Category: More News

FOLLOWING our report of exciting archaeological finds during a recent ‘dig’ at the site of a new housing development, (SEE LINK), more information about the evidence of human activity dating back around 6,000 years uncovered there, has emerged.

The remains of prehistoric monuments and settlements going back to the Neolithic period were among the exciting discoveries made during a seven month excavation of Bloor Homes’ Thame Meadows site, in Oxford Road. Archaeologists have described the dig, which was carried out by experts from Oxford Cotswold Archaeology, as one of the most significant undertaken in Britain this year, and one that ‘far surpassed’ their expectations.

Rare monument found

One of the most important finds was the discovery of a rare causewayed enclosure dating back to around 3,700BC, one of only 80 such monuments known to exist in Britain. Consisting of one or more circuits of bank and ditch, they are the earliest known monuments made by some of the earliest farming communities and were constructed to enclose areas of open space where communal gatherings to conduct such things as rictuals would take place.

Chris Ellis, Senior Project Officer at Cotswold Archaeology, part of a joint venture with Oxford Archaeology, said: “We have come across an amazing mass of archaeology from 6,000 years of human history, all on this one site. For the sheer density and range of archaeological features and the long period which they span, this has been the most fascinating and exhilarating excavation I have been involved with in my 25-year career.

“To encounter this amount of archaeology on just one development site is almost unheard of, and the discoveries have sparked a great deal of interest among academics. It’s one of the most significant digs to have taken place in Britain this year. Particularly, the discovery of a ‘new’ enclosure in British archaeology is extremely rare, so to discover such extensive remains of one on a relatively small project like this is extremely exciting.”

Human remains

Archaeologists also uncovered the remains of at least three roundhouses from the early Iron Age period (700-400BC), and more than 150 pits, used for storing grain and later disposing of rubbish, some containing human remains where settlers had buried the dead.

Discoveries from the Roman period (AD43-410) include a number of enclosures which housed corn drying ovens, while around 14 small Saxon buildings, dating from the 6th to 7th Century AD and believed to have been textile workshops, were also uncovered. Flint tools, pottery and combs made from animal bone were just some of the thousands of artefacts discovered. 

Chris explained that the site possessed several attributes which had made it an attractive location for settlers through the ages. He said: “People settled here because of the well-drained sandy geology, its prominent position in the landscape and its fantastic vistas to the north and south.”

 

The finds from the excavation will be housed with the Oxfordshire County Museum Service, and it is likely some of the objects will be displayed in Thame Museum.

Gemma Deacon, Sales Manager for Bloor Homes South Midlands, said: “It’s been absolutely fascinating to see the wide variety of items uncovered by archaeologists during the dig. It really is amazing to think that the site contained objects spanning almost 6,000 years of human history. The site has clearly been a popular location for human settlers throughout the ages and we believe our Thame Meadows development will prove just as attractive to house hunters looking for their perfect home in the Oxfordshire countryside.”

The Thame Meadows site is around 9.4 hectares in size and is located to the north of Oxford Road, directly opposite Lord Williams’s School and now that the archaeological excavation is complete, Bloor is about to begin building 203 new homes on the land, the first first of which are set to be released for sale in the winter.

MORE images from the Thame ‘dig’ HERE

A barrister from Thame who dodged rail fares from Haddenham Station into London for two years, avoided being sent to prison today.

But 43 year-old Peter Barnett, a father of three, was given a 16 week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and was ordered to pay back nearly £6,000 to Chiltern Railways.

He dodged the full fare by getting off at Wembly Station and using his Oyster Card to travel on into London. He eventually gave himself up to Railway staff after first running off when challenged about his story at Marylebone station. The City of London Magistrates Court, where that Barnett was sentenced today, heard that he had previously received a conditional caution in 2010 for a similar offence.

Deputy District Judge, Olalekan Omotosho, told Barnett that his serial fare-skipping was a serious offence and that there was a need, not only for him to be punished for the offences, but that others needed to be deterred from committing similar offences. She told him: “It is a shame, really, because you had it all. It remains unclear why you acted so badly. You let yourself down and your family down, particularly in light of your profession as a lawyer.”

Peter Barnett is now unemployed as a lawyer and according to his lawyer, hopes to do charity work in the future.

CHILDREN from the three Thame primary schools opened last weekend’s Thame Food Festival with BBC One’s MasterChef winner 2013, Natalie Coleman, in a bid to inspire other young foodies to cook.

Lyla Davies, aged 10 from John Hampden County Primary School, Emily Tattersfield, aged 10 from Barley Hill Primary School and Orlagh Roberts and Daniela Gonzalez both aged 10, both from St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, took to the stage with Natalie when she gave the festival’s first ever cookery demo devised especially for children.

Natalie, who has recently taken up the role of Ambassador of Central Street Cookery School at St Luke’s Community Centre in London, was first up on the demo stage this year with a 45 minute session just for children. With the help of the four girls, she used her demonstration to encouraged children to learn about food and pick up new skills and ideas that they could try when they cook at home.

As well as joining Natalie on stage, the four children took home a signed copy of her cookery book1, after convincing her and festival patron Lotte Duncan to pick them to take part.

“We challenged the children to tell us why they wanted to cook with Natalie and get a place in the spotlight at this year’s Thame Food Festival,” said Lotte. “We know that children love to cook and that being able to cook is a great thing to be able to do. It’s fun and brings the family together, plus it’s a good way to give children valuable skills for life.

“Helping children gain these skills is also a passion of Natalie’s which is why she chose to cook especially for and with them at the festival,” she said. “Now, more than ever it’s important for children to learn about food and get into cooking right from the beginning.

“We had a fantastic reaction to the competition with all the children and their teachers getting behind it, and had some brilliant reasons making it very hard to pick a winner! In the end we picked four. I have to say that it was truly fantastic to see them rise to the challenge on the day – all of them did a wonderful job and were so excited to be on stage helping Natalie!” she added.

For more information about the Thame Food Festival, please go to www.thamefoodfestival.co.uk

SOURCE: Contributed by Sarah Pracey

 

HAPPY faces, satisfied stallholders, visitors going home with bags of foodie goodies, queues at the cash machines (one running out of money), quality live music all day, VIP chefs demonstrating, home bakers of Thame excelling and glorious sunshine all day – the perfect ingredients for the best Thame Food Festival ever – and that’s official.

The numbers are in, and final figures show that 25,000 visitors thronged to Thame’s High Street on Saturday (26/09), from all over the local area and as far afield as Oxford, London, Holland, Belgium, France, Australia – and Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Comments on social media from some of the 200 plus food producers that took part confirm that it was “A Fantastic day” – “A resounding success” – “Well done to all the team involved in making @thamefoodfest happen, thank you for a great day” – “Really nice food n drinks fantastic atmosphere!” – “Thank you @thamefoodfest Alison and the entire set up/clean up crew! What a cracking day-cheers people of Thame! You rock!” – And from festival Patron, Raymond Blanc himself: “What a wonderful day & great @thamefoodfest, quality local produce, great ambiance & what a joy to be part of this British food revolution.”

The yumminess on offer included teas, artisan cheeses, oils, beers, specialist breads, curries from India, Tibet; a smoothie bike to power your own choice of ingredients, coffees; BBQ, meats, cakes, sweets and heaps more. Many stallholders actually sold out, including Croome Quisine, Just Rachel Icecream and Zanni’s Bakery and Woodredding Cider. Workshops were available for cooks of all ages wanting to learn some tricks of the trade at cake decorating, and four separate wine talks by The Wine Tipster himself, Neil Phillips, at the Thame Players Theatre.  Neil’s tips included pairing wines with cheese and how to learn to taste wine correctly and how to store and serve wines properly.

Local providers from Thame High Street itself included Newitts, What’s Cooking; a Pop up bar run by The James Figg; Pop up cafe in the town hall, run by Thame Belles WI, selling the wonderful entries in the Big Thame Bake competition, and Belazu’s Popup restaurant at Christchurch in Upper High Street.

An army of volunteers or ‘Thame Foodie Friends’ were on site from 6am in the morning marshalling stallholders to their spots for the day, and generally offering help and information throughout the event to help things run smoothly. The Community groups area included Community stalls promoting the work of Florence Nightingale Hospice, Thame Twinning Association, Great British High Street, Thame Remembers, Thame Lions and Thame Roundtable.

The first ever Big Thame Bake was a triumph and after the judging, all the entries were sliced up available to buy with a cup of tea at the Town Hall Tea Room, once all the winners had been presented with certificates by a procession of celebrity chefs such Adam Johnson – Executive Pastry Chef at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Miranda Gore Browne and more finalists from the Great British Bake Off than you can shake a wooden spoon at, including Frances Quinn, plus Natalie Coleman who won BBC One’s MasterChef 2013 – all overseen by Thame’s own food writter, Jane Hornby (above left with Lotte Duncan) on the interview stage.

The winner of the Business category was John Clegg and Co, Forestry Agents, from Princes Risborough, with Petals of Thame, taking the Runner Up’s certificate, but the overall, Best Baker award went to Vibeke Jepsen, with her amazing strawberry tarts.

Festival patron Lotte Duncan, who like the chefs taking part in the event, and the band of directors and volunteers supporting it, give their time for nothing to put on the free festival, said that this year’s had surpassed everyone’s expectations.

“The atmosphere this year was simply stunning,” said Lotte. “We were completely bowled over by how many people came to Thame and the appreciation they showed for what they found. Everyone who came loved the good food and drink that was on offer, the fabulous producers, the chefs and experts they listened and talked to, and really got into the festival spirit. Everyone was smiling, laughing and having a brilliant time,” she said.

This, the eighth Thame Food Festival, was the culmination of collaboration between community groups, the Thame business community, local organising expertise, busy professionals from the hospitality industry and willing volunteers, that is so typical of the way Thame pulls together and draws in the co-operation of everyone approached, to promote the town for the benefit of everyone who visit, lives and works in the town.

The final word must go to Rob Leonard, who tweets as @Rob_Leonard: “The Thame Food Festival. I think this is where I want to go when I die.”

The bar was set high this year but the ‘can do’ spirit of Thame will no doubt rise to the challenge and make 2016 even more spectacular.

MORE PICTURES FROM THE FESTIVAL HERE  and HERE

NB A set of keys were found that had been left on a stall close to Sainsbury’s, and have been deposited with the Aga shop in Upper High Street)

YES, the event that really has put Thame on the map, will start at 6am this morning when the first of the 200 plus stall holders will drive, bleary-eyed into the centre of the town, ready to set out their stalls in time for the great foodie public from 9am.

This is the seventh Thame Food Festival and it really does promise to be the best yet, with so much more to keep the taste buds excited and the eyes and ears twitching for new ideas and inspiration to take away and enjoy at home.

This year is especially important for Thame, which is a strong contender for the Great British High Street awards, and the team behind Thame’s application will be on The Great British High Street stand (zone D, community stall area) and will be holding a ‘win the cake’ competition. The cake has been specially made by the ladies at A Piece of Cake shop in Upper High Street, Thame, complete with the ‘Great British High Street’ logo and message, ‘We’re supporting Thame’ on it, and the winner gets the cake!

The Big Thame Bake will be happening most of the day in the Upper Chamber of the town hall, which has been transformed into a pop up Tea Room, where Thame Belles WI will be serving up delicious cakes and teas. Or, if cake isn’t your thing (yes, there are those sad souls), grab yourself something to eat from the dozens of fresh food stalls and pop along to the Vintage and Modern Guitars Shop, in the Buttermarket from Midday, and listen to some great live music from the likes of The Phil Astles Band, Hiway51, Sir Walter J Wallis and Matt Edwards.

Full details of demonstration times, talks and workshops, on the Thame Food Festival Website and in the official programme available from the information point. Best way to travel in, is to leave the car at the Park and Ride at Chinnor Rugby ground, and catch the red, Routemaster bus into the town.

See you there!

THAME Tennis Club members will now be able to play safely throughout the year, after Rob Dearing, the LTA’s Head of Participation, travelled up from the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton to officially open Thame Tennis Club’s new courts on Thursday (17/09).

After spending £90,000 on red clay courts that are more Southern Spain than South Oxfordshire, the club now has an all-weather surface that can be played on even when it is icy elsewhere.

South Oxfordshire District Council and the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) both contributed to the project, but the lion’s share of the budget was raised by the club itself.

Neil Morgan, the tennis club’s Chairman, said: “We emptied the coffers in the interests of having the best tennis facilities we could afford. We now have four excellent clay courts and top-of-the-range floodlights to go with them. We are proud of the fact that we never lock our courts. Although we are a members club, we encourage non-members to come down and try out tennis and we offer plenty of coaching and tennis-related fitness sessions for the general public.”

The club is offering a full adult membership that lasts until the end of April 2016, for only £100 as a way to introduce new players to the club. To find out more, and watch the video made of the occassion by Thame TV, visit Thame Tennis Club’s website

THE installation of defibrillators in public places, that can be accessed by anyone in an emergency, is growing and growing and the Mayor of Thame, Nichola Dixon, unveiled an appliance at Haddenham and Thame Park Station on Saturday (19/09), in conjunction with Cllr Margaret Aston, the Chairman of Haddenham Parish Council.

Funding for the defibrillator was provided by Thame and District Lions Club and other local organisations, and Tony Warris, one of the lead campaigners of Heartbeat Haddenham, thanked them for their support and for recognising the importance of the station to the people of Thame, as well as for passengers from Haddenham and the surrounding area.

CHILDREN from three Thame primary schools are being given the chance to step up to the stage with BBC One’s MasterChef winner 2013 Natalie Coleman at this year’s Thame Food Festival, by taking part in a competition at their school to say why they want to cook with her.

Year five and year six children at John Hampden County, Barley Hill and St Joseph’s Catholic primary schools are getting their thinking caps on in the hope that they will be chosen to join Natalie when she gives the festival’s first ever cookery demo devised especially for children.

Natalie, who has recently taken up the role of Ambassador of Central Street Cookery School at St Luke’s Community Centre in London, is first up on the demo stage this year with a 45 minute session just for young foodies to sit at. In it she hopes to inspire the children to learn about food and pick up new skills and ideas that they can try when they cook at home.

One lucky child from each school will get the chance to join Natalie, and take home a signed copy of her cookery book1, if they can impress her and festival patron Lotte Duncan, as to why they should get a chance to cook with her. 

“We’re challenging the children to tell us why they want to cook with Natalie and get a place in the spotlight at this year’s Thame Food Festival,” says Lotte. “We know that children love to cook and that being able to cook is a great thing to be able to do. It’s fun and brings the family together, plus it’s a good way to give children valuable skills for life.

“Helping children gain these skills is also a passion of Natalie’s which is why she’s chosen to cook especially for and with them at the festival,” she says. “Now, more than ever it’s important for children to learn about food and get into cooking right from the beginning. Given the children’s reaction to the competition, and the support from their teachers, I know we’re going to get some fantastic reasons why they should cook with Natalie and we can’t wait to see them rise to the challenge on the day,” she adds.h

The three competition winners will be announced in the run-up to the Thame Food Festival and appear with Natalie Coleman on the cookery demo stage at 10am on Saturday, 26th September.

Thame Food Festival takes place from 9am to 5pm on Saturday 26th September 2015 in the heart of Thame town centre. www.thamefoodfestival.co.uk

THE refugee crisis currently gripping Europe really hit home over the weekend, whilst a group of Thame residents were visiting the town’s twin town of Montesson in France.

Also visiting Montesson at the same time, to celebrate both the annual ‘fête du pâté à la Carmen’ and its own town’s 25 year-old twinning with Montesson, were visitors from the German town of Baesweiler. Suddenly, later on Saturday evening, after the three towns had enjoyed a communal meal and entertainment together, the Mayor of Baesweiler, Willi Linkens, received a phone call informing him that this town had been allocated a number of refugees by the German government. The shocked Mayor had to quickly give his apologies to his hosts and return home in order to organise accommodation for the refugee families – in a town with apparently only one empty social property; a challenge indeed for any Mayor.

In the footsteps of Rommel

Earlier that day, the Thame Twinning visitors had enjoyed a trip out to the fascinating Chateau du la roche Guyon, which had started out as a medieval keep hewn out of a rock cliff, gradually added to over the next few centuries to become a family home, until it was taken over by Field Marshall Rommel in 1944, as his head quarters. Here Rommel had rooms dug out of the cliff as a bunker from where he attempted to defend Normandy from immanent invasion by the allies. These days, the chateau’s state rooms and outbuildings, and the vegetable gardens have  been slowly restored to a semblance of their former glory after years of vandalism and decay.

Long lost gardens

As well as exploring the period furnished rooms of the chateau, which included four famous wall tapestries depicting the life of Esther, those fitter members of the group were treated to a guided tour of the steep footpath all the way to the top of the old tower. As they wend their way, they learned about the spectacular terraced gardens, now long over-grown, designed by Lancelot (‘Capability’) Brown and Alexander Pope, that once graced the route with views across the Seine. The way down was by way of 321 stone steps cut out of the rock!

Strolling in the Paris sunshine

Following torrential rain throughout the coach journey to France on the Friday, Saturday’s warm sunshine was repeated on the Sunday, the final day of the visit spent either exploring the famous street market at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, taking part in an out-door church service in Montesson itself or spending the free time before heading back to Thame, in other ways with host families. Heading off to meet the coach home, there was just time to wave off the ingenious and colourful floats of the Montesson annual carnival parade.

Drama at the border

The journey back to Thame via a short break at the Baie de Somme service station and ‘Le Shuttle’, was not without incident, including a delay at the Calais border when one Thame Twinning member mislaid his passport, finding it in a forgotten pocket just before Passport Control was about to cancel his passport in case it had found its way into the wrong hands.

Luckily, the hour gained on their return from the time difference in France, meant that the Thame group arrived home laden with their wine, jams and other goodies, in time to be assured of a contented, good night’s sleep after a fun and interesting long weekend among friends.

Already plans are being hatched to recognise the 15th anniversary of the twinning between Thame and Montesson, when the Montessonaise come to Thame early in May 2016. Watch this space for a very special celebration.

WONDERFUL skies and bright sunshine arrived just in time last Thursday (17/09), after the previous day’s down pours which threatened to turn Thame Show ground into a muddy mess. As it turned out, the few muddy patches were easily avoided and most people had come suitably shod ready to enjoy themselves whatever the conditions.

Chris Parker, the Show Director of the Thame Show, said: “We are really pleased with the way the show went this year. We’ve had some great feedback about what people were able to see and do, and we expect the visitor numbers to be at least as good as last year; we’ll know the final figures by Wednesday.

“It was particularly encouraging to see so many hundreds of school children enjoying themselves and learning at the same time. We went out of our way this year to provide them with their own stage for the joint singing, a proper sound system, work sheets to go with the activities, and even their own security, all of which we funded oursleves, and all the children were allowed into the show free.

“This was all part of the Thame Show putting something back into Thame which is as it should be, and we will be doing the same next year.” The school children, accompanied by teachers and helpers, were able to get involved in bread baking, watch and learn about glass blowing, and traditional hurdle-making among many activities provided especially for them.

As well as providing a great day for the farming community to meet up with friends as the busy harvest season draws to a close, local families and visitors from further afield were able to browse the many trade stands for country clothes, garden furniture, provisions for pets, or stock up with interesting oils, cheeses, sausages, foods from other lands, condiments, jewellery and more between watching cookery demonstrations, the horse events, and the entertainments in the main arena. The highlights of the day were undoubtedly for many the hilarious sheep racing and the thrilling stunt riding and chariot racing of the Devil’s Horsemen.

A spell-bound crowd gathered regularly throughout the afternoon to watch fire crews from Thame Fire Station, use specialise cutting equipment and carefully worked out procedures, to cut out a ‘casuality’ trapped in a crashed car. The horse events and dog shows were as popular as ever and an exhibit explaining the progress of the design stage for the new piece of public art that will be installed some time in the Spring, at the new employment centre currently nearing completion opposite the DAF site on the Thame by-pass.

Claude Heath, a former artist in residence at the Henry Moore Institute and a prizewinner in the John Moores Exhibition, has been selected by the developer, Stoford, to produce an eye-catching sculpture for the site, to be called Cotmore Park. The piece of sculpture will be called ‘Colour Spaces’, and will be up to three metres high. Visitor were able to meet Claude and talk to him about his ideas and play with multicoloured, cardboard cubes to explore the concept and take away a special badge to mark the unveiling of the proposal.

Many Thame and district voluntary organisations had stalls to promote their various activities, including Thame Rotary, with a tombola to raise funds for the Medical Dogs charity. Close by, the charity that provides support for bereaved children and young people, See-Saw, provided cream teas from their pop-up cafe throughout the day.

Magnificent specimens of various cattle breed, especially huge, fearsome-looking but surprisingly calm bulls attracted a lot of admiration among the livestock on show, and a display of classic cars and vintage tractors, provided interest for lovers of the combustion engine of all ages.

As always, the Domestic Tent with its rows and rows of pots of jam, cakes, biscuits, giant vegetables and flower arrangements, photography and sewing skills competition entries, all attracted great interest with proud prize winners and their families snapping their offerings on mobile phones for the family album.

Returning the show to its traditional day of the third Thursday in September, has proved popular with the farming community and the visitors, and the organising committee will no doubt be relieved that the weather was kind for what was always going to be a test of resolve, resourcefulness and organisation for the new team behind the Thame Show.