River Thame

The River Thame is a 64-kilometre tributary of the River Thames in southern England. It begins where three small streams join on the north-west side of the Chiltern Hills, just east of the village of Hulcott north of Aylesbury. For its first 650 metres it forms the boundary between Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. The river winds past farmland and villages before reaching the market town of Thame, which grew from an Anglo-Saxon riverside settlement. Near Dorchester on Thames it meets the Thames, where the suffix ‘-chester’ marks a former Romano-British town. The river played a part in the 17th-century English Civil War. John Hampden led Parliamentarian forces in defence of Aylesbury at Holman’s Bridge in 1642. Later the river served as a Royalist defensive line around Oxford, with key crossings at Wheatley, Cuddesdon Mill and Chiselhampton Bridge. Prince Rupert’s movements before and after the Battle of Chalgrove Field depended on these bridges. At Dorchester the river joins the Thames between Day’s Lock and Benson Lock. The town’s streets follow old Anglo-Saxon alignments around the central abbey church, built in the 12th century. The abbey church, 70 metres long, is a Grade I listed building. Above Dorchester the Thames is sometimes called the Isis until it reaches the confluence.