Thame Facts

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Image source: River Thame Conservation Trust

Thame is a historic market town, located close to the Chilterns in rural south Oxfordshire. Thame Facts gathers together the key information below:

It has a population of 13,273 (2021 Census). Today, it includes the hamlet of Moreton and occupies an area of just under five square miles.

The town is named after the river Thame that forms part of the Oxford-Bucks border. The river’s course runs from north of Aylesbury for forty miles where it joins the Thames at Dorchester. The words meandering and
sinuous were invented for it. It is only the short stretch between the Thames and Dorchester that is considered navigable. The river runs past Thame to its north.

Thame Facts was surprised to learn from a list of the the UK’s 1000 largest cities and towns by (2017) population, that Thame was 839th!

The town emerged in the Anglo-Saxon period and was part of the old kingdom of Wessex. Founded in c635 CE it is thought to be the administrative centre of the endowed lands of the Bishop of Dorchester. Dorchester had a Saxon cathedral, later replaced by Dorchester Abbey. After the Norman Conquest this was moved to Lincoln.

Thame was formally granted the right to hold a Tuesday market in 1215 CE.

Thame is forty-seven miles from London, its rail connection is via Haddenham & Thame Station.

Many UK towns were created on a navigable river for trade. But Thame was developed at the confluence of a series of roads.

Oxford lies thirteen miles west via the A418.
Aylesbury is ten miles to the north-west via A418. It is eighteen miles to High Wycombe via the A4129. To the west the Thame Park Rd B4012 runs out to the A40 and M40 J6 (South), to the north is the A418 that runs to the M40 J8 (North). Princes Risboro’ is via the A4129, Chinnor via the B4445, and Bicester the B4011.

Thame is in the parish of St Mary the Virgin, today it is St Mary’s, in the Oxford diocese.

The first tier of local authority is the Thame
Town Council based in the Town Hall. There are sixteen councillors and sixteen members of staff. The councillors select the Mayor. It is paid for the council tax, supplemented by grants and leasing premises.

For the next tier, Thame is grouped with three large towns – Didcot (34,598), Henley-on-Thames (11,782) and Wallingford (11,600 – 2011). This area of 260 sq miles operates as the SODC (South Oxfordshire District Council). This is home to 150,000 people and funded by council tax, revenue grants from central government and se4rvice charges.

The SODC has thirty-six elected councillors and employs 450. The third tier of local government is Oxfordshire County Council (OCC). Oxfordshire is c1,000 sq miles, and has a population of c690,000.

Thame is situated in the Henley Parliamentary constituency, but this is to be renamed as Henley and Thame for the 2024 general election. It includes Chinnor, Henley and Thame and has an electorate of 73,851 (2010 figures). The constituency has had in the past two nationally significant MPs Michael Heseltine (1974-2001) and Boris Johnson (2001-2008).

70% of the SODC is in the Oxford Green Belt or in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

It contains Local Nature Reserves – Cuttlebrook, Ewelme Watercress Beds, Mowbray Fields and Watlington Chalk Pit. There are six Special Areas of Conservation – Aston Rowant, Chilterns Beechwood, Cothill Fen, Hartslock Wood, Little Wittenham and Oxford Meadows.