Category: entertainment and leisure news

THE Chilterns Conservation Board and Chiltern Society have developed a series of 23 walks across the Chilterns which are social-distance friendly, avoiding crowded ‘honey-pot’ locations and narrow paths where possible. 

Between two and six miles long, the walks start in market towns or villages, with good public transport links or parking facilities, and are being launched to coincide with the re-opening of many pubs and cafes. 

The Chilterns has some outstanding food and drink producers and these walks highlight the many farm shops nearby that are open for business and selling Chilterns local specialities to enjoy on a picnic, or to take home- everything from local honey, beer, cheeses, charcuterie, grass fed lamb and much more. 

The walks were developed by 18 volunteers, all experienced walk leaders who are passionate about the Chilterns and keen to share some of their favourite walks away from the crowds.  All the routes take in the beautiful rolling landscapes of the Chilterns, picturesque villages, and plenty of historic interest too, from old drovers routes to iron age hillforts. Discover places with wonderful names like Nanfan Wood, Lilley Hoe and Cobblershill. And some walks start on commons or at recreation grounds with lots of open space, so ideal for families or friends to combine with a picnic and for kids to run around safely. 

Annette Venters, of the Chilterns Conservation Board said: “During Lockdown the Chilterns countryside has been used and enjoyed as never before, bringing comfort and joy to many. The well-used honey-pot sites can get very crowded, making social distancing difficult and putting pressure on the landscape. Luckily, the Chilterns have over 2,000km of footpaths, so there are plenty of quiet places to enjoy. We hope these walks will encourage people to explore the Chilterns and discover new places.”

Many of the walks are stile-free and most are under four miles long, making them accessible to many. Whilst we want more people to enjoy the benefits of walking in the Chilterns, we ask them to do this safely and responsibly by, for example, taking litter home, not lighting fires and barbecues, and keeping dogs under control. See our website for further guidance. 

Here is a taster of some of the walks:

• Pub walks from Great Offley and Pegsdon in the northern Chilterns. The Pegdson walk passes through Knocking Hoe and Hoo Bit nature reserves with outstanding views and witchcraft-sounding plant names like fleawort, eyebright and harebells. 
• Many of the walks take in famous TV and film locations. The Hound of the Baskervilles walk from Binfield Heath takes in the historic Crowsley Park. 
• There are walks through historic parks, nature reserves, drovers routes, stretches of the Ridgeway National Trail, past churches, iron age hillforts, Hellfire Caves and Berkhamsted Castle. 
• Le De Spencer Arms on Downley Common, the Red Lion on Peppard Common and the Cock and Rabbit on Lee Common are just some of the wonderful country pubs along our routes. 

The walks can be downloaded free of charge, see https://bit.ly/2AyCFBP  for further information and https://chilternsociety.org.uk/free-walks-leaflets/  for other walks in the Chilterns. 

LIKE most of Thame’s annual events, the Thame Food Festival for 2020, due to have taken place in September, has had to be cancelled due to the Corona virus.

In a statement, the organisers explained: “Paramount in making the decision has been the safety of all those attending including visitors, stallholders, volunteers and chefs. The appeal of Thame Food Festival is the hustle and bustle which for obvious current social distancing reasons would be impossible to achieve. Plus, there would be significant additional expense to maintain the required cleanliness standards including more frequent cleaning, wash stations, hand sanitizer and extra security to ensure social distancing measures are not being breached. In addition, there is currently limited government guidance on how events of this scale should be managed, or if they should be held at all.

“This has been a tough decision to make. However, we ultimately have to consider the health and safety of all those that join us. While a number of alternative options have been explored, including potentially holding the event earlier in 2021 it was felt the best solution was to postpone it until September 2021. Hopefully by this time there will be clarity on how events like these can happen. And so while we are extremely disappointed, we will be transferring many of the plans and ideas to next year and look forward to hopefully welcoming everyone then.”

THE organisers of the Thame Town Music Festival, which had to be postponed until 2021, recommend that ticket holders for the Glenn Miller Orchestra event hang on to their tickets for the rearranged date if they can as the event was completely sold out.

However, TTMF are reminding tickets holders that they do have the choice to take a refund, saying today:
“We would like to remind everyone that we have had to postpone the concert by the Glenn Miller Orchestra directed by Ray McVay which was scheduled for 10 July 2020 because of the COIVID -19 pandemic. We are hoping it will be safe to hold this great event sometime later in 2020. If not, we will try to present the evening as early in 2021 as is safe to do so. All tickets are transferable to the new date or can be refunded. If you would like a refund and you bought your tickets:

Online: Please go to the WeGotTickets.com website and request a refund. It is all set up. 

From the Town Hall : Unfortunately, we cannot process refunds for physical tickets at the Town Hall until movement restrictions are lifted. So either:
⦁ Hold on to your ticket until the Town Hall is open again and they will be able to give a refund then, or
⦁ Email ⦁ Chris@ThameTownMusicFestival.org and give your bank details and the ticket number(s) and we will transfer the refund amount by bank transfer.

However, we hope that you keep your ticket and join us for a spectacular evening of the best Big Band Swing music concert for later in 2020/21.  As soon as we can confirm a new date, we will communicate this across all our social media channels and our website.

“We would like to thank Haddenham Healthcare for their continuing support of this event. “

WITH Thame Museum closed for the foreseeable future, the museum is offering all sorts of  engaging website activities for virtual visitors to take part in:

• Virtual tours of the museum to let people browse through the collections
• A Photo Quiz of Thame to appeal to those virtual quizzers out there.  Derek Turner devised the quiz and there is a small prize to the one with the most correct answers. The website gives full details and the deadline for answers is June 21st.  Answers to: info@thamemuseum.org
• For children there are fun things to do at home based around Secret Messages and Codes; there are also links to sites offering other inspiring and exciting activities for children at home
• ‘ Antiques HomeShow’ – inviting people to be their own home curators. So many people have interesting artifacts in their homes, that perhaps have been in the family for years or linked to some sort of history. The museum would love to hear from them and to capture the stories behind the object. Send in pictures of your treasured /favourite artifacts that you have at home, together with the story behind the artifact.  It may be something that has been handed down through generations, or something with a particular historic relevance. It need not be an antique. The museum is particularly interested in the story that people have to  tell which links them to the history or narrative of their family, their home, their location.  

Yvonne Maxwell, Spokesperson for the museum said: “We really hope that lots of people will accept this invitation and share with us their interesting stories.                                                                    

“Images should be sent as High Resolution jpegs together with a word document of up to 300 words, (it can be more we won’t penalise) to publicity@thamemuseum.org”

Visit the Thame Museum website: https://www.thamemuseum.org/

ALTHOUGH, like all live music festivals throughout the world practically, this year’s Thame Town Music Festival has had to be cancelled because of the on-going Corona Virus situation, song-writing has not.

The festival organisers decided that there was no reason why the festival’s Song-writing Competition should not go ahead, and last night, Wednesday, five of the 10 finalists were live streamed from the TTMF Facebook page.

If you missed it don’t worry, you can watch a recording of the show HERE and vote for your favourite.  Then catch tonight’s show with the final five tonight. Follow the LINK HERE for all the details.

WHILE out taking your daily excercise why not take part in a weekly ‘treasure hunt’ in Thame and be in with the chance of winning a £25 voucher to spend at a business in the town centre?

Thame Town Council has just launched the first in a series of ‘Lockdown Treasure Hunts’ that are designed to be completed by people of ALL ages when they are out and about on their one form of daily exercise. Participants have to visit seven town centre businesses and answer a simple question about each of them by looking in their windows. With only seven businesses to visit the treasure hunts are designed so that they can be completed all at once on a longer walk, or one business each day of the week. Participants are being urged to make sure that they maintain social distancing at all times allowing others taking part to move on before searching for the answers. 

The treasure hunts will be launched through Thame Town Council’s newsletter that comes out on Thursday each week. You can sign up to receive it here: https://www.thametowncouncil.gov.uk/news/newsletter-sign-up/. Each treasure hunt is only open until the following Wednesday, with the winner being drawn at random from all correct entries received, and announced in the newsletter released the next day.  

Thame Lockdown Treasure Hunt No 1. is now OPEN for entries and the first set of clues are available from https://www.thametowncouncil.gov.uk/thame-lockdown-treasure-hunts/. Entries must also be made through this page on the form provided. All entries for this Treasure Hunt must be in by Wednesday May 6. 

The treasure hunts hope to keep people connected to their town centre, and help them discover businesses that they previously didn’t know about during a time when most residents are spending more time than usual at home due to government guidelines. The hope is that when restrictions ease, people will know more about their local businesses and consider supporting them.

DESPITE the lockdown, the organisers of Thame’s Arts and Literature festival, TAL, are determined to produce a version of the festival, and are keeping the dates, October 15-18, 2020, open and have already lined up some brilliant authors! 

“If we can hold a physical TAL Festival this year, it will be a festival to remember!,” said TAL Founder, Yvonne Maxwell.  “If not, the good news is that we’ll try and arrange an alternative way of bringing the festival to life online where we can entertain, inform and hopefully give you some much-needed inspiration.

“We’ll keep you up to date with how things are going on the TAL website and in future newsletters.” Click HERE to visit the TAL Festival website.

SATURDAY evening, March 14, saw an audience of more than 140 people enjoy a programme of amazing choral works performed by Lord Williams’s Festival Chorus, ranging from the poignant and ethereal beauty of Faure’s Requiem to the rousing anthems of Hubert Parry.

The choir, led by Jeff Stewart, was accompanied by brilliant organist Sam Laughton, a former Cambridge music scholar, who also played one of Parry’s organ Preludes. Soloists Jacquelyne Hill and Leonardo Au-Yeung completed the ensemble.

The audience played its part too, joining with the choir for an enthusiastic rendition of Jerusalem.

“It was a tremendous concert, giving some light in very dark times. The choir sang with the feeling appropriate to knowing that they may not sing together for a long time to come. It was all very moving,” said Jeff.
Due to the continued spread of Covid-19, and following the latest Government advice, the choir’s summer term rehearsals and concert have been cancelled.

Our next concert is scheduled for Saturday, December 5, 2020. Please see our website for details and updates www.lordwilliamsfestivalchorus.org.uk
SOURCE: Contributed

DUE to the current pandemic and Government directives,  the Lord Williams’s Parents’ Association (LWPA) has taken the decision to postpone its two forthcoming fundraising events as follows:

• Rob Deering and Friends Comedy Night will now take place on Thursday,  October 15, 2020.

The LWPA will email all those who have already booked tickets over the weekend to confirm whether they wish to carry their tickets forward to the new date or would prefer a refund.

• Annual 5k Fun Run will now take place on Saturday, September 26, 2020.

The event organisers have said that they are very thankful for the continued support shown – appreciating it even more than before – and look forward to sharing fun times again with everyone soon.

TWENTY enthusiastic teams attended the eighth Thame Swimathon on Sunday (March1), at Thame Leisure Centre – and broke its own fundraising record!

The majority of the swimmers were schoolchildren from local primary schools, Barley Hill, Thame; John Hampden, Thame; Watlington Primary School, Haddenham Junior School and Ickford Primary School. For many of the children this was their first ever opportunity to fundraise for good causes.

The teams swam a total of 2,097 lengths, the equivalent of 32 miles (52 km) and the total raised is well over £7,500 – which is the new fundraising record for this event.

All Thame Swimathon swimmers received medals presented by Cllr Ann Midwinter, the Mayor of Thame, as well as Cllr Linda Emery and Graham Colverson, former Presidents of the Rotary Club of Thame & District.

Rotary Club Thame & District main charities supported during 2019-2020 are Thame Young Carers, Red Kite Family Centre Thame & Chinnor, and The Maple Tree Children’s Centre Wheatley. Most of the teams took the option to allocate 50% of the funds towards their favourite charity or cause.

Kate Elsworth, Trustee at John Hampden School PTFA, said: “John Hampden School were delighted to take part in such a well organised, community-spirited event. Our students all thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of swimming for 55 minutes non-stop and loved the friendly competitive nature of the event. We will be back!!

Jo Sackett, Trustee at Barley Hill School PTFA, said: “Thank you so much to the Rotary for organising yet another wonderful event. The Swimathon is so popular with the students and staff at Barley Hill and it was a pleasure to submit five teams to take part. They had an amazing time, swimming 537 lengths between them and raising over £1500. We’ll be back again next year!”

Karen Cemm, Chair of Watlington Primary School PTA, said: “I have had great feedback from the parents and children themselves about what a great event it was and how much they enjoyed participating. Thame and District Rotary Club really seems to have got the balance right of being fun, but a brilliantly organised event!”

Marius Ciortan, Thame Swimathon Steering Group Chairman, said: “The event was possible due to generous local sponsors who kindly covered the swimming pool hiring costs: Thame Leisure Centre and Haddenham Beer Festivals Trust. Aston Hearing Thame kindly supported the event with the cost of producing the medals.”

Marius added: “I would like to thank the volunteers from Thame Inner Wheel, Wheatley Park Interact Club, Phoenix Community Club and Haddenham & District Rotary who helped Thame and District Rotarians with the counting of lengths swum by teams. On behalf of our club, I would like to thank all swimmers and their families for their support and for making Thame Swimathon 2020 a great success.”

To find out how to join Rotary Club of Thame & District or Phoenix Community Club, please contact us via www.thame.rotary1090.org or www.facebook.com/thamerotary or www.facebook.com/phoenixcommunityclubthame