Blog

THAME is one of the most frequently used locations for the popular TV series Midsomer Murders with over 20 filming locations in the town. Midsomer fans flock to Thame to see where different episodes were filmed. As well as viewing Midsomer venues, visitors can now look forward to enjoying a feast of Midsomer food and drink too.

Two new Midsomer-related products are being launched by The Deli at No. 5, the Thame delicatessen ‘celebrating great British produce with a great British lifestyle’. The Deli at No. 5 specialises in cheeses, pickles, wine, charcuterie and other foods sourced from around the UK. On Monday, the ‘deli’s’ owners, Hannah Jones and Joe Bastin, launched Barnaby Blue Cheese (named after DCI Barnaby in the TV series) and in the new year, they’ll be launching Midsomer Gin.

Other Midsomer foods available in Thame are the popular Barnaby Buns and newly launched Midsomer Chocolate Lollipops from Rumsey’s Chocolaterie. Local businesses are planning other Midsomer products, including Midsomer Ale, for launch in 2019.

Hannah Jones, co-owner of The Deli at No. 5 said: ‘We’re delighted to be adopting the Midsomer theme with our new cheese and gin, both specially produced for us by artisan businesses. We hope they appeal to Midsomer fans in the area as well as visitors from overseas: they’ll make murderously good gifts for anyone who watches Midsomer Murders.”

Becky Reid, Market Town Coordinator at Thame Town Council, added: “Millions watch Midsomer Murders in the UK and worldwide – it’s one of our biggest TV exports. People want to come and visit the beautiful towns and villages of Midsomer, such as Thame. While here, they spend money in our shops, restaurants, pubs, and hotels – which is good for the town and its economy.”

This month also sees the end of a highly successful second season of Midsomer guided Walking Tours of Thame, following their début last year. Tony Long, coordinator for the tour guides, who are all members of Thame Players, said: “Interest is growing and the tours are ever more popular, with nearly twice as many going on the tours this year, compared to last year. The more people coming on the tours, the more funds we can donate from ticket sales to deserving causes including the Mayor’s Charities and Thame Museum.”

Tony continued: “This autumn, we also began a collaborative Midsomer venture with Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway, combining a Sunday afternoon walking tour of Thame with a steam trip from Chinnor including cream tea while on board. All three dates in September and October sold out, and we’re planning to run these Sunday events once a month between April and October next year.”

THE fireworks start early this November with an eclectic line-up at The First Thursday Music Club at The Stables in Thame on Thursday, November 1.

Finishing off the evening will be Get Loose who last appeared in Thame on the main stage at Thame Town Music Festival in July. Lee Castle (lead guitar and vocals), Darren Castle (drums) and Dom Allen (bass) will be kicking up a storm with their exciting brand of blues/rock.

John Buckley, who also appeared at TTMF, will also be featuring showing off his beautiful guitar playing and soulful voice. The Kiva Band will also be bringing a mix of powerful songs and beautiful harmonies. They write original material that draws on traditions as diverse as folk, pop, indie-rock and classical music.

The First Thursday Music Club still offers the opportunity for artists to play live in front of a warm and appreciative audience. The club maintains the Open Mic section of the evening where slots will always be available in the first hour on a first come, first served basis with player sign-up by 7.30. The club has a full house PA system with keyboard, bass amp, guitar amp and jazz drum kit (bring breakables!) all set up on stage and ready to go.

Another eclectic evening is guaranteed and, don’t forget, it’s FREE entry!

Get loose: https://www.facebook.com/GetLooseUK/
The Kiva Band: http://www.kivaband.uk/
John Buckley: https://www.facebook.com/john.buckley.73

AS part of the schools ‘Tomb Raiders’ topic, Year Four children at John Hampden School, Thame, had a very fun filled Ancient Egyptian day recently, consisting of four fabulous activities including solving riddles and cracking codes to escape.

The company Clever Cogs Learning were invited into the school to take the children on a puzzling adventure. They entered the three tombs and were asked to solve riddles and crack codes to escape. Encouraged to work well as a team, cooperating and using their listening skills, the children really pulled together to escape.

Looking for clues and avoiding traps

The second activity was with Mr Eyre who took the children on another adventure to find the resting place of Tutankhamun. This involved the children roaming the deserts of the school ground, solving clues along the way and deciphering inscriptions to unlock the tomb. They dodged many booby traps left by the crafty Egyptian engineers, who had set these to foil tomb robbers.

Next came the disgusting yet strangely enjoyable ‘dissecting poo’ activity. This gave the children a chance to gain hands on excavation experience and uncover evidence about the eating and living habits of Ancient Egyptians. Although a mucky task, the children were fascinated by what they found. After this activity they were given the opportunity to taste some Ancient Egyptian delicacies. Many of the children had also followed recipes for their homework and brought in their treats for the other children to try.

Drama and far away places!

The final activity was green screening. The children worked together in small groups to put together an informative piece of drama. They were then filmed acting this out in front of the green screen. A backdrop was later put into the video that appeared to take the children to far and away places.

To finish off their amazing day, the children got to look in Tutankhamun’s tomb (the Anderson Shelter) where they got to see the magnificent sight of Tutankhamun.

Teacher, Mel Schleising, said: “The day was truly magical and the feedback from the children was unbelievable. Thank you to everyone who made the day possible especially @CleverCogsMCR and Mr Eyre for many of the artefacts provided for the day.”

A report by Healthwatch Bucks found that many health leaflets and documents are difficult for people to understand. In fact, 43% of adults find it hard to understand health information. Healthwatch Bucks wanted to find out why.

Healthwatch Bucks looked at 15 different health and social care leaflets and documents. Then they tested the documents with the Flesch-Kincaid test, which tests how difficult a document is to read. They found that most of the documents were difficult to read and that only one was written in plain English. The main writing issues were complex sentences, long sentences, and impersonal wording. Also, lots of organisations assumed people knew things that aren’t common knowledge.

The report gives examples on how difficult sentences could be reworded to make them easier to read. For example, a leaflet said: “If you feel your concerns have not been resolved satisfactorily, will (Ed. We’ll?) guide you through [our] complaints process and provide you with information about external independent services who can assist you if you wish to make a formal complaint.” The report suggests: “If we can’t help sort things out, we can tell you how else to complain.”

Plain English

Thalia Jervis, Chief Executive at Healthwatch Bucks, said: “Patients can only get involved if they can understand the information they get. This report will help make that happen.”

Healthwatch Bucks recommends that leaflets aimed at patients should be written in plain English. Also, formal documents that are available to the public should contain a plain English easy-read summary.

Amarjit Kaur, Head of Engagement and Involvement at Bucks Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Adult community healthcare, Outpatient services and Health visitors out of Thame Community Hospital, said: “Making sure all our patients can understand the information we give is so important. We’re thankful for this reminder from Healthwatch Bucks that medical leaflets can often be complicated. The extra effort to ensure they can be read easily is worth it. We will be recommending that staff use the Flesch-Kincaid test to help simplify patient documents and will be offering training to our new patient information panel, which will be set up soon. We will also be developing a new template for our patient leaflets to increase their readability.”

The full report can be found on Healthwatch Bucks website. If you have any feedback for health and social care services, you can get in touch with Healthwatch Bucks at info@healthwatchbucks.co.uk

Did you know?

• 43% of adults (aged 18-65) do not have good enough literacy skills to routinely
  understand health information (Rowlands, et al., In progress)
• around 5 million adults in England wouldn’t pass an English GCSE and have
  literacy levels at or below those expected of an 11-year-old (Okolosie, 2016)
• something like 7 million adults can’t read or understand simple instructions or labels
  such as on medicine bottles (Patient Information Forum, 2016)
•  half the population would be unlikely to understand cancer information brochures
  routinely used in hospital settings (Manning & Dickens, 2016)
• average reading age of the UK population is 9 years old
• The Sun is written for people with a reading age of 8
• The Guardian is written for people with a reading age of 14
• most adults in England are in the 11-14-year-old reading age group (Health Education
  England, 2017).
• NHS Direct (now NHS Choices), which is certified under the NHS England Information
  Standard, has a reading age of 10(Oxford Brookes University, 2016

POLICE are appealing for any witnesses to a burglary at the Post Office in Longwick, which occurred at around 02:00 am on Thursday – yesterday – October 18, 2018.

If anyone has any dashcam footage from around the time and location, or saw anything suspicious, they are asked to call 101, quoting reference 43180318236.

AS part of the commemoration of the centenary of the Armistice of World War One, there will be a series of special events and projects taking place in Thame.

As part of the national Beacon Lighting event, a Beacon will be lit at the Thame War Memorial at 7pm on Sunday, November 11, 2018. At 6.55pm the Last Post will be played there just before, followed by a ringing out of peace by the Church Bells. ring out for peace. This will be followed by music through the decades, starting with familiar songs from the First World War.

In partnership with the Thame Remembers project, poppies are to be displayed in the windows of houses in the town from which servicemen left to serve in World War One. The poppies, coloured by primary school children and members of the Scouts and Guides, will carry details of the servicemen. The centre will be coloured black in remembrance or white to denote their safe return home.

As part of the Trees of Remembrance Project, a partnership between Oxfordshire County Council and The Woodlands Trust, a tree sapling is to be planted at Southern Road Recreation Ground on its boundary with Cuttlebrook, and marked with a Commemorative Plaque.

Silhouettes will be placed in the churches of Thame and at the Memorial Gardens (at the Service of Remembrance) as part of the national ‘There but Not There’ project and a life size ‘Tommy’ will be installed at the Memorial Gardens during the National Poppy Appeal as part of the Royal British Legion’s ‘Thank you’ project.

A temporary art installation titled ‘Living Monument’ which will consists of 130 portraits of men currently living in Thame and the surrounding areas, will be placed at the site of the old station platform along the Phoenix Trail, representing each of the individuals who went off to fight in WW1.