‘Case Study: Thame, Oxfordshire

Hidden Britain South East worked with volunteers from 21st Century Thame to create a series of historical guides interpreting the heritage around the town.

Need for the project

Thame undertook the Market Towns Healthcheck process in 2003/4. The Healthcheck consultation highlighted the importance of sustaining the economic vibrancy of Thame for visitors and residents alike and identified a real need to improve the visitor information on offer.

The key themes identified with relevance to tourism were:

• To increase the vitality of the town
• To conserve and promote the town’s heritage
• To protect and enhance the town’s natural environment

The Thame partnership was setup in late 2004 and will take on the responsibility of implementing Action Plan projects that have evolved from the Market Town Healthcheck process.

Planning the Project

The Thame Town Partnership (also known as 21st Century Thame) developed an action plan based on the Healthcheck findings and set up working groups to look at each section.

Overall the partnership has delivered on several tourism related projects to date. The economy working group with the main remit for tourism created the Thame shopping guide of which some 22,000 have been distributed with a reprint underway.

The environment group worked on a Thame Walking and Cycling map to encourage better usage of these forms of transport for residents and visitors. The map has been circulated widely throughout the town and surrounding area, including two waterproof leaflet holders located at key access points on the Phoenix trail path.

At this juncture 21st century Thame contacted Hidden Britain for advice and guidance on marketing and developing their next planned project of the historic town trail. HBSE worked with a group of volunteers and enthusiasts to develop the content, plan the route and the scope of the publication.

The first Town Trail Leaflet was produced in September 2009 and based on the success of this publication two further trails incorporating different aspects of the local heritage were developed over the next 18 months.

Project Outputs :

1. The group have produced three “Historic Town Trail” self guided walks leaflets each providing interpretation on a different aspect of Thame’s history and heritage for visitors:

   Trail 1 – Historic buildings of the town centre
   Trail 2 – The older areas of town an Cuttlebrook nature reserve
   Trail 3 – Victorian and Edwardian Thame

Achievements of the Project:

Businesses engaged (51)
The group have had little direct business engagement in the development process, however plenty of the businesses have been very keen on the finished products.  In addition the group are not charging businesses for any of the marketing opportunities created through the project to try and ensure fair inclusion for all.

No. of volunteers (5)
The core group of volunteers has been wholly responsible for the production of the three leaflets, although they have drawn in extra support when needed.

Skills & training
Whilst no formal training has been arranged as part of the project, volunteers have gained skills and experience in various areas, most particularly in; obtaining funding, project management, commissioning and working with designers and printers, distribution and publicity.

Marketing support
HBSE has assisted Thame in development of content for Ruralways and several other destination websites, both regionally and nationally.

For more on Thame view the destination page »

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