Category: entertainment and leisure news

PHOTOGRAPHS and memorabilia from the 1950s in Oxford are currently on show at the Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock.
The photos, a nostalgic look at leisure and labour in a city still recovering from the second world war, are drawn from the ?Tommy? Thomas photographic collection, normally housed at Oxfordshire Studies in the Central Library, Oxford, both run by Oxfordshire County Council.

Social events as well as views of the city are covered in this exhibition, and visitors may recognize photographs of businesses that no longer exist, such as John Allen & Sons Ltd, Pressed Steel Ltd, OUP printing works and Lucy?s Iron Foundry.

What does the memorabilia include?

The memorabilia, which includes magazines, adverts, theatre brochures, kitchen utensils, toys, costume accessories and models, has been borrowed from Oxfordshire Studies, the Oxfordshire Record Office and private collections.

The county council?s Museums Resource Centre, in Standlake, which stores and conserves museum artifacts, has contributed evening wear, underwear, uniforms and a wedding dress.

The exhibition, which is free, will be in the Treasures and Picture Galleries. Tel. 01993 811456 for opening hours and more information.

Oxfordshire county councillor Don Seale, Cabinet Member for Cultural Services, said: ?These fascinating photos are well worth seeing by anyone with an interest in local history and will bring memories flooding back for many people.?

YOUNG musicians from across Oxfordshire, including Thame, will be opening the Festival Concert in South Parks, Oxford, on Sunday 13 May, as part of the county?s Oxfordshire 2007 celebrations.

The Central Music School Sinfonia – run by Oxfordshire County Council and comprising 120 students from Oxfordshire secondary schools – will play the Star Wars suite by John Williams.

Tickets for the event, which starts at 6.30pm, cost

THE latest annual Oxfordshire Art Weeks begin this weekend, and their are several artists in the Thame area taking part.
The dates for the Oxfordshire Artists’ Festival are: City: 12-20 May, South: 19 – 27 May, North: 26 May – 3 June.
Free guides are available from libraries and tourist information centres in Oxfordshire, and also from most museums, galleries and art shops or download a guide from: Link

Also visit the online gallery at www.artweeks-gallery.org.

Photo: Textile by Mary Lowry from Tiddington

WE are delighted to announce that three local businesses, Lancasters Chartered Accountants, Benjamin Clayton Bespoke Furniture Makers and Biagio the Jeweller will be sponsoring the Le Page Ensemble Concert on Saturday, May 12 and a further concert on October 27.
Thame is indeed very fortunate as their support will enable professional concerts to be performed in the beautiful setting of St. Mary?s Church.
The Ensemble, lead by David Le Page, a former pupil at the Yehudi Menuhin School are all highly gifted and vibrant young musicians. Lively and impromptu onstage discussion has become a feature of Le Page Ensemble concerts and audiences frequently comment on the refreshing nature of this approach.

This concert at St. Mary?s Church Thame is the last for this season and the programme will include Beethoven Quartet Opus 18 No. 4, J.S. Bach Partita No. 3 for solo violin and Edward Elgar String Quartet Opus 83. The concert starts at 7.30pm and tickets are available on the door.

Fri 4th ‘Flashback’. You can turn back time again at Haddenham library (6-
7pm) where villagers (and experts on the history of Haddenham airfield) Guy
Buckingham and Ron Doble will be giving a free talk for adults and children on
‘The RAF in World War II’. Haddenham Museum’s display, which is linked with
this talk and last week’s talk by Alan Rose on ‘Haddenham Museum and Victorian
Childhood’, can be seen at the library until Saturday.
Sat 5th May Day. The annual May Day celebrations will begin as usual with a
procession of garlands, led by the May Queen and King, from Banks Park
(10.30am) to Church End Green where the May Queen and King will be crowned
and about 40 children will take part in the maypole dancing. Afterwards,
Haddenham Morris and Haddenham Hoofers will be dancing.
Other attractions on the Green include a marquee display of the entries to
Haddenham Safe Walking and Cycling Group’s recent competition to design a
poster appealing to motorists to cut their speed, and the launch of ‘The Haddenham
Chronicles III’. In this issue, there are articles by villagers John Landon, Eve
McLaughlin and Pat Foulkes, in addition to ones by contributors to Chronicles I and
II (Bruce Alexander, Martin Andrew, Peter Chamberlain, Christina Jeffery, Alan
Rose, Steve Sharp and Will Strange). The Chronicles will be on sale at Book
House, Thame, and Blooming Fruity, Banks Parade, as well as at Haddenham
Museum (open Sundays 2-4.30pm and Tuesdays 10am-12 noon).
Sat 5th Booksale. Hundreds of second-hand books will be on sale at 14 Church
End (10am-2pm) along with tea, coffee and scrumptious home-made cakes.
Proceeds to Multiple Sclerosis and Haddenham charities and organisations.
Sat 5thCeilidh. Peeping Tom (described by the Daily Telegraph as ‘the model
ceilidh band’) will provide the music for the ceilidh at Haddenham Village Hall
(8pm) and Madeleine and Ed Smith will demonstrate broomstick dancing. Call
Haddenham Ceilidhs on 01296 415333 for details.
Sun 6th Heart and Sole Walk. Meet outside Haddenham library at 2pm for a 4
mile circular walk on country footpaths.
Bank Holiday Monday. Madrigals at Cuddington. Following the success of last
year’s May morning, the Witchert Chorale (with singers from Haddenham and
surrounding villages) has been invited again to sing madrigals from the top of
Cuddington Church tower (9am). You are invited to come and listen to them (free)
and join them afterwards for coffee and Danish pastries inside the church. The
group is also giving a supper concert in Cuddington for Christian Aid on May 19.
Bank Holiday Monday Garden Open. Turn End garden in Townside will be
open (2-5.30pm) for the National Gardens Scheme (for the first time since 2004)
and the Turn End Charitable Trust. Plants will be on sale and local WI members
have been roped in to serve teas. Admission

THAME CONCERT BAND will be presenting “Music from Across the Globe” at St Mary’s Church, Thame, on Friday, May 18 at 7.30pm.
Tickets from Sapphire Moon, Lower High Street, Thame
Booking Line: 07976 586683

For more details go to: Link

THE second instalment of Thame Players’ Alan Ayckbourn season promises to be another highly entertaining evening to match the success of Absurd Person Singular, performed in March.
Time of My Life is very different. It is not billed as a comedy, although Ayckbourn’s wit and humour is liberally sprinkled throughout the play. When the play was first performed in the West End in 1993, it was described by one critic as “?funny, very funny, and not funny at all: quintessentially Ayckbourn.”
Alan Ayckbourn brilliantly exposes the frailty of human relations in Time of My Life and, as the title hints, treats the passage of time in a most ingenious way.
The play is set in the Essa di Calvi Restaurant where Gerry Stratton has arranged a dinner party for his wife?s birthday. The occasion suggests a happy domestic scene, but gradually we are made aware of the family skeletons. Ayckbourn is often described as the country?s greatest living playwright and Time of My Life shows his talent at its very best.

The play will be performed at The Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame at 7.45pm between 8th and 12th May and tickets are on sale now from Tickets Anywhere, Greyhound Walk, Thame, telephone 0871 2227232.

Fri 27th ‘Flashback’. You can turn back time at Haddenham library (6-7pm) when Haddenham Museum Trust chairman Alan Rose will be giving a free talk for parents and children on ‘Haddenham Museum and Victorian Childhood’. Linked with this talk, and another, about the RAF in World War II, by Guy Buckingham and Ron Doble on May 4 (details to follow), the museum will have a display at the library until the end of next week.

Fri 27th Line Dance. The Pondarosa Line Dance Club’s next social dance is on Friday (not Saturday as it usually is) (8-11pm) at Haddenham Village Hall. Entry, on the door, is

ON April 15, Long Crendon Gardens Open 2-6pm, National Gardens Scheme: Baker’s Close, Barry’s Close, Manor House and the Old Crown. Admission

Please note that, in view of the impending elections, this year’s annual parish meeting will be held earlier than usual – on April 20 – to give the current council a chance to report to villagers on the past year’s work.

Don’t forget that applications from prospective parish and district councillors are due in at the AVDC office by 12noon on April 4. Information packs and forms are available from the parish office (open Tuesdays and Thursdays (9-11.30am or call 292411).

Sat 21st Come and Sing. As St Mary’s Church, Haddenham, will be closed for alterations from Sunday 15th April, this year’s Come and Sing, organised by villager Sheilagh Armitt in aid of Cancer Research UK, is being held at Aylesbury Methodist Church. Singers will be rehearsing parts 2 and 3 of Handel’s Messiah in the afternoon, with conductor Ian Westley and organist Colin Spinks, and giving a performance at 7pm. For