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
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
The following planning applications have recently been lodged. Click on the address to see full details at the WODC website.
Mon 17 Mar, 06:15 · Link
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
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!
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
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
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
Charlbury Street Fair 2025 theme will be 'Magic, Myths and Legends'.
Elisabeth Partington · Fri 7 Mar, 12:23 · Link
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
spring_show_2025_schedule.pdf