Patrick Comerford
I caught the bus to Thame from Aylesbury recently, mainly because I wanted to see Saint Mary’s Church, which I had glimpsed from the bus before, an impressive sight looking across Church Meadow and the grounds of Thame Cricket Club.
But I had also heard of its connections with the poet William Butler Yeats and a peculiar link with Evelyn Waugh, and on previous bus journeys I had noticed a larger number of timber framed pubs and other buildings, many dating back to the 15th century, including the old almshouses.
Thame is a market town in south Oxfordshire, about 21 km (13 miles) east of Oxford and 16 km (10 miles) south-west of Aylesbury It takes its name from the River Thame o the north side of the town, marking the county boundary of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. The town has population of about 12,000.
Thame dates from the Anglo-Saxon era and appears in the Domesday Book as belonging to the Bishop of Lincoln.
Thame Abbey was founded by the Cistercians in 1138, the parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin dates from the 13th century, and the nearby Prebendal House was there by 1234.
The Tithe Barn in front of the church gate is a long low building where a brick base supports a timber frame with herring-bone brick filling and was used for the storage of the church dues or tithes. It was called the Court Barn in the 15th century and belonged to the now demolished Court House, where the manorial court was held.
The Bird Cage pub on the High Street is a picturesque double-jettied pub that dates from the 14th century. It was built originally as the Market House with an open lower storey. It sits at the centre of the old market place and would have dominated the view from the western entrance to the town. It has been as an inn since the 16th century.
The Six Bells, despite its mock-Tudor exterior, has a 15th century timber-frame structure. It faces the former almshouses and Church Road leading up to Saint Mary’s Church.
The Thatch pub, also on High Street, dates from ca 1550 and is made up from a charming group of cottages. It was developed into a tea room many years ago, and became a popular restaurant and hotel, yet managed to preserve its 16th century origins. It became more popular in 2007 as the prize in the television programme ‘The Restaurant’.
In Tudor times, a prominent local magnate and courtier, John Williams, 1st Baron Williams of Thame, became the lord of the Manor of Thame, and the long-time links with the Bishops of Lincoln and Lincoln Cathedral came to an end. His tomb dominates the chancel of Saint Mary’s Church.
Williams re-founded the almshouses on Church Road, originally a foundation of Richard Quatremain in 1447, when he founded the chantry or guild of Saint Christopher.
Williams re-founded the almshouses in 1559 for five poor men and one poor woman. They are now privately owned and have turned their backs to Church Road. Opposite the almshouses is an attractive row of 18th century cottages.
Williams died in 1559, and his will established the local grammar school, built in 1569-1571 next to the almshouses. The school moved to Oxford Road in 1880 and in 1971 it became a comprehensive school, now known as Lord Williams’s School.
During the English Civil War in the 1640s, Thame was occupied in turn by Royalists and by the Parliamentarians.
The Old Nag’s Head, a High Street pub with a timber frame west elevation dating from the 15th century, was known as the King’s Head until, during the Civil War, a supporter of Charles I was hanged from the sign by Parliamentary soldiers.
After the Battle of Chalgrove Field in 1643, Colonel John Hampden, who had attended the grammar school, died of his wounds at the house of Ezekiel Browne, later to become the Greyhound Inn.
A royalist was hanged by Parliamentarians at the the King’s Head, now the Old Nag’s Head (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The bare-knuckle prize-fighter James Figg was born in Thame in 1684 and had his early prize fights in the former Greyhound Inn on High Street. He had become the world’s first boxing champion by 1719, winning many fights in his booth at Marylebone Fields, London. The Greyhound Inn was renamed the James Figg in his honour in the 21st century.
Many of the buildings in the boat-shaped High Street were re-faced in the 18th century with modern façades built of locally produced salt glazed bricks. Lancastrian Cottage at No 22 Upper High Street is a reminder of what lies behind many of the grand façades in the town.
When John Wesley preached in Thame in the late 18th century, the congregation was so large that the floor of the building gave way, and the crowd fell to the lower floor.
There has been a Market Hall on the site of Thame Town Hall since 1509, and the present Town Hall is the third building on this site. It was built in 1888, funded by public subscriptions to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1887.
The Victorian bandstand behind the former almshouses is a legacy of a grand ballroom from the 19th century.
The War Memorial in the Memorial Gardens was unveiled by the former Prime Minister David Lloyd George in 1921.
The Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) lived for a short time at Cuttle Brook House, 42 High Street, a good example of an 18th century town house. The poet returned to Ireland, became an Irish senator in 1922, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. His son, the late Senator Michael Yeats (1921-1973), was born in Cuttle Brook House on 22 August 1921.
Another resident of Thame with literary association from that time was the writer John Fothergill (1876-1957), who owned and managed the Spread Eagle Hotel in 1922-1931. Evelyn Waugh, who was a regular visitor, described Fothergill as ‘Oxford's only civilising influence’ and named the Spread Eagle in Brideshead Revisited.
A small hoard of late mediaeval coins and rings found near the Prebendal House and beside the River Thame in 1940, including an ornate ecclesiastical ring with a small reliquary and a cross with two horizontal sections, similar to the Cross of Lorraine. Thame Town Council has incorporated the cross into the town emblem.
Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees and his wife Dwina Murphy-Gibb lived in Prebendal House in Thame until he died in 2012. His brother Andy Gibb also lived in Prebendal House before he died in 1988.
The Robin Gibb Gallery opened in Thame Museum in 2022. The museum was originally built as the town’s county court house in 1861, and it was bought by Thame Town Council in 2005 to house Thame Museum.
Thame has featured many times as a location in episodes of the Midsomer Murders television drama series as the fictional town of Causton. The Tuesday market still takes place in the High Street, as do the annual fairs, rooted in medieval tradition.
I also visited Saint Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church and some of the other church buildings in Thame – but more about these in the days to come, hopefully.
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