Talk:River Thame

Watermead Village
Since when was Watermead a village? It's a housing estate as far as I was concerned! Or a 'development' at least. I didn't think it was a village though. KingDaveRa 18:27, 25 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Trust me there's a very heated argument on here on just that subject. Officially though Fairford Leys and Watermead are both outside the ancient parish boundaries of Aylesbury and therefore have their own parish councils.  The rest of Aylesbury comes under the guise of Aylesbury Town Council.  The parish councils of the two newer estates (and eventually the Weedon Hill development) have the right therefore to self-define how they want, and both self-define as villages.  I'm with you on the housing estate thing though. -- Roleplayer 19:42, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Origin of Thame, Thames, Isis, Tamesis etc
The last paragraph on this page is in contradiction with the related paragraphs on the Thames page. They cant both be correct so either this page needs changing to reflect fact, or to denote that is the opinion of some and not actual fact. Matt - August 2008

Isis vs Ysa/esa/usa
The article on the River Thame claims that the River Thames is 'correctly' known as the River Isis above where the it is met by the River Thame. According to Peter Ackroyd (in Thames, Sacred River, 2007) this is a blunder attributable to John Leland in Itinerary 1546, who assumed the second part of the Roman name of the river Thamesis (esis) to have been derived from Isis and Thame (a tributary of the Thames). Because Leland was such a respected scholar, this erroneous proclamation was not challenged. However, Ackroyd points out that the Celtic word isa or esa means running water and 'tam' means dark. Since the association with Isis is not mentioned until Leland, the Celtic derivation seems more credible. Therefore the River Thames above the junction of the Thame would 'correctly' be known as the River Thames. Robyngstephens (talk) 01:50, 15 September 2009 (UTC)
 * This is a valid point. Besides, the article is about the River Thame not the Thames. I suggest that the speculation is removed and that readers are instead referred to the section of the Thames article dealing with the name River_Thames. I will await further comment here before making the change.
 * The paragraph also states A mile south of Dorchester, the River Thame flows into the River Thames on the reach above Benson Lock. This is wrong: the distance from Dorchester is under 1km. As to the mention of Benson Lock, three points: this reach of the Thames is 'Shillingford Reach'; Benson lock is two miles downstream of the confluence; and Days Lock is under a 1km upstream. I have ammended the text. Andy F (talk) 20:42, 26 February 2010 (UTC)


 * On reflection, I might as well do it now. Please feel free to comments here (or, for more discursive debate, to my talk page)

Hertfordshire
An IP added an edit claiming the Thame ran briefly through Hertfordshire. This seemed far fetched until I consulted my map. The article states that the Thame's source is several small streams in the Vale of Aylesbury. According to my map at least two of these streams run in an odd spur of Hertfordshire. There may therefore be some truth in the edit - any comments? Motmit (talk) 19:32, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I checked this carefully on the 1:25000 OS map. One or two of the minor brooks do cross into Herts just west of Tring and one, the Thistle Stream or Thistle Brook, forms the boundary between the counties for a short distance. However, the major stream (no longer identified as Thame) runs north towards Whitchurch. So I think it safe to say that, although a small part of the river's catchment area is in Herts, the named River Thame does not flow through the county. Andy F (talk) 20:22, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Source and length
The article as it currently exists is not heavily referenced; mostly these relate to historical elements. So far as its geography is concerned we are left to wonder where the description comes from. Ordnance Survey names only a few watercourses in the upper Thame catchment and, at most scales of mapping, omits to mention lengths of the main course which we might imagine to be the Thame. Background mapping used on the map section of the National Library of Scotland's website labels the watercourse at the A418 between Rowsham and Bierton as the River Thame and its downstream course is similarly named at intervals. Upstream the Thistle Brook, Gudgeon Stream and Tring Bourne are all named, these three headwaters of the Thame converging just to the east of Hulcott. I have measured the longest of these to be the Tring Bourne arising at SP 9185 1406 at Startop's End. It flows some 7.6km before its confluence with the Thistle Brook which is marginally shorter from that point upstream. A further 0.4km downstream is the confluence with the Gudgeon Stream which is also shorter in length to that point. Continue detailed measurements downstream to the confluence with the Thames and a figure of just over 77km/48mi is found. I'm confident of the accuracy of the figure to within 1%. This is of course original research on my part so cannot be included in the article but it does at least give an idea of what a true figure should look like for the physical river (as opposed to just that section named as Thame) if and when an editor finds a suitable reference out there! cheers Geopersona (talk) 19:00, 5 January 2022 (UTC)