twinning had made new friends while the regular members were leaving with more shared memories that will no doubt carry forward a lasting bond – whatever happens to European co-operation in the wider UK in the future.

THAME will be playing host to a French Market for three days, from Thursday, October 20 – Saturday, 22, selling the finest French products and gifts on the cobbled area around the Town Hall.

As well as classic French food including bread, patisserie, cheese and olives, there’ll be vintage French music and leather handbags. New for this year will be a new onion and garlic stall!

With Christmas fast approaching, Thame’s French Market is the perfect place to start shopping for unique gifts and presents.

The French Market will be open 9am to 5pm daily. Don’t miss out on this fantastic continental market in Thame town centre!

For more information, please visit www.franceathome.com

THAME resident, David Dawson, will be having his debut, murder-mystery novel published just in time for Christmas.

Dave’s book, The Necessary Deaths, is set in Oxfordshire and is the first in a five-book series about country lawyer Dominic Delingpole. In this first book, Dominic and his partner Jonathan get mixed up in a conspiracy involving an international drug firm and British Government officials. As they follow on the trail of a series of mysterious deaths, they soon find that they could be the next victims of murder.

“I’m really thrilled that DSP Publications are going to publish the Delingpole Mysteries. They’re a really successful publisher in the US and have a massive following. Dominic is a complex character and I’m confident he’s going to be looked after well by DSP.”

David Dawson is an award winning journalist and an experienced radio and television producer. He produced factual programmes on BBC radio and television for over fifteen years before going freelance. He moved to Thame nearly five years ago.

“Oxfordshire and the Chilterns are wonderfully atmospheric and inspiring for writers. It’s not surprising that so many thrillers and detective novels have come from here. I’ve had a lot of good feedback for The Necessary Deaths and there have been a steady stream of pre-orders already. That’s why I’m working hard on the second book in the series. Dominic and Jonathan will travel to San Francisco on the trail of a major internet fraud.”

The Necessary Deaths will be published on Tuesday, November 2, 2016. It is available to pre-order on Amazon: LINK HERE

TO make sure that Thame’s Neighbourhood Plan (TNP) is being adhered to, the town council has appointed a TNP Continuity Officer, Graeme Marland, and has formed a special TNP Continuity Committee to keep a eye on what developers are doing – or not doing, and to ensure that policies around green spaces, infrastructure, the Sports Strategy, transport etc are moved forward.  Read on…

At its meeting on Tuesday (27/09), as well as any progress made by the various working groups within the committee, it discussed how differences of opinion, appeals for priority of treatment from residents or competing organisations would be dealt with.  A Co-ordination Working Group, whose responsibility is to ensure the delivery of the individual components of the TNP, will arbitrate any differences.

Managing demands of a share of the pot

The Committee Chair Bob Austin, told councillors that some of the challenges the group could face would include managing differences between development plans and the fact that residents want to get infrastructure in place first and, as regards Open Spaces, ensuring that no particular area in Thame is disadvantaged in any way.

It emerged that there is a large pot of money contributed to by developers at district council level, for Green Spaces and the Environment, but that there is currently no designated plan to spend it. Cllr David Bretherton, Vice Chair of the TNP Continuity Committee, said that the Lea Park Residents group is asking if it can tap into that pot to improve what is seen as a ‘poorly connected’ estate. He said that there is already a ‘four-figure sum’ available now for such projects and that it was up to the LPRA to put forward ideas to the Communities Working Group and the Green Living Working Group.

Finding a process

Cllr Helena Fickling said that there is also £150,000 pounds earmarked for green spaces and questioned whether developers of new housing sites in the town were ‘doing all they should as regards green spaces on their sites’. Cllr Paul Cowell told the committee that Lea Park RA is putting together a scheme to put to council. “But,” he added: “we still don’t have a process for local people to apply. We need to have a process to follow to be fair. Cllr Dave Bretherton replied that any Section 106 money has to be applied for to SODC, so he didn’t think Thame’s process would need to be very formal so that applications could be made either through Thame Town Council or SODC.

Riverside walks and ‘neglected spaces’

Cllr Mike Dyer suggested that the TNP policy of providing riverside walks should be something to target, as they would provide ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’. Whilst Cllr Helena Fickling suggested that several ‘sad and neglected spaces all over Thame could be improved’. She was told that the money needs to spent over the next 10 years and will be phased.

More from the TNP Continuity Comittee meeting to come

Photo courtesy of Doug Kennedy and The River Thame Conservation Trust http://riverthame.org/

THAME school children created their own piece of history at a Bloor Homes’ new housing development in Oxford Road, Thame.

Following an assembly at Lord Williams’s School by the lead archaeologists who uncovered remains of prehistoric monuments and settlements on the site off Oxford Road, pupils were invited to get involved in creating a time capsule for burial at the Thame Meadows development.

Overseen by the school’s Team Leader for Key Stage Three History, Carly Harris, six pupils from across years eight, nine and 10 came together to work on the project, giving them the opportunity to add their own layer of history to an already archaeologically significant location.

Vanessa Macnee, Regional Sales Director for Bloor South Midlands, said: “Time capsules are a great way for school-children to leave a lasting legacy from their time as students and provide future generations with the exciting prospect of unveiling the items left behind.

“We wanted the pupils to choose objects which encapsulate the character of them and their local area, and we’ve been really impressed by the choices they made.

“They came up with some really good ideas which will surely be both interesting and informative to future generations.”

Pupils at Lord Williams’s School were challenged to find items that represented themselves, their local area and the world they are growing up in, allowing future generations to witness and re-live them once the capsule is unearthed.

Included within the capsule was a smart phone with popular apps and photographs of the students, a school uniform, a film about the history of Thame and the places which they enjoy visiting and artwork, depicting species which may not still be living when the capsule is dug up.

David Wybron, Headteacher at Lord Williams’s School, said: “This project really allowed our pupils to reflect on their lives and the place they live to find out what matters to them and what makes the area special, with some great results.”

Carly Harris added: “They all worked incredibly hard and were all very enthusiastic about burying the time capsule, and the prospect of someone else uncovering it at some point in the future. It is a fantastic way of preserving what it is like for a young person growing up in Thame in the 21st Century.”

Lord Williams’s School is less than a ten minute walk from Bloor Homes’ Thame Meadows development, where the time capsule was buried.