Oxford News
Care home director wins Barchester Cook Off competition
Alison Donaldson, managing director of Barchester’s North West and Midlands Division, led her team to victory in the Barchester Charitable Foundation Cook Off 2026, helping to raise £53,000 for the charity.
The winning team, named the Pressure Cookers and made up of managing directors and a hospital director from five of Barchester’s divisions, competed against the executive team, the Rolling Scones.
The Barchester charity cook off team (Image: Tom Maddick / SWNS)
Ms Donaldson said: “It was very much a team effort but I am so proud of what we all achieved. The dishes we created looked amazing and were delicious if I do say so myself.
“We absolutely smashed it out of the park but the icing on the cake was the amount of money we raised thanks to the support of all our homes so I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated.”
One of the dishes from the cook off (Image: Tom Maddick / SWNS)
The Barchester Charitable Foundation provides grants to improve mobility and quality of life for vulnerable people and those living with disabilities, helping connect them to community groups.
In 2025, the foundation donated £424,000 to 262 groups, charities, and 123 individuals across England, Scotland and Wales.
General manager Tyisa Houghton at Hempton Field, a Barchester care home in Chinnor, said: “We are all in awe of Chef Alison, is there nothing she can’t do? All of the MDs did a brilliant job and raised so much money, they are an absolute inspiration to us all.
“The Foundation is a cause very close to all our hearts so this is a remarkable achievement.”
The Pressure Cookers impressed judges with a menu offering three starters, including a lobster bisque with chive crème fraîche and croutons.
Alison Donaldson (Image: Tom Maddick / SWNS)
Main courses included cod loin with beetroot, asparagus and champ mash, and a homemade sweet potato and chickpea curry. Desserts were white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake or rhubarb crumble custard tart.
Their afternoon tea item, a sausage plait with red onion chutney, was described by judges as “to die for.”
The Cook Off forms part of Barchester’s ongoing efforts to support its charitable foundation, which each year distributes thousands of pounds to those most in need.
The funds raised help connect vulnerable people and those living with a disability to community groups in their local area by providing grants to improve mobility and quality of life.
Ms Donaldson and her team’s efforts have been celebrated not only for their culinary skill but also for their impact on the broader community through vital fundraising.
Oxford News
Oxford to screen Gentle, Angry Women film this weekend
Gentle, Angry Women, directed by Barbara Santi, tells the story of three young women retracing the historic march to Greenham Common – 40 years after the first Women’s Peace Protests.
It will be screened at The Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford on Sunday, May 24, at 5pm.
The documentary is the latest release from award-winning Cornish production company Awen Productions and is part of the film’s 2026 UK tour, with stops including Gloucester, Cardiff, Bristol, Reading, and Cornwall.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with peace activists Marie Walsh, Nuala Young, and Di McDonald.
The event is being held to mark International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament and will celebrate women’s global leadership in advocating for peace and disarmament.
Barbara Santi, director of Gentle, Angry Women, said: “I belong to the generation that should have inherited and passed on these stories, yet failed to do so.
“I’m working to repair that broken chain of women’s collective memory.
“Every woman deserves to know her own history – yet an entire generation has been robbed of the knowledge that thousands of women once lived for years in makeshift camps, facing arrest and ridicule to prevent nuclear war.”
Ms Santi said the film’s message is especially timely in light of current global events.
She said: “In a time when young people are grappling with climate crisis, global conflicts, and technological isolation, they need to see how previous generations of ‘gentle, angry women’ faced seemingly impossible odds and refused to give up.”
The Greenham Common protest lasted 19 years and became one of the largest women’s movements in British history, although many – including the film’s protagonists – were unaware of it.
The documentary follows 19-year-old Evie from Cornwall, and her friends Xanthe, 17, and Poppy, 16, on a 110-mile march to Greenham Common to rediscover its legacy.
Along their journey, the trio meet women who spent years living at the peace camp and share intergenerational conversations on activism and the state of the world today.
The young women highlight contemporary issues, including climate change, women’s rights, Black Lives Matter, and animal activism.
She said: “The film champions small acts of defiance and community building as powerful forms of resistance.”
Audience members have described the film as ‘a really humbling story of collective women’s activism’ and ‘powerful, poetic, and unapologetically bold’.
Tickets and more information are available at the Folklife Films website.
Oxford News
Olives on sale at market is our camera club winner
That was their latest weekly theme and they posted plenty of photos of market stalls in Oxford, including those in the Covered Market and at Gloucester Green and Broad Street.
Some photographers also sent in photos of markets from outside the county and beyond.
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Gloucester Green and the Covered Market offer plenty of good opportunities for colourful photos as there are often food stalls open, while Broad Street hosts a popular market over the festive period.
It was tricky to choose a winner for photo of the week, but Georgina Elliott-Dew was selected for an eye-catching selection of photos, including the one above of a market trader selling olives.
Ann Faulkner’s snap of Applegate market in Covent Garden also stood out.
A market at Covent Garden (Image: Ann Faulkner)
Camera club members have drawn up their own list of weekly themes and the next one is ‘Oxfordshire stone’.
Oxford News
Aylesbury prison absconder wanted in public appeal
John Baker, 44, left the facility of HMP Springhill, an open prison near Grendon Underwood, without permission.
The incident took place at about 7pm on Saturday, May 23.
He is 5ft 9ins tall, of medium build, and has links to Northwood, near Watford.
Detective sergeant Jon Muldoon said: “We are appealing for the help of the public to trace John Baker, who is unlawfully at large after escaping from HMP Springhill.
“If you see Baker, do not approach him and call 999 instead.”
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