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Radley is a village and civil parish about northeast of the centre of Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The parish includes the hamlet of Lower Radley on the River Thames. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The village is home to Radley College, a famous boarding independent school for boys from the age of thirteen to eighteen that consists of 690 pupils.
The church is missing both its north aisle and transept, which were destroyed during the Civil War. The south doorway is 15th century, but an inscription on the present door states that it was made in 1656. In the chancel, there is a Renaissance style monument to the lord of the manor, Sir William Stonehouse (died 1632), made by Nicholas Stone. The canopy over the pulpit is said to have originally stood behind the Speaker's chair in the House of Commons and was given to the church by a local man, Speaker William Lenthall, in 1643. If so, it is the canopy from under which Roundhead soldiers dragged Lenthall at the end of the Long Parliament. St. James' is a Grade II* listed building.
The tower has a Change ringing of six bells. Abel Rudhall of Gloucester cast five of them including the tenor in 1754. Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the present treble bell in 1952. St. James' also has a Sanctus bell that Henry I Knight of Reading cast in 1617. The former vicarage next to the church was built in the 15th century. Past incumbents of the parish have included the future bishops Charles Gore (1893–95) and James Nash (1895–98).
Radley Hall
Abingdon Abbey held the manor of Radley until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, George Stonehouse built a house in Radley Park, but in 1727 the Stonehouse family replaced this with a new mansion, Radley Hall. Early in the 19th century the house was leased for a time as a Nonconformist school, and from 1847 it was leased to William Sewell who founded Radley College. The school is now generally referred to as Radley College.
Wick Hall
Wick Hall is located between Radley and Thrupp Lake, off Audlett Drive. It is a Grade II* listed country house, built in about 1720 for the Tomkins family. The decoration includes Flemish wood panelling, taken from Exeter College chapel. The house was acquired by the Dockar-Drysdale family in 1850, and extended for them by Charles Bell in the 1870s.
Railway
In 1844 the Great Western Railway opened an extension from Didcot to Oxford, passing through Radley parish. In 1873 the GWR opened Radley railway station southwest of the village. It is now served by Great Western Railway trains.
Radley Lake
South of the village are current and former gravel pits. The disused pits have flooded, forming a number of lakes. In 1985 the Central Electricity Generating Board began filling some of these lakes with waste ash from Didcot Power Station. In June 2005 Npower applied for permission to fill in two more lakes. Npower soon withdrew Bullfield Lake from its proposal, but continued with its proposal for the larger Thrupp Lake. Local opposition formed into a protest campaign called Save Radley Lakes. In December 2008 Npower finally announced that it "no longer needed" Thrupp Lake and withdrew its application.
Amenities
Radley has a Church of England primary school, a village hall and a Women's Institute. There is a public house, the Bowyer Arms, controlled by Greene King Brewery. Radley Cricket Club plays in Oxfordshire Cricket Association Division Three.
History society
Radley has a local history society which has produced a number of publications and maintains an archive of local material. Radley vicarage by Radley History Club, 2005. A report of a 'buildings record' survey and archive research undertaken to determine the history, construction, and later development of this 14th-century building The history of Radley by Patrick Drysdale … and Radley History Club, 2002. History of the village from prehistory to the present.
Notable residents
Included among Radley's former residents are:
Dr. Gary Botting, now an extradition lawyer in Canada, who attended the Church of England Primary School and began collecting moths in Radley in 1948.Heather and Gary Botting, The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984) Preface, p. xii.
Sources and further reading
(1999). 9780947816896, Oxford University School of Archaeology. ISBN 9780947816896
(2025). 9780947816735, Oxford University School of Archaeology. ISBN 9780947816735
External links
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