Thame Bishops Palace (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Tame

In the civil parish of Thame.
In the historic county of Oxfordshire.
Modern Authority of Oxfordshire.
1974 county of Oxfordshire.
Medieval County of Oxfordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP70380625
Latitude 51.75054° Longitude -0.98188°

Thame Bishops Palace has been described as a probable Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

This was primarily an administrative centre of his demense, like the house at Louth, but a hall had been built here in 1219. (Emery)

The Court House, said to have contained early Tudor timbering and oak panelling, stood, until 1891, at the east angle of the churchyard and Church Row. This was the manor-house of Old Thame and presumably replaced the 'Hall' of the Bishop of Lincoln, which was the administrative centre of his demesne in the early Middle Ages. Bishop Hugh de Welles was granted 30 pieces of timber in 1219 for making it, and one of the services of the bishop's villeins in the 13th century was to carry timber to his 'hall and grange'. The bishop's courts were held there: Court Close is still the name of a field to the south of the church, and the large barn, standing on the opposite side of the road and now called Church Barn, was in the 15th and 16th centuries called Court Barn. (VCH 1962)

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 999.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 270-1
  Lobel, Mary D. (ed), 1962, VCH Oxfordshire Vol. 7 p. 166-71 online transcription
  Brown, J.H. and Guest, W., 1935, A History of Thame (Thame) p. 13
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Hardy, T.D. (ed), 1833, Rotuli litterarum clausarum in turri Londinensi asservati (Record Commission) Vol. 1 p. 399 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) Appendix B: List of Medieval Bishop's Palaces in England and Wales (available via EThOS)

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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