IN a game where both sides missed penalties, the one-all, drawn match on Tuesday (09/09) between Thame Utd and Holyport was a fair result as neither side created quite enough in the final third to take the three points.
Dan West, who scored Thame’s goal against Holyport, on Tuesday
The first half, however, belonged to United as they put their hosts on the back foot from the start. With Adam Morris dominating the midfield, the first chance came after only three minutes when an Ellis Hercules header from a corner came back off the post and the ball was scrambled clear. Whilst United were dominating possession, they were somewhat surprised to see a penalty awarded against Matt Hall in the 15th minute for hand ball. However, keeper Josh Cockerill did well to save the spot kick from Jamie West.
Three minutes later and United were in front when Dan West did well to turn in the box before firing in to the top corner. Luke Ricketts nearly doubled the lead with a drive from 20 yards three minutes later, before a sublime cross from Dan Jones in the 29th minute was met by the head of Ben Connelly, only for the header to go narrowly wide of the post. Two minutes later and Jordan Davis headed over from an Adam Morris cross. Despite the goal attempts, Holyport equalised five minutes before the break when Jamie West struck a powerful effort from 20 yards that swerved beyond Cockerill.
Holyport came out fired-up for the second half and, for the first twenty minutes, United struggled to find the rhythm that had served them so well in the first half, with the best opportunity again falling to Jamie West, with Cockerill saving well. Ellis Hercules also went close with a header before United were given the chance to take all three points when Dan West was adjudged to have been fouled in the penalty area. However, the penalty from Dan Jones was saved – the last meaningful action of the match.
Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division – Holyport 1 – Thame United 1
UPDATE: In response to a request for its views on the report below, the following statement has been received from Rectory Homes: ““Now that a planning application has been submitted for land at The Elms, we are required to undertake an archaeological survey of the site. A vehicle attempted to gain access on Monday, September 8, using an established right of way, to carry out this work. Unfortunately access was refused, despite repeated polite requests. We have now had little choice but to instruct our solicitor to ensure that we can have unhindered access in future.”
ORIGINAL REPORT: AS a proposed housing development on land at The Elms in Thame, continues to be the subject of much controversy in the town, a neighbouring landowner has refused permission for a large earth-moving vehicle to gain access, via his drive, to the site.
A JCB digger operating at The Elms, last year (Image copyright of Richard Jeffries
The equipment, described as a 22 tonne, New Holland excavator, was apparently intended to be part of an archaeological investigation commissioned by the site’s owners, Rectory Homes, as requested by the local planning authorithy.
Mr Peter Webb, whose property adjoins the site, today explained his actions: “An employee of Rectory Homes knocked on my door on Monday (08/09) and told me he wanted to take a low-loader carrying an excavator into the field via my drive and needed me to unlock my main gate. The equipment was parked on a double yellow line and obstructing the pavement outside my gate.
“Rectory Homes has a right of way into the field, dating back to the time when the field had a dividing fence down the middle. The Right of Way had been disused for some 15 years due to the fact that tenant sheep farmers preferred to use the larger entry through The Elms. Rectory Homes has recently closed off its own entry, according to the employee, as part of the work they are doing on the Elms Barn conversion. As a result, in accordance with the RoW, my drive was used by the contractor who did the haymaking this year. No problem. The hasp and staple, and the lock on the gate to the field was supplied by Rectory when they bought the property but was installed for them by me. No evidence of not complying to the RoW here I think.
“However, on Monday I questioned why Rectory Homes wanted to take a large excavator into the field because they surely could not do any work until they had planning approval. I was not given any reason and the demand for access was repeated. I asked the excavator rental people whether they could guarantee that trees would not be damaged. They couldn’t do so. I then asked what the width of the low-loader was. They said ’12 feet’. I then said that in that case entry was impossible and they drove away.”
The driveway in Upper High Street, Thame, along which the mechanical digger was intended to pass
Mr Webb alleges that while these discussions were on-going, a Rectory Homes employee spoke to his (the employee’s) boss, Simon Vickers, who, alleged Mr Webb: “…. told him to tell me that I would regret my refusal. This attempt to intimidate me has been reported to the Police.”
Mr Webb continued: “It should have been obvious to Rectory Homes that a 12ft wide low-loader will not go through a gate which is substantially narrower.” Mr Webb said that shortly after the incident, he received what he described as, ‘a threatening letter’ from a Rectory Homes lawyer.
“The lawyer is being told to go ahead with a court action if they (Rectory Homes) wish, but to be prepared to explain how they proposed to get the machinery through two insufficiently wide gates. They had, and still have, the option of bringing in a smaller machine, preferably a wheeled unit, through my gate, or of re-opening their own field access if a large machine is imperitive,” Mr Webb added.
Mr Webb confirmed that an SODC Planning Officer had told him that no work on the site would not normally be permitted before Planning Permission had been granted, but that in this case, Rectory Homes had been asked by SODC to dig some trenches as part of a required archeological survey.
“That information should have been communicated to me by Rectory Homes,” concluded Mr Webb. “But it would not have assisted the impossible task of entry.”
EDITOR: An email request to Rectory Homes for comment on this incident is awaited and will be published as soon as possible.
MANY people from the Thame area who have ever visited its twin town in France, were sad to learn this week of the death of a wonderful old lady, described as ‘a little mascot’ pairing the two towns of Thame and Montesson.
The late Alice Williams, in 2010, aged 98 years.
Less than five feet tall, and often to be seen bustling about the town on little bowed legs, Alice Williams, 102 years-old when she passed away last week, was an unforgettable character to everyone who met her. She had married an Englishman, a soldier she met as a shop girl, while serving tea to British soldiers in Paris after the city’s liberation in World War II.
She eventually married ‘her Norman’ and lived with him in the north of England until his retirement, when they returned to France and settled in Montesson. Widowed for over 30 years, Alice always yearned for England and was happy to speak English and to have contact with her many friends from Thame when they visited Montesson, and especially liked to invite special friends round to her little flat to take tea in her English, china tea service, and biscuits in the English fashion.
In a statement, the Montesson Twinning Committee said: “Alice often made sure to be present at the annual Fete de Carmen to meet our English friends and talk with them in English with her delightful French accent.
“Alice was a very engaging personality, with dynamism to spare, and led a lifestyle so British. She had happily celebrated her 100th birthday in the nursing home Sartrouville where she lived for the last few years of her life, after which she had an article in the Journal of Montesson dedicated to her.”
The Mayor of Thame, Jeannette Matelot Green, a former Chair of the Thame & District Twinning Association, recalled meeting Alice: “Alice Williams was a lovely lady. I will always remember her sitting in her apartment in rue Felicien Lesages having come downstairs to meet me already in her late nineties. She served tea and then showed me photographs of her dear husband, who was English, and reminisced about her life in England. I was sad to hear she has left us but she made a great century !”
Alice Williams’s funeral was held on Monday, September 8, at the Notre Dame de Montesson church. She will be greatly missed when the Thame and District Twinning Association visit Montesson in a couple of weeks-time on September 19, for the weekend.
THIS month’s Late Breakfast business networking event sees the return of Speaker, Sarah Fletcher, of Mushroom Souffle, who will talk about LinkedIn and and ways to give your profile a boost.
Sarah Fletcher, of Mushroom Soufffle
As usual, September’s Late Breakfast will be in The Eden Suite in The Eden Suite at The Spread Eagle Hotel, 6-17 Cornmarket, Thame, OX9 2BW. The entry fee is £12 (including light refreshments).
AN exhibition celebrating 21 years of Thame’s Cuttle Brook Conservation Volunteers (CBCV) and twenty years of Cuttle Brook as Thame’s Local Nature Reserve, is currently being held at Thame Museum.
The exhibition offers a feast of photos, tools, observing-devices, sculpture, models, artworks and artefacts, old and new…Let your imagination meander through the meadows, identify the insects, build the bridges, marvel at the maps, wade in the wetlands and watch the wildlife.
Follow the story, in a timeline from prehistory to the future, then find out about the science and conservation of this special 30-acre haven (just 5-10 minutes walk away from Thame town centre). For children, there are wildlife-sketching, colouring and spotting opportunities.
The exhibition is free, suitable for all ages. Opening times are from 10-4 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and 12-4 on Sundays, until October 8, 2014.
There’s also a special talk at the museum, at 7.30pm on Thursday, September 11, about discovering aspects of the wildlife, biodiversity, trees, woodlands, flowering plants, grasses, birdlife, history, bridges, structures, freshwater-life and pond-life of Cuttle Brook, with poems and a quick wildlife sound-quiz.
Tickets for the talk are £5, or £3 for museum-members, and available at Thame Museum (bookable by phone on 01844 212801).
R S RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS LTD – An n exciting opportunity for the right candidate to become a key player in a growing company in the local area. I am looking for individuals who want to earn great money by contacting current clients, past clients, and new potential clients. This is a sales/account management role where you need to research online and contact people to see if they are interested in your services. This can be done on the telephone or via email. Happy to train those who have no previous experience in this sector! Great money, good location and great offices. If you want a fun and rewarding job, this could be for you! Please email clara@rsrecruit.co.uk with an up to date CV and I will get back to you. Salary from £18,000 – £25,000 plus bonuses. Thanks, Clara
FORMER Wycombe Wanderers striker Damian Markman gave Thame United a lesson in finishing on Friday, as Ascot United won comfortably at the ASM Stadium, in a Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division match.
Whilst United made a number of changes to the side that had beaten Highmoor Ibis in the FA Cup last weekend, few could have anticipated a first half hour where Ascot scored four without reply. First Damian Markman finished well after seven minutes, before Joe Grant capitalised on hesitation in the Thame defence to make it two after a quarter of an hour. A few minutes later Dan West almost got United back in the game, rounding keeper Chris Grace only to see his effort cleared. It was three on 22 minutes as Markman scored his second, completing his hat-trick ten minutes later.
It was not all one way traffic though, as Jordan Davis and Ben Connelly went close, before two good penalty appeals for incidents involving Jordan Davis and Dan Jones were waved away.
United played the better football for much of the second half, with Ascot content to sit back, and as the game wore on United created some good goal scoring opportunities without really testing Grace. With Adam Morris, Dan Jones and Adam Hazell all having efforts on goal, the best chance fell to Ellis Hercules, whose downward header bounced up and against the bar.
Final score: Thame United 0 Ascot United 4
United will have the opportunity to quickly put the match behind them on Tuesday night as they travel to Holyport, and will be looking for a measure of revenge when they visit the Racecourse Ground in 10 days time.
THE ‘Thame Remembers‘ project continues to discover more about those men from Thame who died during, or as a consequence of WW1, and the latest Newsletter highlights the story behind the search for the illusive Charlie Boiling. Here’s the story behind finding out exactly who he was:
Rifleman Tom Bowen, lays a Thame Remembers commerorative cross on the memorial stone of Private Charlie Boiling
THERE are four people named Boiling on The Thame War Memorial; three are readily identified but C Boiling does not appear in the CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) records. A Charles Boiling does appear on a medal record card and the Silver War Badge records, shown on MilitaryGenealogy.com. He is listed as a Private (16826) in the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry and so things started to look promising. The 1911 Census shows Charles, age 15, living at 11 Park Street, Thame, with his father, also Charles, and mother Agnes, all born in Thame. Parish records confirm his baptism as February 6, 1896, and he was buried on December 29, 1920, age 25.
Armed with a year of birth for Charlie Boiling, returning to Ancestry searches, there he was – the subject of one of the burnt army records to survive. Though a little singed around the edges, it was learned from this that Charlie ‘joined up’ on December 14, 1914. at Oxford. He served in England until September 20, 1915, when his unit was sent to France, and on November 16, 1915, he was sent to fight in Salonica. Records show that Charlie was wounded in the right thigh and left leg on August 18, 1916, and was medically evacuated back to England on October 19, 1916.
At his medical discharge hearing in December, 1917, Charlie wrote: “Would like to learn a trade that did not entail walking.” He was finally discharged on January 28, 1918, and his silver war badge issued on January 31, 1918. His character reference on discharge was excellent, saying that he was reliable, trustworthy and always willing and hardworking.
Charlie returned to Thame, but unfortunately his mother Agnes was buried in November, 1918, aged just 46 years. His father Charles survived to age 68, only dying in 1939.
Although Charlie was buried in St Mary’s churchyard, his grave is not marked, which gave the Thame Remembers team a problem when it wished to allocate a Thame Remembers cross to his final resting place. Funeral Directors, Surman and Horwood, heard about the dilemma and Charlie’s sad story, and offered to erect (gratis) a stone for him close to where he is believed to be buried.
So, finally, on August 3, 2014, Rifleman Tom Bowen, placed a Thame Remembers cross against a headstone placed in honour of Pte Charlie Boiling. Tom said he was particularly moved as Charlie was the same age, when he died, as he is now and his regiment, The Rifles, is a successor regiment to the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry.
Dear Editor, In response to the letter from A Conrad, published on your web site on Monday (September 1), he/she is being most disingenuous in suggesting that the Neighbourhood Plan has been overridden and is not worth the paper on which it is written.
As many of your readers will be aware I have been closely associated with the Neighbourhood Plan from inception, throughout its consultation and development period, through the Referendum process and subsequently in monitoring and policing its implementation. Yet it was I who spoke at SODC’s Planning Committee, on behalf of Thame Town Council, in favour of the application relating to commercial development on Site B (Cotmore Wells). The town council was well aware, and openly acknowledged, that the amount of land affected was in excess of that allocated in the Neighbourhood Plan but were unanimous in agreeing that there were strong material reasons to justify such a deviation – namely, local jobs !
The two companies (Groves and Windles) intending to occupy the new buildings are both currently based in unsuitable premises in Long Crendon and are substantial employers of people from Thame. Both companies wanted to remain local if at all possible but would otherwise have considered moves to Bicester, Aylesbury, or further afield, taking jobs away from Thame. Approval of the development not only retains those jobs but, with both businesses expanding, should bring another 80 new jobs over the next five years. I would also point out that the extra piece of land involved is behind the allocated site and has no increased impact on its frontage.
Whilst I am dedicated to protecting the Neighbourhood Plan and will defend it against any threats, I hate to think what the public outcry might have been if the Town Council had allowed those jobs to be lost, and perhaps we would instead have been reading the headline ‘Council sacrifices jobs in defence of Neighbourhood Plan’.
I would be most interested to learn where your correspondent has identified ‘large vacant industrial sites’ in Thame and hope for further enlightenment, but certainly there is no site available in Thame which would have been suitable for the needs of either of these two companies. I would strongly support the regeneration of our more tired industrial and commercial buildings but round pegs and square holes don’t generally fit.
Finally, I totally share your correspondent’s horror at the conversion of Angus House into flats but, regrettably, this was totally outside the control of the town council or the influence of the Neighbourhood Plan. A fundamental principle of Neighbourhood Plans is that they must conform to higher level policy, and the highest level policy of all is the law of the land. Unfortunately planning law clearly states that conversion of offices into flats does not require any form of planning or change of use permission. I have raised this matter personally with both our Member of Parliament and the Minister for Planning on a number of occasions, and our disillusion with the way this law has been applied in Thame is well known but, whilst we might have some small influence on future policy reviews, we were powerless to resist this most unwelcome development in Thame.
The Neighbourhood Plan is and will remain a strong barrier to speculative, windfall, or unsuitable development in Thame and I am committed to defending it against all threats for as long as I remain an elected representative of the people of Thame.
DID you know that Thame is the second most used location for the filming of Midsomer Murders (The most featured is Beaconsfield), and that the popular TV series is now watched in 193 countries world-wide?
Towersey Morrismen ‘collapse’ after performing at the Midsomer Murders evening in Thame
Put these two facts together, and add in the mix a huge increase in the number of foreign tourists wanting to come and visit the quintessential England that they see portrayed in the programme, and you have a heady brew that is capable of invigorating the local economies of the places featured, including Thame’s -or ‘Causton’ as it is know in Midsomer Murders. Top of the foreign visitors’ lists are pubs and English beer, and they love markets, fetes and festivals – and guess what? Apparently Thame is known to be one of the friendliest welcomes in the South East!
Seeing the potential for its market towns and villages, South Oxfordshire District Council was quick to register the domain ‘http://www.visitmidsomer.com/‘ and has since produced a raft of initiatives, including Midsomer Murder Trails and leaflets, and made connections with Tour Companies, to bring in these valuable visitors and their spending power.
To explain the phenomenon and how it can be embraced to work for local businesses, a special event, including a dramatised murder mystery play by Thame Players and a dancing display from Towersey Morris, was held at Thame town hall last Thursday, September 4, to an invited audience including local businesses such as Bed & Breakfast owners, Eateries, pubs, book shops and gift shops, etc. They heard first from author, Chris Behan, who wrote the book ‘Exploring Midsomer’. He spoke of how he, a Liverpudlian, first came to Thame in 1959 as a visitor then, and how since he had came to mourn the loss of the railway station and the cobbled streets, now mostly gone.
Chris mentioned many Thame locations featured in the various episodes of Midsomer Murders including Thame Park, the Fuji photographic shop, Rumsey’s Chocolaterie (transformed into a camera shop in the fictional town of ‘Luxton’), Thame town hall (featuring Barnaby’s wife singing Christmas carols outside in ‘A Maiden’s Splendour’), Market House in Upper High Street and Thame market, to name just a few.
Sarah Osborne, one of SODC’s Midsomer Murders promotion team, revealed some stunning figures, including that visitor numbers to the Midsomer Murders website, half of whom are from abroad, had increased by 50% each year from 2011. Rather than just a short-term blip, Sara pointed out that many of the countries now seeing Midsomer Murders are seeing the first episodes and that it has been estimated that the interest for such programmes lasts about a decade after the series itself finishes, and so a lucrative 15 years is on the cards for businesses involved.
For a future promotional idea, Chris Behan showed a photograph of a special red plaque (along the lines of the historic blue plaques that Thame already has for the previous homes of famous, local people) which the owner of the Argyle Pub in Henley had stuck on the wall outside commemorating the episodes filmed in his pub. The number of tourist visitors to his pub has since increased amazingly!
Because Thame is a border town between Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, close to Haddenham & Thame Parkway station and on the 280 bus route, Sarah pointed out that Thame is ideally placed as a centre for visits to Buckinghamshire villages featured in Midsomer Murders, like Haddenham and Long Crendon, and to Oxford city.
For Thame, she said: “Midsomer Murders is the icing on the tourist cake.”
Any businesses who want to know more about the possibilities for them from the Midsomer Murders phenomenon, can contact Sarah Osborne or the Economic Development team via the website: http://www.visitmidsomer.com/contact/
