Its All In The Name (Contributed by Karen Franklin-Shaw)

EVERYBODY who lives here will know that Thame has its fair share of public houses and inns that are steeped in history.
The Bird Cage public house situated on Cornmarket is the oldest inn in Thame. Built around 1300, it still features many of the elm beams that were once covered in ancient plaster but it does not retain its original name!
The pub itself can be traced back to the early 16th century when it was knowN as just ?The Cage? and then later as ?The Bird in the Cage?. This interested me somewhat and was the start of a lot of research into the history of Thames pub names. Why I wondered was The Cage so called? The only link I could come up with was that during the Napoleonic wars the Bird Cage housed French prisoners (according to The Bird Cage own web site it was these prisoners that founded the local Masons!) It has also been documented as having been used as a holding house for just about every sort of petty criminal around and even lepers!! I wonder if the locals of Thame gave The Cage its name because of this? However this goes slightly off course when it?s renamed The Bird in the Cage!!!! Perhaps we have a local historian that would like to email Thamenews.net to see whether I?m on the right track or not!
Many of the other pub names in Thame are far easier to trace back to their origins.
There were 20 or so pubs in Thame in the 16th Century, this figure is now estimated at 45 -60 so there is absolutely no excuse to be caught thirsty in Thame! Indeed beer was claimed to have provided the locals with a healthier alternative to the local drinking water although I stress this is no longer the case!!
The Old Nags Head on 43 Upper High St was originally called The Kings Head, which is pretty self-explanatory so I popped into The Old Nags Head (it?s a tough job!) and over a swift half asked the landlord, Gary, if he had any idea why the name was changed and when.
?Well yes I do know that it was originally The Kings Head? He smiled ?But I?m afraid I have no idea why it was changed in the late 1800?s to The Nags Head and then in more recent years The Old Nags Head?
It seems after all my thirsty work I?d come up against brick wall! Off to another I boldly strolled right into to the Swan Hotel on the opposite side of the road at 9 Upper High St. Now here was a public house that must have an abundance of history propping it up. You can almost smell it as you walk through the wobbly doorway, but why is it called The Swan? Within its sixteenth century beams and wonky walls I tried to interrogate the landlord as to the pubs history only to learn he took over just 8 weeks ago!
This was turning into a bit of a disaster so it was back to the drawing board where at last I found out that the Swan Inn was built by Sir John Clerke whose family crest was?yes 3 swans! No doubt this was how The Swan Inn Hotel originally got its name.
The Rising Sun on Lower High St may also be named from a family crest as it was a popular symbol used dating back to Edward IV however it has been documented that it was more likely given this name to mark the start of a new venture in the 1800?s.
Why the Abingdon Arms is so called has always been a bit of a mystery to me, we are after all in Thame not Abingdon! Then I stumbled upon the fact that the Abingdon Arms was originally called Chequers and changed its name in 1832, probably in honour of a certain Montague, the fifth Earl of Abingdon, who apparently was the owner of a large amount of land in Thame at the time.
There was a Fighting Cocks inn on the spot where Woolworth now stands and one of the most interesting bits of information I came across whilst writing this was that there was a Red Lion where Lightfoot’s is now situated. This in itself is not so riveting as the Red Lion is the most common name for an inn in this country, named for the ?red lion rampant? of many heraldic devices. However our Red Lion was one of the most important inns in Thame during Tudor times when it is claimed Henry VIII himself, along with Catherine of Aragon and the then lady in waiting Anne Boleyn, stayed in 1530.
As I stood outside Lightfoots building I tried to picture Thame of old. The very many inns that stood to cater for its people, the market and passing travellers. I looked up and down the high street and realised I?d worked up quite a thirst. Now?? hmm which inn to chose??