Thame Park House

Thame Park House is a Grade I listed country house incorporating part of a former abbey complex. It stands on the east side of the B4012 at Thame.

The house has a complex building history spanning several centuries. The north wing dates from the 14th century and was remodelled in the 17th century. An early 16th-century south wing of three storeys was added. The principal façade dates from around 1745 and was designed by William Smith of Warwick for the 6th Viscount Wenman. Some interiors were remodelled around 1830. Significant restoration and alterations were carried out around 1920 by W.H. Gardiner and G. Berkeley Wills, who also added a passage and staircase to the north side of the south wing around 1939.

The building is constructed of ashlar stone with a complex roof of old plain tiles and lead ridges. Various brick and stone chimney stacks are present. It comprises a single-depth main range with cross-wings to the rear, two storeys on a raised basement with attic accommodation. The main front is an 11-window range arranged 4:3:4.

The basement features 9-pane unhorned sash windows with rusticated surrounds. A central panelled door opens beneath a round arch at basement level. Double flights of stone steps with stone balustrades lead to the first floor, where central glazed double doors are set beneath stone Corinthian columns supporting a segmental pediment. A flat stone band runs between basement and first floor. The first-floor windows are 12-pane unhorned sashes flanking the centre, with stone eared architrave surrounds and keystones. Second-floor windows are 15-pane unhorned sashes with stone eared architrave surrounds and sills on brackets. A bracketed cornice forms the base of a plain parapet, with a triangular pediment centred over the middle three bays, bearing a coat of arms in the tympanum. Attic windows are concealed behind the parapet.

The right return has basement, two storeys and attic. It presents a 3-window end of the main front, adjoining a two-storey, six-bay sixteenth-century range with a three-storey tower to the right end. Two-storey angled bay windows flank the centre with stone mullion windows and battlemented parapets. An angled staircase tower stands at the centre with a battlemented parapet. Other windows in this range are stone mullioned, some altered in the late 19th century. The three-storey tower to the right has a stone oriel bay window to the first and second floors of its left return and a battlemented parapet to the roof.

The interior contains an open-well cantilever staircase with a column-on-vase wooden balustrade extending from basement to second floor at the centre rear. Dog-leg staircases with baluster balustrades serve the basement to attic in the rear left and right of the main block's centre. Stone spiral staircases serve the south wing.

The armory occupies the right portion of the south wing and has a six-bay butt-purlin roof with probably 19th-century king posts and two irregular rows of mostly false wind braces.

The main entrance hall on the first floor centre of the main block has a stone floor. Six-panel mahogany doors with probably pine architrave surrounds and triangular pediments on carved brackets feature pulvinated friezes with carved fruit to the central panel. A richly carved stone fireplace has consoles supporting a carved frieze of the mantelshelf, with an overmantle of richly carved wood framing, featuring a scrolled pediment with a basket of fruit in the tympanum. Plaster garlands and swags decorate the walls, with rococo ceiling decoration probably by Thomas Roberts of Oxford.

The Small Drawing Room on the first floor left of centre in the main block is wood-panelled with six-panel mahogany doors with architrave surrounds and a pulvinated carved frieze and cornice. A carved wood fruit-swag overmantel surround frames a richly carved wood fireplace with a marble inner surround.

Most other rooms in the main block were remodelled in Rococo style around 1830 and subsequently remodelled in Georgian style around 1920, reusing some 18th-century wood fireplace surrounds.

The Abbot King's Parlour occupies the first floor of the tower at the right end of the south wing. It was decorated around 1530 for Abbot Robert King in Renaissance style. Richly carved linenfold panelling and a frieze of panels in arabesque style featuring mermaids, scrolls and urns decorate the walls; some panels formerly contained medallions with heads. Intersecting ceiling beams display similar decoration with the initials R.K. The interior porch has linenfold panelling and a frieze of arabesque panels. Original door furniture survives. A stone fireplace has a Tudor-arched stone moulded surround.

The Library on the first floor left of the south wing has a boarded ceiling with three moulded cross-beams and intersecting ribs. The frieze is carved with Renaissance ornament and the name "Robertus King".

The house incorporates part of the former Thame Abbey complex, originally founded by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln in 1138. Abbot Robert King served as abbot from 1530 to 1539. Following the Dissolution, the estate passed to Lord Williams of Thame, and in 1559 it passed to the Wenman family.