News
Latest planning applications to West Oxfordshire District Council
The following planning applications have recently been lodged. Click on the address to see full details at the WODC website.
- 3 Hundley Way Charlbury
Change to exterior finish from pebble dash to render
WODC reference: 25/00740/HHD - Mon 24 Mar 2025 - Under consideration
- The Bull Inn Sheep Street Charlbury
Discharge of condition 4 (details of windows and doors) of Listed Building Consent 24/02336/LBC
WODC reference: 25/00644/CND - Mon 17 Mar 2025 - Under consideration
- Albright House Church Street Charlbury
Installation of solar panels on West facing roof of property listed as The Malthouse (now forming part of Albright House).
WODC reference: 25/00594/LBC - Mon 24 Mar 2025 - Under consideration
- Albright House Church Street Charlbury
Installation of solar panels on West facing roof of property listed as The Malthouse (now forming part of Albright House).
WODC reference: 25/00593/HHD - Mon 24 Mar 2025 - Under consideration
- 6 Wellington Cottages Charlbury
Certificate of Lawfulness (proposed use of property as a short term holiday let).
WODC reference: 25/00554/CLP - Fri 21 Mar 2025 - Under consideration
Mon 31 Mar, 06:15 · Link
Cornerstone in the Green Room
Cornerstone is working well in the Green Room at the back of the Memorial Hall. Do come and visit us if you haven't dropped in recently. We have a new board up to show you the way.
Thanks again to those events / activities who have moved into the Hall or Garden room to allow us to be in the Green Room.
Cornerstone team
St Marys and All Saints ·
Fri 28 Mar, 13:37 · Link
Help needed this Saturday to cut back hedge at the Scout Hut!
Hello, the Scout Group is cutting back overgrown hedges this Saturday at the Scout Hut and we would be really grateful of a couple of extra pairs of hands! Please come along any time between 10 and 12 tomorrow and please bring loppers/ pruning saws if you have them. Drop a line to me via this site if you can, or just turn up. No children on this occasion, for safety reasons.
We would also be grateful for any donations of painting equipment, sugar soap or white/ cream paint.
Claire Wilding ·
Fri 28 Mar, 10:46 · Link
Noah's Ark making progress!
We now have a wonderful team of 6 child soloists, 3 professional singers, a chorus of 30 children and adults, and a 34 piece orchestra under the direction of Ben Goodall (conductor) and Nicola Baylis (director) all rehearsing for the big event, Charlbury's own Community Opera, Noye's Fludde, to be performed in St. Mary's on Saturday 5th April 3pm and 7pm, and Sunday 6th April 3pm. And behind the scenes we have a team of set builders and costume and mask makers. It will be a spectacular event! Don't miss out - buy tickets now either from No.5 Market Street, (cash only) or email isabel@oxfordconcertparty.org or text 077881 74785. £12 or £5 under sixteen.
Isabel Knowland ·
Wed 26 Mar, 11:47 · Link
Latest Speedwatch data
You will have seen the Speedwatch cameras placed at the zebra crossing on The Slade and on Nine Acres Lane during January and February. The latest data from these placements is now available. For further information and clearer graphs please visit charlbury-tc.gov.uk/community-speedwatch/
Lisa Wilkinson ·
Mon 24 Mar, 14:25 · Link
CHARLBURY MEDICAL CENTRE PATIENTS: COVID VACCINATION CLINIC
COVID VACCINATION CLINIC, TUESDAY 1 APRIL 2025
Eligible patients of Charlbury Medical Centre are invited
to have their spring covid vaccination booster on 1st April at the
Charlbury Football and Social Club.
Eligible patients are those who will be aged 75 and over
by 17 June 2025 and people who are immunosuppressed and at risk of becoming
very unwell if infected with covid.
If you are in this group and haven’t already booked an
appointment please ring the practice, after 10:30 if possible on 01608 811 680.
Some of the patients visiting the clinic will be very
elderly, some with limited mobility.
Please try to park elsewhere, or walk if you are visiting the Co-op or
the community centre during the morning of 1st April.
Thank you for your help and co-operation.
Charlbury Patient Participation Group ·
Mon 24 Mar, 12:00 · Link
Latest planning applications to West Oxfordshire District Council
The following planning applications have recently been lodged. Click on the address to see full details at the WODC website.
- 37 Woodfield Drive Charlbury
Extension of existing roof to create car port
WODC reference: 25/00657/HHD - Thu 13 Mar 2025 - Under consideration
Mon 24 Mar, 06:15 · Link
Looking for museum stewards
Could you spare an occasional couple of hours at a weekend to help the museum? We are very keen to recruit more people to welcome visitors when we are open. We have a loyal band of volunteers who generously give their time as stewards but some are no longer able to help for personal reasons.
We always have two people on duty together so you would never be on your own. Visitor numbers vary but a quick look through our visitors book shows that as well as local residents, our visitors come from all over the world. On a busy day there can be a constant stream of people which makes the time pass quickly, while on quiet days you have a chance to browse through old photographs and explore some of the objects we hold.
We would love to hear from you if you are interested in joining us. Please email Sue Rangeley at sue.rangeley@btinternet.com and she will be happy to explain more of what is involved.
Our new season starts on Saturday 5th April. We are open on Saturday mornings and Sunday and Bank Holiday afternoons until the end of September.
Judy Dod ·
Sat 22 Mar, 08:58 · Link
The Bull is back open.
After a short break to renovate our kitchen, The Bull is back open. Stop by for a pint in the pub, enjoy lunch or dinner in our dining room, or book a stay in one of our bedrooms. We can't wait to welcome you back.
Kamil Swiderek ·
Tue 18 Mar, 12:46 · Link
Get ready for the Garden Society Spring Show!
The
date for this year's Garden Society Spring Show is fast
approaching (12th April) so it's time to start thinking about
the bulbs and flower arrangements you would like to exhibit!
Once again, we have made it easier for
exhibitors, with no forms to fill in. Just turn up on the morning
of the Show with your entries!
There will be art activities and a seed
give-away for children, so do come and support this community event.
Please see the full schedule here:
Geneviève Hug ·
Mon 17 Mar, 09:00 · Link
Latest planning applications to West Oxfordshire District Council
The following planning applications have recently been lodged. Click on the address to see full details at the WODC website.
- Ivy House Church Lane Charlbury
Discharge of conditions 4 (render sample) of Planning Permission 18/03065/HHD and Listed Building consent 18/03066/LBC
WODC reference: 25/00514/CND - Wed 12 Mar 2025 - Under consideration
Mon 17 Mar, 06:15 · Link
The Digital Voice landline phone service switchover programme
It is likely that everyone with a home landline phone which uses the existing analogue network will be switched by their service provider to a digital landline phone service using the broadband network sometime during the period 2025-27. This is called the Digital Voice programme.
Offcom advise that BT has taken the decision to retire its analogue network by January 2027 and this means other providers that use BT’s network must follow the same timescale. Other companies with their own networks such as Virgin Media plan follow a similar timescale.
The Neighbourhood Watch organisation in co-operation with BT are running local information events for the public to spread awareness of the forthcoming change and to provide information about what it will mean for BT landline users. There is an event to be held in Chipping Norton Library, Goddards Lane, Chipping Norton OX7 5NP on Tuesday, 18 March from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. There is no need to book a place and anyone is invited to drop in.
BT say that vulnerable customers will not start being switched until at least Autumn 2025 and will be given special attention. This includes people with no mobile phone signal, people with additional needs, people with healthcare pendants or alarms, elderly people and landline only customers (i.e. customers with no broadband service)
Generally the BT message is that “the landline is not going away – it is just being upgraded”.. There will be special arrangements for customers who do not have or do not want broadband. BT say that no-one will be left disconnected.
All Together In Charlbury (ATIC) has been in touch with Neighbourhood Watch and is aiming to obtain as much information as possible about what Digital Voice will mean for landline users in Charlbury, so that we can make it available as far as we can.
Meryl Smith ·
Sat 15 Mar, 13:39 · Link
The Playing Close through the centuries
Today the Playing Close is a well-kept, tranquil green space surrounded by trees in the centre of the town, mostly used for recreation. It has been an important part of Charlbury life for hundreds of years but was a very different place in the past. If you had visited in the 1800s you would have found a noisy place on which people had built hovels, dug sawpits, dumped dung heaps and traded animals. It sat on the edge of town with fields stretching away up what is now Wychwood Paddocks and beyond.
Many of the houses you see around the Playing Close today were already there but one was a working farm, others occupied by working craftsmen. The town lock-up was in one corner in a building that later housed the town’s fire engine. The British School was expanding along one side, offering a basic education to the poorer children of the town.
The museum’s exhibition this year explores its history, how the Close was gifted to the town in 1592, the stories of the houses which surround it, and the lives of the people who used it.
We re-open on Saturday 5th April at 10.30am. Our opening hours are
Saturdays 10.30-12.30am
Sundays & Bank Holidays 2.30-4.30pm.
We look forward to seeing you!
Judy Dod ·
Fri 14 Mar, 18:18 · Link
" Kipps " the Musical "Flash, bang, wallop, what a picture"
Some of CADS members will be performing alongside the Chipping Norton Operatic Society ( CHAOS) in their latest show “ Kipps “ the New Half a Sixpence Musical at the Chipping Norton Theatre, starting on Thursday 3rd April, Friday 4th and Saturday 5th April with 2 performances on the Saturday.
Kipps has some of the most memorable songs in it such as –
Half a sixpence
Look a live
Money to burn
A proper gentleman
If the rains got to fall
We'll Build a Palace / I Only Want a Little House
Pick out a simple tune
And of course “Flash Bang Wallop” along with many others you are in for a great toe tapping show.
Kipps is the Story of A Simple Soul, this musical tells the tale of the changing fortunes of Arthur Kipps, an orphan and draper's assistant at Shalford’s Bazaar in Folkestone, Kent at the turn of the twentieth century. Kipps is an easy-going working-class lad, who is happiest with his banjo. However, when he unexpectedly inherits a fortune from an estranged grandfather, he is suddenly propelled into high society. He catches the eye of Helen Walsingham and her money-grabbing family, who are desperate to restore their family fortune. His childhood sweetheart, Ann Pornick, is forced to watch helplessly as Helen attempts to transform Kipps into perfect husband material. Both young women undoubtedly love Kipps in their own ways but by the time he makes up his mind which one he wants, it may be too late. When he loses his money (thanks to the fraudulent behaviour of Helen’s brother, James (played by yours truly), Kipps is reminded of his roots and where his heart truly lies.
Here's a link to what's in store www.facebook.com/share/v/1653cPKZfn/
Don’t delay “Look a live” and experience the “Joy of the Theatre” with Kipps, Chitterlow and the rest of the CHAOS company by booking your tickets at the
Chipping Norton Theatre box office on 01608 642350
Or www.chippingnortontheatre.com/events/chaos-kipps-the-new-half-a-sixpence-musical#dates-and-times
Ticket prices £19.50, £17.50 matinee (all prices include booking fees)
See you all there and enjoy “A Little Touch of Happiness “
Tim Widdows ·
Fri 14 Mar, 10:59 · Link
Sean Woodcock MP Monthly Column March 2025
It’s time to take back our town centres from antisocial behaviour and crime. I am proud to say that the Labour Government has announced tough new action in our Crime and Policing Bill.
Too often crime is dismissed as low-level. But it doesn’t feel low level when it’s our town centre in Banbury that is being plagued by antisocial behaviour, our high street facing an epidemic of shoplifting, or your phone being snatched from your grasp.
These types of offences make people stay away from town centres and feel scared on their own streets. For far too long, the last Government wrote off those crimes, and disregarded how they made ordinary people feel.
They ignored the crisis of young people carrying knives, and the epidemic of violence against women and girls.
But this Labour Government is going to change all that. We will restore trust, and reduce serious harm. And our Plan for Change has committed 13,000 additional neighbourhood police and PCSOs across the country.
Our Crime and Policing Bill introduces Respect Orders to crack down on repeat offenders of antisocial behaviour. It gives the police special warrantless powers of entry so premises so they can move fast and take back stolen phones. And it ends the Tories’ ludicrous £200 limit on shoplifting, which has left so much shop theft ignored.
We will crack down on the online sale and delivery of knives, with stringent age checks and tougher penalties for anyone who sells these deadly weapons to children. And we will protect women from stalking and spiking, stop sex offenders changing their names, and impose tougher sentences on dangerous predators who groom children.
I want to leave all my constituents in no doubt. This Bill is ambitious and wide-ranging. We will work with the police and communities to make our streets safer again. We will never write off crimes that make people afraid. And we will take back our town centres from the thieves and thugs.
Sean Woodcock MP ·
Tue 11 Mar, 15:24 · Link
Corner House and Cornerstone
Charlbury Corner House will close from next week as the builders start their work replacing the windows.
Cornerstone will relocate and open on Monday 10th March in the Green Room, Memorial Hall. This can be accessed by going round the hall to the back and entering straight into the Green Room. Food surplus and the food larder will be available here as well as refreshments and a chat! Do pop in.
Cornerstone will be closed on Saturday 8th March.
We aim to be open from Monday 10th March 10am - 1pm Monday to Saturday but may have slightly different hours depending on any activities that still need to use the Green room.
Hope to see you at Cornerstone.
Cornerstone team
St Marys and All Saints ·
Fri 7 Mar, 15:54 · Link
Theme for this year's Street Fair is announced!
Charlbury Street Fair 2025 theme will be 'Magic, Myths and Legends'.
Elisabeth Partington ·
Fri 7 Mar, 12:23 · Link
Spring Farmers Market is this Saturday, 8 March
For all those residents who support the quarterly farmers market please note that the Spring Market will take place tomorrow, 8 march, on the Playing Close and not 15 March as shown in The Chronicle. Apologies for any confusion - its down to the very early start of March. Hope to see you there tomorrow.
Janet Burroughs ·
Fri 7 Mar, 11:02 · Link
Charlbury Primary Students Read Continuously for 533 Mins on World Book Day!
Today, the students of Charlbury Primary joined in a huge, collective effort to read continuously (and simultaneously) for over 533 minutes (or nearly nine hours)! Children have also been reading extra minutes at home, and this total will rise next week.
The year 6s kicked the day off with a beautiful assembly, sharing their costumes and book recommendations with the other children. Then each class took turns reading and sharing their favourite stories. Students tag-teamed to keep reading going through break time and lunchtime. There were book themed activities. Children also loved hearing from Reverend Fergus from St Mary’s who generously gave his time to listen, and to share his favourite childhood story.
Pupils had a lot of fun and demonstrated courage and flair.
Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far. If you’d like to support our tenacious Charlbury readers, any amount, little or large is most welcome. Thank you very much!
https://gofund.me/b115b1f2
Jennifer Kidd ·
Thu 6 Mar, 21:53 · Link
Professor Geoffrey Walton
It is with great sadness that GWP Consultants LLP (GWP) announces the passing of its founder, Professor Geoffrey Walton on 25th February 2025.
Having worked in the Opencast Executive of the National Coal Board, Geoff, at the comparatively young age of 34, established the Geoffrey Walton Practice as an independent consultancy in 1973. He moved to Charlbury in 1976 to be near the Bodleian Library, an important literature resource in pre-internet days. Thereafter, he was a pioneering force in practical mining geology and geotechnical engineering in the extractive industry. He forged collaborative links between business and the leading UK mining schools so as to provide support and direction to new geologists and engineers and to setup spinoff research activities (Dustscan and Blast Log). Geoff’s approach to consultancy was always to provide applied science solutions to problems as well as to embrace new technology and innovative research. He was also very keen on the writing of reports that were clear and concise.
The Practice went from strength to strength and was soon undertaking work throughout the UK, and internationally as far afield as Indonesia and Australia. The work on the opposite side of the world benefitted from his being able to meet with the client during the day, fax his requirements back to the office where they could be acted upon and the results faxed back to him to present the next day, before the locally based technical people had had a chance to work on them.
As an employer, Geoff was keen to see new staff members develop into the areas of the business they were most interested in. He gave freedom to those who wished to develop innovation and expand the business into new areas. Geoff’s passion for linking practical academia with the extractive industry has been most in evidence through the efforts he, and other committee members, put into the organising of the Extractive Industries Geology (EIG) conferences over the past decades. The ongoing prosperity of the EIG, and the encouragement of new geologists and engineers was one of Geoff’s passions.
Many of us still at GWP have had the privilege of working with Geoff over a number of decades, and he has been both a mentor and an inspiration for us all. Former staff who have moved onto pastures new, have done so taking with them the analytical rigor demanded by Geoff to provide clients with clear, concise and practical advice.
Geoff’s energy and enthusiasm for all activities will be missed.
Georgia Mayne ·
Thu 6 Mar, 14:53 · Link
Firemen's Ladder Practice helps house martins
For a second year running our local firemen came to the rescue ! Thank you Paul, Bob, Harry, Stan, Dale, Jack and Chris.
There used to be hundreds of house martins visiting Charlbury in the summer and their numbers have plummeted. We are hoping to build the colony slowly back by putting up prefabricated nesting cups starting at their remaining site, the Rose and Crown and Cheorl House on Church Street. Putting up these cups saves the birds a month of nest building freeing them up to more quickly lay eggs and hatch chicks.
Only with the help of the firemen can we do this, taking advantage of their amazing team work with ladders which can negotiate wonky pavements and tall buildings. Now fingers are crossed for April when the birds hopefully return to us.
Flora Gregory ·
Thu 6 Mar, 10:01 · Link
Street Fair Quiz Reminder
Just a reminder, that time is running out for booking your team for the Street Fair Quiz being held in the Memorial Hall from 7pm on Saturday, the 15th March. Not only is there a great quiz, and a licensed bar, but fabulous food prepared by Marcia from Charlbury's very own Amarelo Bistro as well as the normal snacks. Teams of up to 6, and we will try and place those who are not part of a team.
Deadline for booking is Saturday 9th March, and we have a few tables left, but there's always a late rush.
Cost is £18 per person, inclusive of the food and snacks, with normal (chicken) and vegan options. It is paella, and is gluten-free. First prize is a case (6 bottles) of wine.
Contact Steve Jones on csfquizbooking@gmail.com for booking or on 07850 987922.
All proceeds towards the Corner House and War Memorial Hall
Steve Jones ·
Tue 4 Mar, 21:11 · Link
charlbury_covid_vaccination_form_2025__003_.pdf