Thame.net

Author: Sonja Francis

  • Sun Shines At Last On Thame Festival

    IT would take more than a down-pour to dampen the spirits of the people of Thame when they come together as they did on Saturday for the Thame Carnival and festival.
    This year’s carnival procession was bigger and better than any in recent years, with entrants from businesses and local organisations being led through the town by some magnificent vehicles representing Thame’s Classic Motor Club, and Thame News’ ebullient Town Crier, complete with bell and bugle.

    The 16 organisations that took part included the local primary schools, Thame Players, Thame Historical Society, Thomley Hall and the Thame Fencing club, two of whose members duelled all the way from Park Street to the Southern Road recreation ground!

    Fun and games followed at the rec, where local groups and organisations provided challenges, food and drink, music and entertainment for the hundreds of people who were rewarded with warm sunshine for not scuttling off after a very heavy shower throughout the second leg of the procession.

    Among the stands and side shows on the ‘rec’ was Thame First, promoting the use of re-useable shopping bags and offering visitors the opportunity to buy raffle tickets and win a free ride in a hot air balloon. Their efforts netted around

  • Old Trout Extension Gets Go Ahead From Town Council

    THAME Town council’s Planning Committee has recommended approval of a planning application to demolish modern, rear extensions, erect a single storey replacement and for internal alterations to the Old Trout restaurant in Thame.

  • Heated Discussion Over Shop Signs In Thame

    THAME Town councillors voted narrowly to recommend approval of new signage for a High Street Off Licence, after a heated exchange about the use of vinyl lettering.
    Whittalls Wines, who have taken over the old Unwins shop at 94 High Street, Thame, want to re-paint their fascia above the door and place a timber projecting sign in place of the existing one, using vinyl letters.
    Cllr Rob Parker, who used to run a retail business in the Buttermarket, Thame, said that he didn’t think the lettering would be offensive as long as the lettering used looked hand pained and used a suitable font. He said that sign-writing skills were no longer available for hand lettering, and that what the applicant was asking for was nothing more than is already common around the town.
    Cllr David Dodds however was among those councillors who objected, and said that many unsuitable signs for a Conservation had ‘crept in’ and that he felt sure South Oxfordshire District Council would take account of the Lockwood Report on the town centre and would: “…reitterate this town’s policy for painted wooden signs.
    The Planning committee voted 5 – 4 to recommend approval of the plans, with the proviso that Cllr Parker’s amendment about the suitability of the font chosen for the signage, was taken into consideration.

  • Memorial To Chinnor Railway Founder

    THE Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway will be holding the Don Kaufman memorial gathering on Sunday, June 24, at Chinnor Station.
    A memorial bench will be unveiled by Pat Kaufman and guests and members will ride on the Don Kaufman Memorial Train.

    Don Kaufman 1943 – 2006.
    Don, who died on New Years Day 2006, was one of the original group that met in ‘The Lions of Bledlow’ pub in 1989 to discuss trying to acquire the remains of the Watlington Branch for use as a Heritage Railway, following its ceasing to be used for transporting materials to the Chinnor Cement Works.
    From this meeting was formed the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association of which Don was initially the Fund Raising Manager.
    Don became Chairman of the Association in June 1993, a position he occupied until his resignation in January 2005. This period saw the purchase of the track from Chinnor to Thame Junction and the commencement of public passenger services in August 1994.

  • Warning After Shed Goes Up In Flames

    THAME fire officers have issued a warning about unattended bon fires and Barbecues, after a shed in Thame was destroyed by a fire which spread to an adjacent garage.
    Fortunately fire officers were able to stop the fire from spreading to a car inside the garage.
    Station Officer, Andy Ford, told ThameNews.Net: “People need to be extra careful at this time of the year when everything can dry out so quickly. Even dying embers from an unattended bon fire, or a BBQ can re-ignite and catch flammable objects close by.”
    This incident was in Cotmore Crescent.

  • Siesta To Be Introduced For Thame Workers

    THAME-BASED company, Travelodge, whose Head office, Sleepy Hollow, is in Aylesbury Road, are to instal hammocks so that staff can take a short siesta in the afternoons.
    The company is responding to recent survey among UK workers, to which a half apparently replied that they would be more productive if they followed the example of their European counterparts and took a snooze in the afternoons.

  • How Waste Laws Affect Businesses

    BUSINESSES in Oxfordshire are to be given the chance to ease their concerns about how new national waste laws affect their day-to-day operations.
    See Link

  • The Challenge of Green Motoring

    CORRESPONDENT for the EV World website, Great Haseley’s Richard Harding, recently covered the 2007 Brighton-to-London’s Trafalgar Square alternative fuel vehicle rally, on June 5.
    Richard is a keen advocate of ‘green’ vehicles and drives a Toyota Prius. His report, published on the premier website for alternatives to oil-based motor transport, can be read here
     as well as a report on a world ‘first’ for green racing cars.

    Photo: A couple of Ford Foci on display at Kenilworth recently, which run on E85 Ethanol.

  • Register For Thame Summer Playscheme

    THE dates for this year’s Thame Summer Playscheme are July 30 to August 9, and the venue will be Lord Williams’s Lower School in Towersey Road. Children can be enrolled onto the Scheme either weekly or fortnightly.
    There will be a registration evening on June 27, from 7.30 to 8.30pm in the main hall at Lord Williams’s Lower School, Towersey Road. Registration forms are available from the Thame Information Centre in the Town Hall. A fully completed form is essential for each child on the scheme.
    Contact Linda on 01844 215852, Chris on 216382 or Sharon on 216949 for more information.

  • Thame Carnival Arrangements

    THE timings for this year’s Thame Festival Parade & Fete, this Saturday, June 16, are as follows:
    Carnival starts at 12.30pm with a procession of walking and mobile displays from local organisations and businesses, starting at John Hampden school and parading down Thame High Street to Southern Road Recreation Ground where there will be a fete from around 1pm to 4.00pm. Here, throughout the afternoon, there wil be live music, a scouts bar-b-Q, refreshments, and a whole host of activities, many of which are absolutely free.

    Look out for ThameNews.Net’s contribution to ‘1000 years of Oxfordshire’ around the town and in the Carnival, in the person of historic news broadcaster, Alan Myatt, World champion Town Crier.

    For further information contact Julie Davies of Thame Festival Committee on 01844 213799. As part of the celebrations, this year the Thame Festival Committee and Thame Churches Together will be raising funds for Martin Gadd, a former student at Barley Hill and Lord Williams’s School who was paralysed from the waist down in a fall last year.

    Photo: Alan Myatt, World champion Town Crier