Category: More News

LORD WILLIAMS’S Year 11 students were whooping with joy and mostly crying into their mobile phones with relief today, after 66% of them discovered that they had achieved five or more GCSE passes at grades A* to C.
This creditable result is 3% up on last year, 2005.

Among the more notable successes were an impressive 21 students achieving 9 or more A* and A grades. They were Harry Allen, Zoe Batt, Lucy Burgess, Sarah Clayton, Ashley Cooke, Bonnie Cooke, Ruth Crescenzi, Laura Crowland, Elisabeth Greaves, Bethany Hamlin, Mikayala Herbert, Ellie Jones, Harriet Lockyear, Eilise Norris, Charlotte Pearson, Rachel Rice, Rosie Sherrington, Suzannah Watson, Daniel Wazynski, Harriet Westby and Christopher Williams.

Sarah Clayton received special congratulations from the AQA Examination Board for achieving one of the top five marks out of 362,448 entrants in the English Literature paper.

Deputy Headteacher, Karen Vear, said: “Many students should be very proud of their results. They have worked hard, completing their coursework and revising carefully. They have been helped by their dedicated teachers, teaching assistants, parents and support staff.
“These youngsters should be congratulated on their achievements and we wish them well for the future.”

FOLLOWING an appeal recently on ThameNews.Net, Mrs Joan Woodward has sent us more information to help jog the memories of Thame people who may be able to help her in her search for her family’s history.
“Seeking descendants from Sharpe family originally from Leeds, W. Yorkshire, whose family included the name of Honour, in and around Thame. These requests are for Family History Records.”

SUSANNAH BOOM b.1854 Leeds d. 1927 married in 1875 JOHN HENRY HONOUR b. 1856 Ickford,Bucks. d.1909 Leeds.
John Henry was a serving Police Officer in Ickford, Bucks at the time of marriage. Before the turn of the Century, Susannah & John H. moved into the Police Station House in Wortley, Leeds – shortly afterwards he attained the rank of Sergeant. This building still stands today as office accommodation.
They had two surviving Siblings – Harry b. 1878 and Lily b. 1880.
Harry at a young age lived with his paternal Grandparents – John Honour b. 1829 in Worminghall, Bucks, and Martha b. 1833 at Hempton, Oxford. They lived at Ickford Village Cottage along with Uncles William B & Edward, and an Aunt Livey/Lucie?
Lily married Harvey Sharpe in Leeds and their son George Henry was born 1901.
George H. as a young man would visit Thame regularly and eventually went to live there, whether before marriage or after ???? No positive details of spouse’s name. Sadly, George H. d. 1936 at the age of 35; this was registered in Oxford. There was, I know, one sibling b.????

It is George’s descendants I wish to contact to help fill in the missing records to bring up-to-date. George H. had a first Cousin – George W. Honour from Leeds who would visit regularly, and they were both second cousins of my mother – so obviously distant Cousins of myself!

I would love to hear from anyone who can help me trace the Sharpe connection please. My name is Joan Woodward; I live in Worcester and my email address is: joan.woodward@tiscali.co.uk

Photo: The two George’s taken on one of their outings in Thame – probably in the 1920’s.

DESPITE exceptionally dry conditions this summer, Thame’s gardening enthusiasts have, once again, managed to produce magnificent, prize-winning floral masterpieces.
For the second year running, Bill and Margaret Sellwood’s garden in Hampden Avenue, Thame, has been judged the overall winner in the annual Thame In Bloom competition.

The particular eye-catching feature of the Sellwoods’s garden this year, is the three boxes of bright orange, red and white blooms on the top of, and visible through, the front garden wall.

Bill and Margaret have been spending an hour and half both morning and evening watering their plants from six water butts and a water tap when necessary. But it is obviously a labour of love for this couple whose personal lives have been overshadowed recently by the loss of their two year-old grand daughter.

Bill, whose late father was a regular winner of Tetworth gardening competitions, retired from working with Thame Town Council in 1997 and Margaret still works part-time at Thame police station as a cleaner.

The Sellwoods insist that they do nothing special to get such fantastic results in their garden: “We use slow-release fertilizer granules and some liquid spray fertilizer,” said Bill, who grows some of his plants from seed and others from young plant plugs ordered from ‘Gardening Direct’.

They heard the news of their win while they were on holiday in Weymouth during a telephone call from their daughter, who admitted that she had opened their post.

Margaret said: “It was so nice to hear some good news after what has been a very bad time for our family.”

The other main winners of the Thame In Bloom competition, which was judged by Thame In Bloom’s Vice Chair, Tony Buggins, are as follows:-

*Large Garden – Mr & Mrs Partner, Blake Way
*Medium Garden – Mr & Mrs Clark, Cotmore Gardens
*Small Garden – Mr & Mrs Sellwood, Hampden Avenue
*Facade – Mr & Mrs Spokes, Ireton Court
*Maisonettes &
Flats – Pearce Way
*Industrial
Section – Glencore Grain UK, Bell Lane
*Shops & Small
businesses – House Of Spice
*Pubs & Hotels – The Spread Eagle
*School Gardens – St Joseph’s

The presentation of prizes for the Thame In Bloom competition will be on August 31, at the Guide Headquarters in Southern Road, Thame, at 7pm.

A THAME businessman is to trek the Haute Route to raise money for a three year-old South African girl he is sponsoring, through World Vision World Sponsorship.
Between August 29 and September 12, Haddenham man, David Handley, will be walking the Haute Route, a well known alpine trek from Chamonix to Zermatt ? Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn.

David is hoping to raise money to give Prudence Leshabane, a three year old South African girl, a better life by gathering sponsors for the walk and using the World Vision Child Sponsorship scheme which helps children in need all over the world.

David has chosen a South African child because it compliments his efforts with Ethnix, a charity that helps people living in the townships in that country; visit Link
for more details.

For less than the price of a bottle of mineral water a day you can help david to make a world of difference to a child on the other side of the planet.
There are no minimum or maximum levels on the sponsorship, and David and his wife Hilary who jointly sponsors Prudence, would really appreciate any help to make that difference. Sponsor David and help give little Prudence a better life.

Details about sponsors, the progress of the trek and information about Prudence will be posted on the Internet at Link
or you can call 01844 291320 for more details.

THAME town councillors are very upset over a decision to grant planning permission in the town centre for a development of flats and houses.
Thame’s Deputy Mayor, and Honoury Citizen of the town, David Dodds, accused South Oxfordshire District Council of “running rough-shod again” over the views of Thame residents and councillors who objected to the development.

SODC’s Planning committee approved the erection of three houses and six flats on land to the rear of 10 High Street, Thame (Newitts’ the butchers’)on the recommendation of Planning officers. Several letters of objection had been lodged with the authority and Cllr Beatrice Dobie spoke personally on behalf of Thame Town Council at the meeting on August 2.
Mrs V Tanfield, the agent for the applicant, spoke in support of the application.

Additional conditions, including bin stores, secure cycle parking on site and details of security gates on the footpath between the buildings, were made on the planning permission.

For full details of the application and the conditions imposed on the applicant, visit SODC’s website.

CASH MACHINE. Users of the new ATM outside McColl’s, Banks Parade, Haddenham, should note that there is now a

EMERGENCY planners in the county have welcomed a new government system for evaluating any threat to the public from terrorism.
The new system uses five different grades ranging from low to critical, with an indication of what response the public should take. The previous system had seven different grades.

However, the county council?s emergency planning officer, John Kelly, believes that there ought to have been a colour-coded system using green, amber and red.
In a statement, he said: “I give a cautious welcome to this but had hoped that the government would have gone slightly further and introduced a simple to understand colour-coded system as in America.
“We need a need a simple traffic light system or messages direct to telephones in the affected area when an incident happens. For a severe threat there needs to be an additional national warning system such as sirens.
“In Oxfordshire we have sirens and text messaging alerts and we would have hoped that by now there had been some movement towards a unified national system.”

SECURITY concerns surrounding the use of manufactured agricultural fertilisers in the United Kingdom have inspired a new dedicated website to inform and advise farmers.
Amid fears that potential terrorists could steal, particularly, amonia nitrate and urea fertilisers to make bombs, a website launched today gives advice to farmers, growers, land-owners and farm staff about the rationale behind securing fertilisers and to offer cost effective guidance as to how to achieve this.
See Link

HELP NEEDED. The 1st Haddenham Rainbow unit (for 5-7

A VERY bright 12 year old Sicilian girl in Sicily is looking for an English 12 or 13 year old girl interested in exchanging letters (snail mail, not e-mail).
Any family interested please contact Editor@thame.net, or Diane Ansell- tel 01844 215165 or diane ansell@hotmail .com

(The Sicilian family is known by a German family which Diane Ansell’s family has had exchanges with and lots of contact.)