New festival will celebrate Thame’s history

TO add to Thame’s growing list of annual festivals, which already includes a Music Festival, a Literary Festival and a Food Festival, the town will soon be holding a History Festival. 

Image courtesy of The John Hampden Society

The History Festival, which will be supported by Thame Museum though not run by it, will be held on Sunday, June 7, 2020. The event will celebrate the history of the town with a range of activities and guided tours of historical buildings, with the aim of increasing local engagement with the town’s history and its heritage.  

Local organisations such as Thame Historical Society and other regional organisations including Haddenham Museum, the John Hampden Society, Lord Williams’s School, the Oxfordshire Local History Association, South Oxfordshire Archaeology Group, the Wheatley Archive and the Oxfordshire History Centre Library will also be involved.  

The Upper Chamber of the town hall will be transformed for interactive, hands-on activities for children and adults to take part in and there will quizzes and a large map of the town where local visitors can pinpoint the location and age of their homes. 

The Town Council has agreed to provide seed-funding of £1,000 and free use of the Town Hall for the event, similar to that provided by the Town Council for the first Thame Arts & Literature Festival and Thame Food Festival.  

Diary date: June 7, 2020