CHARTER YEAR - PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

The History of the Charter
Exhibition by the Chipping Norton  Historical Research Group      

Fri. 21 April                    

Grand Re-enactment

Procession of Bailiffs & Burgesses from Guildhall                                

17^th century Civic Service St. Mary’s Church                   

Merrymaking-Charter Ale 
Town Hall/Market Place                             

Music in Country Churches

In the presence of HRH Prince of Wales

The Nortonians
in the Town Hall                    

  Tim Porter     
St. Mary’s Church            

Beer Festival

Mostly free £1 climbing wall £3 skateboarding  

Various venues                                   

Charter Lectures by OUDCE

The Oxford Waits

The Bookshop

Chipping Norton Music Festival      

The Theatre using actors from the Youth Theatre.  It will have three performances, on the Friday and Saturday evenings (21^st and 22^nd April) and a matinee on the Saturday (22^nd April) afternoon. The play will start in The Theatre and proceed to St Mary’s church, along Diston’s Lane up to the Town Hall and thence up to Blissfield Gardens.  On St George's Day 23rd April there will be a Grand Re-Enactment of

Enquiries and donations are very welcome!
Most of all we need people prepared to actually help by doing something! Ring Gina on 07717 575 414. e-mail her on gmburrows@hotmail.com   
Or ring the Town Council on 643244

Day of the Grand Re-Enactment

A re-creation of what would have happened when the Charter was granted in 1606 when the Bailiffs and Burgesses of the town's new Corporation went to church.

Photographs by Jim Crease

The Town Council processed to the Church from the Guildhall preceded by the Sergeant at Mace. A Service of Holy Communion was conducted by Canon Stephen Weston in the style of and with music of the period. The Sermon was given by Rev Ralph Mann. There followed a Procession of all from the Church to the Town Hall to enjoy a taste of the specially brewed Charter Ale, to buy a souvenir bottle, to taste Seventeenth Century refreshments and to enjoy music, song and dancing.

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Local writer and Poet - Nick Owen - finds our Charter celebrations a good platform from which to mount an anti-Blair attack on the way the world stands. A stimulating read which begins like this.........

Just back from the celebration of 400 years since the Chipping  Norton Town Charter here in the UK, where we are ruled by  unpleasant paranoid Scotsmen just as we were 400 years ago after  the unification of the Anglo Scottish crowns. Picture my 12 year old son Caleb and I amidst a crowd of mostly older  people, all decked out in the best finery of the early seventeenth  century; the aldermen with their ceremonial chains of office strung  over fur trimmed robes, the ladies in bonnets reminiscent of movies  about the pilgrim fathers sailing to America. One tall and proud  young woman sported a babe held high in arms and a pillbox hat. Others could  almost have been Falstaff...............

and ends like this..............  Seizing Iraq's oil was not the answer. It was corrupt and greedy. There may be no community left to celebrate another 400 years since the Town Charter was granted if we carry on in that way.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE
 

Chipping Norton Youth Theatre presents
UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY

Photographs by Jim Crease





 

 

   



 

   

 
 

Town enactments mark anniversary
By Andrew Alexander

Over the weekend The Theatre's youth group performed Unlawful Assembly, a play about the town's past, present and future staged as a promenade through the streets.

On Sunday, town councillors in costume took the roles of the bailiffs and burgesses who made up the governing body appointed in 1606, known as the Common Council, and re-enacted their procession from the Guildhall to St Mary's Church.

The charter document itself has been loaned to the Chipping Norton Museum from the Oxfordshire archives until the end of the month, and forms the centrepiece of a special exhibition is being held until October.

Deputy Mayor Gina Burrows, who is organising the celebrations, said: "They've done some research into the people who were the bailiffs and burgesses of the town, the sort of jobs they had and how they lived, and there's a lot of information about what people were like then and what the big issues of the day were.

"It's also about England in 1606 and 1607, and the different issues that concerned people then. The granting of the charter and the right to incorporate was significant for the town and the birth of local government."The town had a charter to hold a fair in the 13th century, but this was more important because it meant that the town, although not exactly self-governed these people were appointed, not elected had its own government, and it was a privilege."

The charter gave the town a number of important privileges the creation of the Common Council, a seal featuring a castle which is still being used in a slightly different form today, the right to hold property and the right to issue bylaws.

Many English towns and cities were incorporated in the 16th and 17th centuries, giving townspeople independence from the lords of local manors who ruled in the medieval period.

The exhibition runs at the museum in High Street until October 28, and is open from 2-4pm, Tuesday to Saturday.

Other events being held throughout the year include concerts at St Mary's Church on May 26 and 27, a beer festival at the rugby club on Saturday, June 17, and the inaugural Chipping Norton Games on July 15 and 16.

The Chipping Norton Charter Lectures are being held throughout October.

CLICK FOR THE FULL CHARTER PROGRAMME

GINA & ROB MEET THE PRINCE

The Prince finds time to admire a baby. Then he meets Brenda Morris (you can see her white hair in the centre picture) Are you local? he asks. (Lucky guess Sir because there are not many present!) Born and bred here -  Brenda replies. Christened and married in this church and my children sang in the Choir.

Orchestra misses cue for royal appointment