Stocks ‘would turn Thame into Disney Land’

A suggestion that Thame re-instates the medieval form of punishment, the stocks, has met with a lukewarm response from its town councillors.

A set of stocks in Bramhall, Cheshire

The idea was first mooted by Cllr David Bretherton, who was afterwards interviewed by the BBC – and a Canadian network – after his idea was picked up by national media. Cllr Bretherton’s idea was that the stocks could be used by local charities and organisations as a fund-raiser, may be persuading local celebrities to be put in them, and have wet socks or something thrown at them (originally, apparently, people who had done good things were put in the stocks and had flowers thrown at them, and those guilty of some misdemeanor would have have been tickled!).

But some councillors, including Cllr Nigel Champken Woods, Cllr Peter Lambert, and Cllr Helena Fickling, failed to share Cllr Bretherton’s enthusiasm, and were concerned about the cost to the council, the possibility of vandalism and in Cllr Champken Woods’ case, that the provision of stocks would ‘turn the town into Disney Land’ and possibly lead to even wackier requests like putting a gibbet in the High Street !

Cllr Bretherton stated that Woodstock had had stocks in the town for some time and that their’s had never been vandalised, and that a local tradesman had offered to build a set of stocks at cost.

Many councillors failed to be persuaded of the value from tourism to the town from the siting of stocks, but agreed to allow Cllr Bretherton to go away and research costs and the benefits or otherwise, and come back to them at the Policy and Resources committee, at a future date.