Home page for the village of Radley in Oxfordshire
Location, history and wildlife
Traditional elements of village life
Leisure groups and organisations
Amenities and useful info
Past and future happenings
Learn how the Parish Council works
Directory of local businesses and services
Message board - notices, views, for sale and wanted
Members of the website working group
History

Radley has an interesting history dating back to ancient times. The Radley History Club carries out research into past events in Radley and the lives of its inhabitants, and has published a definitive history of the village in their recent book, The History of Radley, published in 2002. More information can be found on their website (follow link below). Archaelogical excavations have been carried out at Barrow Hills , most recently in the 1980s; and, more extensively, over the past 25 years, at Thrupp on the southern edge of the parish. These have revealed evidence of human habitation dating back to the stone-age (palaeolithic) era.
 
Original school house, Radley Primary School
School house

Radley Oak in the grounds of Radley College Radley Oak

 Tower of St James the Great, Radley
    Church

Oxford - Didcot Railway

 

Click on an image for historical information relating to the subject in the title.
Radley's 13th century vicarage
Railway     Radley Vicarage
 
The Bowyer Arms, 12 July 2004
  
 
The Bowyer Arms
  
 

History Links

Henry Taunt photographs of Radley taken at the turn of the 19th century.

Abingdon and Area Archaeological and Historical Society

Radley History Club

Archaeological, Palaeontological and Ecological information about Thrupp (pdf 7.1 MB)
 

References

The following books contain information about the history of Radley and are acknowledged as sources of some of the material used on these pages.

 

Radley Farms and Families 1600-2011

Paperback, 209 pages

Christine Wootton

Published by Radley History Club, 2011

ISBN 9780954276195

Gone for A Soldier: Radley Service Men 1885 - 1920

Limited edition, hardback, 169 pages, with colour and black and white illustrations.

Martin Mawhinney

Published by the author, 2010

ISBN 978184426821-4

The History of Radley CE Primary School 
Christine Wootton
Published by Radley History Club, 2008
ISBN 9780954276157

Radley Church and Parish

(Radley History Club Occasional Publication No. 4)

John Homewood et al.

Published by Radley History Club, 2007, 2009

ISBN 0 9542761 4 0

The Silvester Family of Sunningwell and Radley at the Smithy, The Bowyer Arms and Sugworth Farm

(Radley History Club Occasional Publication No. 3)

Christine Wootton

Published by Radley History Club, 2007

ISBN 0 9542761 3 0

Radley Vicarage

(Radley History Club Occasional Publication No. 1)

Published by Radley History Club, 2005

ISBN 0 9542761 1 0

The History of Radley

Patrick Drysdale, Rita Ford, Patricia Groser, Marian Orchard, Ann Parkes, Kay Williams.

Published by Radley History Club, 2002

ISBN 0 9542761 0 8

Rural Life in the Vale of the White Horse 1780~1914

Nigel Hammond

Published by Countryside Books, Newbury, 1974

ISBN 0 9500218

The Oxfordshire Village Book

Nigel Hammond

Published by Countryside Books, Newbury, 1983

ISBN 0 905392 22 1

British Railways Past and Present: No 15, Oxfordshire

Laurence Waters and Tony Doyle

Published by Past and Present Publishing Ltd, 2nd edition, 1994

ISBN 1 85895 059 7

Oxfordshire Railways in Old Photographs, A Second Selection

Laurence Waters

Published by Sutton Publishing Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 1991

ISBN 0 86299 852 2

Barrow Hills , Radley 1983-4: excavations, an interim report
R Bradley, RA Chambers, CE Halpin
Oxford Archaeological Unit, 1984

 

 

Legal    Accessibility