RADLEY
Most of modern Radley was built
in the mid-1930s onwards and was developed around the
railway station (now an unmanned halt). However, about a quarter
of a mile east of the station and a similar distance from
the River Thames is Lower Radley with its thatched cottages,
timber barns and farm buildings, of various ages.
Just
north of Radley village on the Kennington road is the
13th century Church of St. James the Great which was built
on the site of an earlier Norman building that was said
to have burned down in about 1290. Nearby is the timber-framed
vicarage, part of which is thought to date from the 13th
century, and is said to have been used by Abingdon Abbey
as a hunting lodge. The village school, which adjoins
the churchyard, was probably built in 1871 but the school
house is a very much older building.
The
name Radley is from two Old English words, read and leah,
meaning red lea, or red clearing. Excavations locally
have revealed that there has been human use or occupation
of the Radley area successively by Neolithic, Bronze Age,
Iron Age, Roman, and Saxon people, since before 3000 BC.
Opposite
the church is Radley
College, a public school for boys aged between 13
and 18 years.
Radley is about
half a mile east of the eastern perimeter road around
Abingdon.
