THE events of an important day in 1606 were being re-enacted in Chipping Norton last weekend as the town celebrated the 400th anniversary of the granting of its charter.

The charter, granted to the people of Chipping Norton by James I, gave the town some important privileges including its first governing body.

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 current 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 Chipping Norton Museum from the Oxfordshire archives, where a special exhibition is being staged.

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 really.

"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 really."

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 had ruled in the medieval period.