News

Christmas Market tomorrow

Find your last minute gifts at Charlbury's Christmas market tomorrow- Saturday 21st December from 9.30am - 12 noon.

You'll find us warm and dry in the Memorial Hall with carol singing and a festive atmosphere.

There will be over 25 stalls ranging from coffee, beer and honey to reloved furniture and everything in between. It would be a challenge to not find a unique present here.

Look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

Lisa Wilkinson · Fri 20 Dec, 15:26 · Link

Night-time Safety Survey

West Oxfordshire District Council is conducting a Night-time Safety Survey. Please click here for more details: https://charlbury-tc.gov.uk/news/night-time-safety-survey/

Lisa Wilkinson · Thu 19 Dec, 11:07 · Link

New Long Table Events at Chloe’s

 We’re thrilled to announce our Long Table Nights for the first quarter of 2025!

These evenings are a great, cost effective way to meet people and find out about new subjects from passionate speakers. Each evening is loosely themed with two short ten minute talks and sometimes a Q and A. The £25 ticket includes a welcome drink and two course simple vegetarian supper with Chloe’s bread. Tickets can be bought HERE

We’re really looking forward to these and can’t wait to welcome you!

Chloe and the gang.x

Chloe Horner · Wed 18 Dec, 18:55 · Link

The Giving Tree 🎄 - Thank You!

We are deeply grateful for the incredible generosity and support shown by our community during this year’s Giving Tree initiative. Thanks to your compassion and kindness, every child in need has been sponsored this Christmas.

Your contributions—whether through thoughtful gifts, essential items, or vouchers—have brought joy to the local families who needed it most. 

Thank you for making a meaningful difference and reminding us all of the true spirit of Christmas. Charlbury is truly such a special place. 

Anna Boardwell · Wed 18 Dec, 18:11 · Link

Day trip by coach to the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra 12 March, 2025

Charlbury Probus is organising a day trip to Birmingham to attend a concert by the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on 12 March 2025. We will leave the Spendlove centre at 9.15am and have a few hours free there to visit the shops, museums or art galleries before lunch. At 2.15pm we will be in the Symphony Hall for the concert. We plan to be back in Charlbury about 6-7pm.

William Grant Still. Poem for Orchestra.

Dvorak. Cello Concerto.

Rachmaninoff. Symphonic Dances.

Tickets are priced at £35 each for the concert (central stalls) and £20 each for the coach. We have a few tickets left and you are most welcome to join us. 

If interested we need the £35 now for the concert and the coach fare nearer the time.

Contact. paddygallagher@hotmail.co.uk

Patrick Gallagher · Wed 18 Dec, 11:31 · Link

Meals on Wheels Volunteers Make and Deliver Christmas Lunch

For more than seventy years, Charlbury volunteers have been making and delivering meals for residents of Charlbury, Chadlington, and Stonesfield on a weekly basis.  This year over seven hundred meals were delivered -- some of the recipients were Meals on Wheels volunteers themselves in earlier years.  Today the team produced their annual Christmas lunch of roast turkey, stuffing, sprouts, vegetables, potatoes, gravy, and homemade mince pies.  

Huge thanks to Jules, Susan, Marianne, Jenny, Chris, Brigid, David, Wendy, Tonya, Jan, Peter, Diana, Liz, Graham, Mary, Tony, Brian, Shelagh, Alison, Pauline, Jim, and the Memorial Hall team who are all so generous with their time in volunteering.

If you would like to volunteer to help or know someone who would enjoy a home cooked meal once per week delivered to their door for £5.00, please contact mglasgow@theridgegroup.com 

Marjorie Glasgow · Tue 17 Dec, 12:42 · Link

Paddington Station Closure Over The Holiday Period

CLPG has been asked by Great Western to draw to your attention the following message.

A reminder of the changes to rail services on 27-29 December (following the usual Christmas closedown on 25 & 26 December) due to HS2 work on the new station at Old Oak Common just outside Paddington. At the same time, Network Rail will also be carrying out track maintenance designed to improve punctuality and reliability of services in the Thames Valley area.

Full details are on our dedicated page www.gwr.com/christmas.

Services diverted to London Euston are not available to passengers from Charlbury and the North Cotswolds Line. Alternative routes are available using the Elizabeth Line at Reading and the London Underground at Ealing Broadway.

Brian Murray · Tue 17 Dec, 10:52 · Link

Charlbury Town Barbers

Christmas opening hours - get spruced up for Christmas/New Year Celebrations 😀

Sian Coombes · Mon 16 Dec, 20:21 · Link

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

When Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, it was an overnight success. The story is the theme of the Museum’s tree for the Christmas Tree Festival this year. Christmas was becoming increasingly popular as a midwinter celebration in Victorian Britain. Yet a parliamentary report that year revealed the effects of the industrial revolution on working class children. While the middle classes prospered and feasted, the poor suffered greatly in the slums with bad housing, long working days, low wages and dangerous working conditions.

Having suffered poverty himself when young, Dickens was appalled by their plight of poor children. He saw them at work in the mines and visited the Ragged School in London which offered basic education to some of the half-starved and illiterate street children. His experiences spurred him to wrote A Christmas Carol which was published in late 1843.

It was an immediate success – the first print run sold out in days and it went into many editions. Ten years later Dickens began to give public readings of the story. It was extremely popular in the United States. It is said that after hearing a reading in Boston on Christmas Eve 1867, one factory owner decided to close it for Christmas and provide all his workers with a turkey!

The story is the theme of the Museum’s tree for the Christmas Tree Festival this year. Look out for it as you enter the church, the tree is at the entrance to the porch. See if you can spot the main characters – Scrooge with his money bag, the three ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, Scrooge’s clerk Bob Cratchit with tiny Tim on his shoulder and with his wife and five other children. Oh and Mr & Mrs Fezziwig who were Scrooge’s first employer. And at the top of the tree is Dickens himself giving a public reading of the book.

Judy Dod · Sun 15 Dec, 20:15 · Link

The Giving Tree🎄 - 5 Charlbury Children Left!

Only five Charlbury children remain on the Giving Trees, waiting for sponsors this holiday season! You can make a difference by visiting the Charlbury Community Centre, Cornerstone, or St. Mary’s Church to choose a child to support. Together, let’s ensure every child in our community experiences the joy of a magical Christmas!

Anna Boardwell · Thu 12 Dec, 12:15 · Link