Thame.net

Author: Sonja Francis

  • Exhibition about our changing countryside (Status: Press release)

    A NEW gallery exhibition spanning 60 years of the county?s rural history opens at the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock on February 19.
    Oxfordshire is the most rural county in the South East of England and the new gallery at the museum will provide a thought-provoking look at the rapid changes that have occurred in farming, transport and rural development in the county since 1945.

    The exhibition and museum are housed in beautiful gardens and are completely free of charge to visitors.

    Starting with a nostalgic view of country life recorded in 1946 in the film ?24 square miles?, which featured village activities near Banbury, the exhibition quickly turns to more recent events.

    Villages are no longer self-contained communities with life revolving around agriculture. New roads, housing developments and industries share the countryside with farming, wildlife and local residents, who use cars more than any previous generation.

    The interactive exhibition will intrigue visitors of all ages. Visitors will be able to use Google Earth to see a satellite view of the county and then zoom in to find out more.

    There is also the chance to find out about food rationing, new crops found in Oxfordshire, how the railways and roads have changed or to pass on current countryside concerns. From statistics about who uses the M40 to why we almost starved during World War Two and how this affected post war agriculture, people will find something to surprise them.

    Councillor Jim Couchman, Oxfordshire County Council?s Cabinet Member for social and community services, said: ?This is a fascinating glimpse at the rural ways of life in Oxfordshire.?

    ?I hope everyone will take advantage of this free exhibition, which will be a must-see for anyone with a couple of hours to spend in Woodstock.?

    Photo: Land Army gir.

  • Thame United beat bottom-of-the-league Eton Wick (Contributed)

    LEAGUE MATCH: Saturday, February 16 – Thame United 1, Eton Wick 0 – Match report:
    THAME United defeated Eton Wick 1-5 when they visited them in August. The ?Wick?, who have not won a league game this season, are bottom of the league. Thame, on the other hand, are mid-table so a home win seemed a near certainty. Thame won but it took 87 frustrating minutes for them to find the back of the visitor?s net.

    From the kick off, Thame had more possession and created more chances, but their finishing was off form and, except from saving a Lee Thompson volley, the visiting goalkeeper had little to do during a scrappy first half.

    The second half was better and after 10 minutes Luke Ricketts hit the post with a shot from an acute angle. Apart from the occasional break it was one way traffic but Thame seemed unable to penetrate the visitors’ defence. Sam Cowan missed a chance when, following a corner he hit a high shot from the edge of the box.

    With 15 minutes to play, Graeme Catlin hit a goal-bound shot which forced a great save from the visiting keeper. This seemed to spark Thame into action and they increased the pressure on the visitors’ goal. Both Ben Connelly and Mark West who had brought himself on) had half chances before Thame?s long awaited goal came.
    With three minutes remaining Ben Connelly made a run to the right by-line and pulled the ball back for Adam Rhodes to confidently fire home from 10 yards. Game over!

    Thame?s goal was rarely threatened and the home side were still attacking when the final whistle blew.

    Thame United: Searl, Thompson, Watkins (Mountfield), Higgs, Hocking, Cowan, Connelly, Rhodes, Skiller (West), Catlin, Ricketts.

  • It’s gonna ‘rine in spine’ for Alison!

    A YOUNG Thame actress is currently rehearsing hard for her debut with Thame Players, when they present Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion at the Players Theatre, from Tuesday, March 4 to Saturday, March 8.
    Alison Hulett is to play the central role of Eliza Doolittle in this production which will be directed by Simon Baynes.
    Colleen Tudway, of Thame Players, says: “All concerned with the play are confident that Alison will make a great success of the part. She hopes to make a career of acting and is trying to get in to drama school, so this performance will be a great step forward in her ambitions.”

    Pygmalion is Bernard Shaw’s classic tale of Eliza Doolittle, a girl from the gutter who is tutored by a linguistics expert, Professor Higgins. Higgins has a wager with a friend that he can transform Eliza’s speech and transform her from a common flower girl into one who can pass as a lady of refinement.

    The play was, of course, turned into the musical, My Fair Lady but Shaw’s original play is full of eloquent language and great humour.
    The performances start at 7.45pm and tickets cost

  • Greens highlight role of food in climate change (Status: Press release)

    IN an address to the Green Party Spring Conference in Reading Town Hall last weekend, Caroline Lucas, Green MEP for the South East, revealed just how important eating local, organic produce can be in tackling climate change. Mark Stevenson, Green prospective parliamentary candidate, is putting Green policy into action locally.

    A recent study [1] shows that 18% of global green house gas emissions are caused by agriculture, livestock farming contributing about 80% of this, whilst research conducted by the Soil Association [2] found that UK organic farming was an average 26% more fuel efficient than non-organic. The surprisingly high contribution of farming to climate change means that eating organic food is now shown to be an important contribution to tackling climate change. Reducing meat consumption will make this even more effective, as well as being healthy.

    Mark Stevenson, Green prospective parliamentary candidate for the Henley constituency and local organic farmer, said “This really helps to show the truth of my belief that tackling climate change can be a positive thing. Eating better quality food, grown in a way that encourages soil life and biodiversity, is now known to reduce our carbon footprint as well. Indeed, eating well could be more effective than doing those boring things we are always being exhorted to do like rinsing yoghurt pots for recycling and turning off the standby.”

    He added “we all know about the food miles issue, but having access to locally produced organic food is a problem. Supermarkets have made it increasingly difficult for ordinary local food shops to exist, to survive they usually end up targeting the luxury end of the market. Farmers? Markets are often monthly, several miles away and at times when many people cannot go. I have tackled this problem over the last five years by getting involved with local residents to set up independent weekly local markets. They operate at times chosen by the local community and vary according to the needs and requests of the residents but all aim to provide local, organic food on a regular basis at affordable prices.”

    “Anyone can set up a market like this,” Mark continued, “All you need is a group of people who want to make it happen, I would be delighted to tell people how we have done it. This is a fantastic example of Green politics in action: one simple thing, a local market, which tackles a range of issues. It empowers the local community, cuts carbon emissions, develops the local economy, encourages organic farming, improves our diet and is fun.”

    The latest market to open is Wallingford Local Producers? Market [3], which opened last September with the encouragement of the Town Council, the help of Wallingford Masons who provide the venue and a grant from the Mindcounties Cooperative. Every Saturday morning the market offers seasonal local vegetables and fruit, bread, cheese, eggs, meat, jam, honey, and other produce. It has a cafe and is intending to develop its community role as a source of information and developing contacts.

    FACT FILE
    1] The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) report ?Livestock?s Long Shadow?, 2007 can be found on www.fao.org. Statistic quoted from p.112.

    [2] Soil Association report ?Energy and Organic Farming?, 2007, based on Defra data in ?Basic Horticultural statistics 2005? and ?Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2006?.

    [3] Wallingford Local Producers? Market, every Saturday 10am-1pm, Wallingford Masonic Centre, Goldsmiths Lane, Wallingford. Contact Mark Stevenson 01865 341838

    [4] Mark Stevenson has been involved in setting up Wolvercote Farmers Market (2003), East Oxford Farmers and Community Market (2006) and Wallingford Local Producers’ Market (2007). He and his partner run The Clays Organic Market Garden, situated in an ancient orchard near Warborough in South Oxfordshire. They are a part of Defra’s OELS scheme and have a number of rare and unusual species of wildlife on the farm.

  • Greens highlight role of food in climate change (Status: Press release)

    IN an address to the Green Party Spring Conference in Reading Town Hall last weekend, Caroline Lucas, Green MEP for the South East, revealed just how important eating local, organic produce can be in tackling climate change. Mark Stevenson, Green prospective parliamentary candidate, is putting Green policy into action locally.

    A recent study [1] shows that 18% of global green house gas emissions are caused by agriculture, livestock farming contributing about 80% of this, whilst research conducted by the Soil Association [2] found that UK organic farming was an average 26% more fuel efficient than non-organic. The surprisingly high contribution of farming to climate change means that eating organic food is now shown to be an important contribution to tackling climate change. Reducing meat consumption will make this even more effective, as well as being healthy.

    Mark Stevenson, Green prospective parliamentary candidate for the Henley constituency and local organic farmer, said “This really helps to show the truth of my belief that tackling climate change can be a positive thing. Eating better quality food, grown in a way that encourages soil life and biodiversity, is now known to reduce our carbon footprint as well. Indeed, eating well could be more effective than doing those boring things we are always being exhorted to do like rinsing yoghurt pots for recycling and turning off the standby.”

    He added “we all know about the food miles issue, but having access to locally produced organic food is a problem. Supermarkets have made it increasingly difficult for ordinary local food shops to exist, to survive they usually end up targeting the luxury end of the market. Farmers? Markets are often monthly, several miles away and at times when many people cannot go. I have tackled this problem over the last five years by getting involved with local residents to set up independent weekly local markets. They operate at times chosen by the local community and vary according to the needs and requests of the residents but all aim to provide local, organic food on a regular basis at affordable prices.”

    “Anyone can set up a market like this,” Mark continued, “All you need is a group of people who want to make it happen, I would be delighted to tell people how we have done it. This is a fantastic example of Green politics in action: one simple thing, a local market, which tackles a range of issues. It empowers the local community, cuts carbon emissions, develops the local economy, encourages organic farming, improves our diet and is fun.”

    The latest market to open is Wallingford Local Producers? Market [3], which opened last September with the encouragement of the Town Council, the help of Wallingford Masons who provide the venue and a grant from the Mindcounties Cooperative. Every Saturday morning the market offers seasonal local vegetables and fruit, bread, cheese, eggs, meat, jam, honey, and other produce. It has a cafe and is intending to develop its community role as a source of information and developing contacts.

    FACT FILE
    1] The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) report ?Livestock?s Long Shadow?, 2007 can be found on www.fao.org. Statistic quoted from p.112.

    [2] Soil Association report ?Energy and Organic Farming?, 2007, based on Defra data in ?Basic Horticultural statistics 2005? and ?Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2006?.

    [3] Wallingford Local Producers? Market, every Saturday 10am-1pm, Wallingford Masonic Centre, Goldsmiths Lane, Wallingford. Contact Mark Stevenson 01865 341838

    [4] Mark Stevenson has been involved in setting up Wolvercote Farmers Market (2003), East Oxford Farmers and Community Market (2006) and Wallingford Local Producers’ Market (2007). He and his partner run The Clays Organic Market Garden, situated in an ancient orchard near Warborough in South Oxfordshire. They are a part of Defra’s OELS scheme and have a number of rare and unusual species of wildlife on the farm.

  • Charity Accoustic night at the Barns

    COMING up on Saturday, March 15, is a night of acoustic music for people of all ages, to be held at the Barns Centre in Thame. All proceeds will go to Christian Aid and Cafod.
    The acts taking part include Wilber (BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards finalist), The Young’s Plan, the Lord Williams’ School Jazz Band and Emmy& Pecco, with jazz and world music provided by DJ Pascal Ansell.
    The event will start at 7.30pm and there will be a cash bar and a short talk about Christian Aid’s work in Burkina Faso and Mali. Tickets are

  • New Thame football stadium gets go-ahead from Thame council

    YESTERDAY was ‘a momentous’ day for Thame, says the Chair of Thame Town Council’s Planning committee, which has given its approval to a proposed new football stadium and associated facilities for the town.
    Cllr Don Butler, the Chairman of the committee, today told ThameNews.Net: “The committee was very impressed with the quality of this application. It has been well thought out and it is obvious that a lot of hard work had gone into it.
    “I believe that the whole project will be a tremendous boon to aspiring young footballers and that Thame will be extremely proud of what will no doubt be a fantastic asset to the town.”

    Addressing the committee last night(Tues 19.02),Tim Green, the Chairman of Thame Boys and Girls, part of the Thame Football Partnership, said: “This application is the next step to fulfilling our vision.”

    Nigel Hargreavies from the Football Association also supported the application, saying that it would bring together junior and senior players, amounting to 23 teams, and bring enormous benefit in fitness and social advantages to the whole community. He commended the volunteers and particularly the Chairman of Thame United and the Thame Football Partnership, Jake Collinge for their “extraordinary work over the last two years.
    He explained that the project had the support of two, independent Board members who bring their financial and commercial expertise to make sure that the it is managed in “an ethical and corporately responsible way.”

    The new proposed facility would be on the 20-acre Church Farm site on the northern edge of Thame. The main complex comprises a clubhouse with community facilities/function rooms, changing rooms, offices, corporate board room for match day hospitality, a large function facility for up to 250 people and community changing rooms.
    Extra facilities would include an external marquee to create additional function room space thereby facilitating wider community use of the facilities. As well as a main floodlit football pitch, the plans would also incorporate a 40m x 30m 3G floodlit artificial pitch (AGP), three additional full-size grass pitches and four small size pitches.

    All members of the committee welcomed and recommended approval of the scheme, although Cllr David Laver said that he would like to see more planting to provide more screening to the north and west of the site and hoped that the flood lighting would be an improvement on that at the old Windmill Road site which he said lit up properties around the ground.
    Cllr Lionel Morbey said that he would like to see double the number of cycle parking places to 15.

    The district council has received 100 letters of support for the scheme and nine objections, the latter raising concerns about flood lighting, parking and noise from functions in the proposed marquee.

    The scheme will shortly go before South Oxfordshire District Council who have the final ‘say so’ as to whether the scheme can go ahead. But the building cannot go ahead until a housing development plan for Thame United’s old ground in Windmill Road, Thame, is approved, and

  • Murder trial jury hear first witnesses

    THE jury in the trial of four people accused in connection with the murder of an elderly woman, dumping her body near Thame and then setting fire to it, today heard from the two friends of hers who first alerted the police to her disappearance. They heard too, how the woman accused of murdering 94 year-old, Mrs Thea Zaudy, told two of her alleged accomplices that a suitcase they carried around the London tube contained wet blankets.

    Oxford Crown Court also heard Queen’s Council for the Prosecution describe how evidence would show that Jolanta Kalinowsica, her son, Adrian Lis and his girlfriend, Monilca Sienkievicv, used Mrs Zaudy’s Debit card to spend around

  • Two charged following knife-point robbery in Thame

    FOLLOWING a robbery at knife-point at The Chocolate Box, Thame, a couple from Aylesbury have been charged with the robbery which took place at around 5pm last Friday, February 15.
    The proprietor of the shop, who was the victim of the robbery, was uninjured though still shaken today. She told ThameNews.Net how the couple were seen driving off towards Aylesbury by Traffic Warden Peggy Long, who took note of the licence plate and contacted the police. They then took chase and caught up with the couple’s car at a roundabout in Aylesbury where they were apprehended.
    Rebecca Hampson, aged 24, and James Scott, aged 32, both of Terry Drive, Aylesbury, have been remanded in custody and were due to appear before Oxford Magistrates? Court today (18/2).

    Photo: Thame news agents, The Chocolate Box, North Street, Thame.

  • Trial begins for four charged in Thame ‘suitcase’ murder

    PREPARATIONS for the trial of four people accused of involvement in the murder of an elderly woman whose burned remains were dumped in a suitcase near Thame, began today.
    The jury of six women and six men were sworn in this morning, as were four translators, one each for the four Defendants, Jolanta M Kalinowsica, 41, of Cavendish Avenue, Ealing, who is on trial for murder, Monilca Sienkiewicz, 19, for assisting an Offender by the removal of evidence, knowing her to be guilty of an offence, Adrian Ryszard Lis, 23, and Lucasz Gajda, 25, also from Ealing, who are both, with Sienkiewicz on trial for assisting an offender to dispose of the body of her alleged victim, 94 year-old Thea Zaudy from Nottinghill, London.

    The offences are alleged to have occurred between July 10 – 14, 2007.

    The burned remains of Mrs Zaudy’s body were found by a farm worker in a field off Rycote Lane, in July, last year.

    The trial, which will involve the evidence of more than 30 people, will begin in earnest tomorrow morning, and is expected to last at least three weeks.