A former Farmhouse this property was Grade II listed on 14th May 1986.
A former Farmhouse, now house. Early/mid C18. Coursed clunch rubble; old plain-tile roof with brick stacks. L-plan. 2 storeys. 4-window front, with brick dentil eaves course, has a regular arrangement of three 3-light casements with the door to left of centre in a C19 open porch. All have segmental arches. At first floor are casements of 3,3,2 and 3 lights. All windows have leaded lights. Roof is hipped to left, returning to a rear wing. Stacks to right gable, to left of doorway, and in a gabled projection on left end wall. Lower rear wing has a hipped roof dormer.
Source: www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk
The house has been altered over the years but the external facades remain largely the same. In recent years some of the earlier alterations have been removed.
Thame Cottage c1920
The Coach House/stables date from c. 1800 and form a small subsidiary structure once providing coach house and stabling for Thame Cottage. It is significant for its group value along with other surviving outbuildings such as the thatched cart shed in the former farmyard. A coach house would have been used for the horses and coach and or cart for the farmer and his family. As such the stables and coach house were accorded status and value and placed close to the house.
The building has features typical of its date for such ancillary buildings, including wide plank/glazed doors, a loft door, interior fitments such as walls lined with pine panelling, elm and pine floorboards, a studwork and elm boarded partition at first floor and a fine truncated and cranked inner principal roof structure.
District Valuation Map (1910 Finance Act) Thame Cottage is coloured in pink and numbered 45
(Reproduced by courtesy of the Oxfordshire County Council, OHC).
The District Valuation Award shown below confirms the fact that William Greet did once own the cottage although whether he actually ever lived in the property is unconfirmed.
District Valuation Award. No 45, Poor Rate 22, Greenall P, occupier, Greet W owner, Orchard ¾ rood, rateable value £3; Buildings, House, and Garden gross annual value £67 and rateable value £54. (Reproduced by courtesy of the Oxfordshire County Council OHC, DV-IX- 105_Oxfordshire_XLVI-14.pdf.).
Source: Extracts from Personal Heritage Statement supplied by the owner
Some former residents
Peter Greenall, a retired chemical manufacturer lived in Thame Cottage for around 20 years before his death in 1922. He was a prominent figure in the life of the village; a keen churchman he was Vicar’s warden for nearly 19 years and gave Rev A.H. Caldicott his loyal support.
A keen politician he rose to high office in the Primrose League and was a Justice of the Peace for Oxfordshire and a regular attendant at the Watlington Bench.
At the outbreak of the war, he took an active part in organising the Boy Scout movement in the village and owing to his keenness the Warborough Troop of Boy Scouts secured the District Challenge Shield for three years in succession and in 1922, the County Flag. During the war he threw himself into the volunteer movement and after organising a detachment at Warborough was appointed Master to the Berks Volunteers and was granted the rank of Lieutenant on his retirement. Ill health in the last year of his life prevented him from taking an active part in the work he loved, but he was until a few days before his death still engaged in the work of the Boys Scouts Association.
He is buried in St Laurence Churchyard. His estate at the time of his death was £5
Clarence Oldham Hanson, M.B.E. retired to live in Thame Cottage in 1931. A renowned forester, he had retired due to ill health from work with the Indian Forest Service in 1903 but there were no lasting effects and in 1904 he became the first instructor at the newly formed Crown School of Forestry in the Forest of Dean. His kindly nature and fund of knowledge made him a favourite among the students and helped lay the foundations of their forestry careers. His work took him to Exeter and he eventually joined the Forestry Commission where he was Divisional Officer for the South West, a post he later combined with Divisional Officer for South Wales. His book Forestry for Woodmen was originally published in 1911, to supply a cheap book on scientific forestry for foresters and woodmen. It was republished in 2009 by Read Books with the original text and artwork.
He died in December 1962 and is buried in St Laurence Churchyard where his grave is marked with a simple wooden ‘headstone’
Grave of Margaret & Clarence Oldham Hanson
Richard Gordon Allen, DFC. lived at Thame Cottage in the 1970’s before moving to Cloud Cottage on The Green South. He had been an Acting Squadron Leader of the 622 Squadron during the Second World War in the RAFVR. The painting below depicts an incident when Squadron Leader Richard Allen DFC and crew pull out of the bomber stream enroute to Stuttgart on 28/29th July 1944 after being attacked by the deadly German night fighter pilot Heinz Rooker
Painting by Steve Ferguson
Source – The Mildenhall Register
Richard died in 1989 and his wife Winifred in 1990 both are buried in St Laurence Churchyard along with their son, Richard Patrick who died at sea in Cornwall
Winifred known as Wendy was a sculptress and worked with Lady Conesford in her studio at 23 The Green South. She worked mainly for her own pleasure but had studied at The Slade and went on to carry out many private commissions. The garden at Cloud Cottage was ‘littered with life size sculptures’
Compiled by Lynda Raynor
May 2025