River Thame

The River Thame /ˈteɪm/ is a river in Southern England. It is a tributary of the River Thames.

The general course of the River Thame is south-westward and it runs from each of the longest of its many sources to the River Thames about 40 miles (65 km). The Thame rises in the English county of Buckinghamshire and discharges in south-east Oxfordshire. The Thame is non-navigable to boats save for canoes north of Dorchester-on-Thames,

The Thame's source is three streams which rise in the wide Vale of Aylesbury on the north side of the Chiltern Hills. These streams converge north-east of Aylesbury, the county town of Buckinghamshire. The Thame played a key role in the English Civil War when John Hampden (the town's Member of Parliament) led the force of Parliamentarians successfully defending Aylesbury at the Battle of Holman's Bridge, where a small road crosses the river, in 1642.

The vale streams converge by the 21st century small suburb of Watermead on the far side of a dug-out, flowing oxbow lake with several ornamental features (hence the name of the suburb). The suburb's land was in the Middle Ages, the west of Bierton with Broughton parish and so is now in that civil parish. The Thame then passes farmland of the villages of Nether Winchendon and Chearsley before reaching the market town of Thame with which it shares its name. Thame is about 15 miles (24 km) east of Oxford and grew from an Anglo-Saxon settlement beside the river. In Anglo-Saxon England Thame is a recorded place in records of the Diocese of Dorchester.

Thame

Coordinates: 51°45′N 0°58′W / 51.75°N 0.97°W / 51.75; -0.97

Thame /teɪm/ is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about 9 miles (14 km) east of the city of Oxford and 7 miles (11 km) southwest of the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury. It derives its toponym from the River Thame which flows along the north side of the town. The parish includes the hamlet of Moreton south of the town. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 11,561.

Thame was founded in the Anglo-Saxon era and was in the kingdom of Wessex.

Abbey, parish church and prebendal

Thame Abbey was founded in 1138 for the Cistercian Order: the abbey church was consecrated in 1145. In the 16th century Dissolution of the Monasteries the abbey was suppressed and the church demolished. Thame Park (the house) was built on the site, incorporating parts of the abbey including the early-16th-century abbot's house. Its interior is one of the earliest examples of the Italian Renaissance in England. A Georgian west wing was added in the 18th century. In about 1840 parts of the foundations of the abbey church were excavated: it was 77 yards (70 m) long and 23 yards (21 m) wide, with a Lady Chapel extending a further 15 yards (14 m) at the east end.