![]() ![]() Richard Coates suggests that while the river was as a whole called the Thames, part of it, where it was too wide to ford, was called * (p)lowonida. They are now on show at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley). Sculptures titled Tamesis and Isis by Anne Seymour Damer can be found on the bridge at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (the original terracotta and plaster models were exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1785. Since the early 20th century this distinction has been lost in common usage outside of Oxford, and some historians suggest the name Isis is nothing more than a truncation of Tamesis, the Latin name for the Thames. Ordnance Survey maps still label the Thames as "River Thames or Isis" down to Dorchester. Historically, and especially in Victorian times, gazetteers and cartographers insisted that the entire river was correctly named the Isis from its source down to Dorchester on Thames and that only from this point, where the river meets the Thame and becomes the "Thame-isis" (supposedly subsequently abbreviated to Thames) should it be so called. The Thames through Oxford is sometimes called the Isis. Downstream keystone of the central arch of Henley Bridge The Isis A similar spelling from 1210, "Tamisiam" (the accusative case of "Tamisia", see Kingston upon Thames#Early history), is found in the Magna Carta. The river's name has always been pronounced with a simple t /t/ the Middle English spelling was typically Temese and the Brittonic form Tamesis. Tamese was referred to as a place, not a river in the Ravenna Cosmography (c. It is believed that Tamesubugus' name was derived from that of the river. ![]() Indirect evidence for the antiquity of the name 'Thames' is provided by a Roman potsherd found at Oxford, bearing the inscription Tamesubugus fecit (Tamesubugus made ). Tamise, Thamis (1220) ( Middle English, Anglo-Norman French ).Jackson proposed that the name of the Thames is not Indo-European (and of unknown meaning), while Peter Kitson suggested that it is Indo-European but originated before the Britons and has a name indicating "muddiness" from a root *tā-, 'melt'. The origin is shared by many other river names in Britain, such as the River Tamar at the border of Devon and Cornwall, several rivers named Tame in the Midlands and North Yorkshire, the Tavy on Dartmoor, the Team of the North East, the Teifi and Teme of Wales, the Teviot in the Scottish Borders and a Thames tributary the Thame. The name element Tam may have meant "dark" and can be compared to other cognates such as Russian темно ( Proto-Slavic * tĭmĭnŭ), Lithuanian tamsi "dark", Latvian tumsa "darkness", Sanskrit tamas and Welsh tywyll "darkness" and Middle Irish teimen "dark grey". Name Brittonic origin Ī statue of Old Father Thames by Raffaelle Monti at St John's Lock, LechladeĪccording to Mallory and Adams, the Thames, from Middle English Temese, is derived from the Brittonic name for the river, Tamesas (from * tamēssa), recorded in Latin as Tamesis and yielding modern Welsh Tafwys "Thames". With its waters varying from freshwater to almost seawater, the Thames supports a variety of wildlife and has a number of adjoining Sites of Special Scientific Interest, with the largest being in the North Kent Marshes and covering 20.4 sq mi (5,289 ha). Its catchment area covers a large part of south-eastern and a small part of western England the river is fed by at least 50 named tributaries. In Scotland, the Tay achieves more than double the Thames' average discharge from a drainage basin that is 60% smaller.Īlong its course are 45 navigation locks with accompanying weirs. Running through some of the drier parts of mainland Britain and heavily abstracted for drinking water, the Thames' discharge is low considering its length and breadth: the Severn has a discharge almost twice as large on average despite having a smaller drainage basin. From Oxford to the estuary the Thames drops by 55 metres. Its tidal section includes most of its London stretch and has a rise and fall of 23 ft (7 m). The lower reaches of the river are called the Tideway, derived from its long tidal reach up to Teddington Lock. The Thames also drains the whole of Greater London. From the west it flows through Oxford (where it is sometimes called the Isis), Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor. The river rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire and flows into the North Sea near Tilbury, Essex and Gravesend, Kent, via the Thames Estuary. At 215 miles (346 km), it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the River Severn. The River Thames ( / t ɛ m z/ ( listen) TEMZ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London.
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