Patrick Comerford
One of the nearby towns that I have enjoyed exploring recently is Thame, a pretty market town in South Oxfordshire, about 21 km (13 miles) east of Oxford, 16 km (10 miles) south-west of Aylesbury, and with a population of about 12,000.
The River Thame on the north side of the town and forms part of the county border between Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. I have passed through Thame on the bus between Aylesbury and Oxford at times, and I wanted to see the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, which is an impressive sight when seen from the bus, looking across Church Meadow and the grounds of Thame Cricket Club.
Thame was founded in the Anglo-Saxon era, when it was part of the kingdom of Wessex. The town began as a settlement by the river from which it takes its name, and was probably founded in 635 CE as the administrative centre of the endowed lands of the Bishop of Dorchester. After the Norman Conquest, the diocese moved to Lincoln and a royal charter was granted in 1215 for the market that is still held every Tuesday.
Thame had a lengthy monastic presence for 400 years, and the Cistercians founded Thame Abbey in 1138. The abbey church was consecrated in 1145, but the abbey was supressed at the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the Tudor reformation in the 16th century, the church was demolished, and Thame Park was built on the site.
Saint Mary’s Church was first built in the 13th century on the initiative of the Bishop of Lincoln, Saint Robert Grosseteste. He has been described as ‘the greatest product of Oxford University’ and the real founder of the tradition of scientific thought in mediaeval Oxford’, and he gives his name to Lincoln College, Oxford. The first reference to a bell being rung was while Saint Mary’s was still being built in the mid-13th century and Bishop Grosseteste lay dying in 1253. It is said that the bell rang without mortal assistance.
Parts of the original church can still be seen, including the pillars and arches in the nave and the aisle windows that date from the early 14th century. The earliest feature is the 12th century base of the font. The font’s octagonal bowl was re-cut in the 13th century.
The impressive sights in Saint Mary’s include the Tudor-era tombs in the chancel and the south transept, including the very dominant tomb of John Williams, a local magnate, and the chancel stalls with linenfold panelling.
The church and the neighbouring prebendal houses were both attacked repeatedly in the early 1290s during a violent conflict between the Bishop of Lincoln, Oliver Sutton, and Sir John St John.
Saint Mary’s is a cruciform church. The chancel is Early English Gothic and was built ca 1220, with six lancet windows in its north wall and presumably a similar arrangement in the south wall. It was twice altered in the next few decades: a three-light plate tracery window was inserted in its north wall in the mid-13th century and the five-light east window with geometrical tracery was inserted ca 1280.
If there were lancet windows in the chancel south wall, they were replaced with three two-light Decorated Gothic windows with reticulated tracery, and a double piscina was added at the same time.
The transepts and tower arches also date from the early 13th century. The nave has five-bay north and south aisles with arcades built ca 1260. The aisles were widened in the 14th century, when they acquired their Decorated Gothic windows and doors. The Decorated Gothic south porch has two storeys and a two-bay quadripartite vault.
The Perpendicular Gothic clerestory is 14th or early 15th century. The tower piers were strengthened in the 15th century and the two upper stages of the tower were built. The north transept was rebuilt in 1442 with five-light Perpendicular Gothic north and east windows with panel tracery. At about the same time, the south transept acquired similar windows and was extended eastwards to form a chapel with a 15th-century piscina.
The south transept was known as Saint Christopher’s Chapel and houses two table tombs belonging to the Quartermain family. The tomb of Richard Quartermain, his wife Sybil and their godson Richard Fowler, dates from 1477 and is notable for the armour depicted on its brasses.
The stalls with linenfold panelling in the chancel came from Thame Abbey in 1540.
The Perpendicular Gothic nave west window was inserted in 1672-1673, making it an example of Gothic survival.
The chancel has several interesting tombs. The most prominent tomb is that of John Williams (1500-1559), 1st Baron Williams of Thame, and his wife Elizabeth. Williams was a man of great influence and wealth and a courtier during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I.
The chancel also has the tomb of Sir John Clerke, who was knighted by Henry VIII for his part in the capture of Louis I d’Orléans, Duke of Longueville, at the Battle of the Spurs in 1513.
Clerke died in 1539 and his effigy in the chancel in Thame shows him in armour, kneeling at a prayer desk with a prayer book. The scroll above his head is inscribed Sancta Trinitas Unus Deus Misere Nobis, ‘Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us’.
The north aisle north wall was rebuilt in 1838 under the direction of George Wilkinson. The church was substantially restored between 1889 and 1897 by the architect John Oldrid Scott (1841-1913).
Saint Mary’s tower has a ring of eight bells in F# tenor of approximately 580 kg, all cast by Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1876 from the metal of the former ring of six, and hung in a 19th century oak frame.
The present bells were named in 1997, from the Fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5: 22-25. They are, from treble to tenor; Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Humility and Forbearance. There is also a Sanctus bell dedicated to the Virgin Mary which probably dates back to the late 1500s.
Facing the west front of the church, the Prebendal House is known to have existed by 1234, and it has and Early English Gothic chapel built ca 1250. The solar room was also 13th century but was enlarged in the 14th century, when the present crown-post roof was added. The rest of the Prebendal House dates from the 15th century.
The hall is 14th century in plan but was later divided, and one part now has a fine 15th century roof. The antiquarian Anthony Wood reported in 1661 that the house was ruinous, and early in the 19th century the remains were in use as a farmhouse and barns. It was restored in 1836.
The Prebendal House was the home of singer songwriter and member of the Bee Gees Robin Gibb and his wife Dwina from 1984. He is buried in Saint Mary’s churchyard.
Lord Williams, who is buried with his wife in the chancel, was heavily involved in the Dissolution of the Monasteries and became receiver of Thame Abbey in 1535. He was related by marriage to the last Abbot of Thame, Robert King.
Williams also obtained the Priory of Elsing Spittle in Cripplegate, London, and had a palace at Rycote which Henry VIII and Catherine Howard visited on their honeymoon. When he died at Ludlow Castle on 14 October 1559, his body was brought back to Rycote and then taken to Thame for burial.
He built the almshouses in Church Lane in 1550. He died in 1559, and his will established the local grammar school. Its original building, completed in 1569, stands next to the almshouses. The school moved to its current premises in Oxford Road in 1880, and it became a comprehensive school in 1971 with the name Lord Williams’s School.
Thame Church brings together Saint Mary’s Church, Thame, Barley Hill Church and Saint Catherine’s Church, Towersey. The ministry team includes the Revd Mike Reading, Team Rector since 2020; the Revd Andy McCulloch, Team Vicar, the Revd Graham Choldcroft, Associate Minister, and the Revd Heather McCulloch, Associate Vicar.
• There are two Sunday services at Saint Mary’s Church, Thame: 9 am Holy Communion (Common Worship); 11 am informal service, with Holy Communion on the first Sunday of each month. Morning Prayer is said every weekday morning at 9 am and Compline at 8 pm.
