Thame Local History
Priestend

The twelfth century manor of New Thame took away fifty acres of land in the middle of what then became Old Thame, leaving Old Thame sort of doughnut shaped.

There was another allocation of land out of the manor of Thame, when the new prebend of Thame, also created in the twelfth century, was endowed with land.

It seems certain that this prebendal land is what later became known as the manor, or liberty, of Priestend. It lay along the western edge of Old Thame, and included the grounds of the Prebendal House itself as well as the land now belonging to Rycotewood College and the Lord Williams school.

For centuries, legal documents and property deeds referred to land at Thame as being in New Thame, Old Thame or Priestend.

The origin of the name Priestend is fairly self explanatory, being the end of Thame where the prebend and his community of monks and clerics lived.

The name has appeared in at least one legal document described as 'Priestend or Preston', suggesting that Preston may have been a version of the name in use, if only colloquially.

Do you live in a village near Thame?

Old maps of Thame and the villages




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