Full steam ahead for Thame’s Mayor

THE Mayor of Thame, Jeannette Matelot Green, rode on the foot plate of a steam locomotive on Saturday (10/01), when the Mayor of Didcot, Cllr Scott Wilgrove, hosted an event for mayors of local towns and other council leaders to visit Didcot Railway Centre.

Thame Mayor, Cllr Matelot Green, is first left, front row

The group travelled in a 102-year-old railway carriage, No 92, and took turns to ride on the footplate of 75-year-old pannier tank locomotive, No 3650 which was hauling their train.

In this photograph of the group with 3650, those wearing chains of office in the front row are, right to left: Cllr Scott Wilgrove, Mayor of Didcot; Penny Wilgrove, Mayoress of Didcot; Cllr Anne Purse, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council; Cllr Helen Pighills, Deputy Mayor of Abingdon-on-Thames; Cllr Jane Titchener, Mayor of Wallingford; Mark Savery, Mayor of Wallingford’s Consort; Cllr Margaret Turner, Deputy Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council; Michael Turner, Margaret Turner’s Consort; Cllr Des Healy, Deputy Mayor of Didcot; Cllr Jeannette Matelot-Green, Mayor of Thame.

The group also had a tour of the carriage works and of the locomotive works to see restoration projects in progress. Scott Wilgrove is a member of the Great Western Society, and a volunteer guard at Didcot Railway Centre.