Radley / Radclege / Radelea / Radely / Raydely / Rodley

No entry for Radley found in the Domesday survey. A report from the Society of Antiquaries published in The Gentleman's Magazine (issue of April 1839: 417) reads: "George Bowyer, esq. exhibited drawings of an ancient font, found in a farm-yard near the banks of the river Thames, not far from Newnham-park. It had been latterly used as a trough, but is now returned to Radley church. It is circular in form, and surrounded by a series of Norman columns with ornamented arches. Mr. Bowyer, accompanied his description with a memoir on the ancient history of Radley, and notices of the neighbouring town of Abingdon." A letter from W.J. Bernard Smith in the Notes and Queries magazine of 18 October 1856 informed: "The following inscription is cut on the stone base of the fine Norman font in Radley Church, Berks.: 'Vas sacrum antiquissimum, diu apud rusticos in pago neglectum tandem denuo inter res sacras servandum curavit Johannes Radcliffe hujus ecclesiae vicarius, A.D. MDCCCXL'". Huntingford (1925) notes "the beautiful Norman font [...] which was found in the village, and replaced in the church some time in the last century. [...] It is not known what was used in place of the Norman font; but a about a mile north of the church there is, on the west side of the lower Oxford road, an octagonal stone said to be the base of the font from Radley Church" [Huntingford (ibid.) quotes "The Radley District, p. 47" as source]. The Victoria County History (Berkshire, vol. 4, 1924) notes: "The church of Radley existed in 1284 as a chapel to St. Helen's, Abingdon. [...] Down to the 19th century it was called a chapel of St. Helen's. [...] On the other hand various inhabitants in the 16th century gave it as their opinion that Radley was a 'parish of itself.'[...] It had the right of marriage, christening, and burial, [...] The south transept is apparently of 14th-century date, but the whole of the rest of the church was rebuilt in the 15th century, [...] suffered severely during the Civil War [...] was considerably restored in 1902. [...] The font has a circular bowl of mid-13th-century date, ornamented with a rich arcade of semicircular arches resting on carved pilasters of varying designs with capitals and bases; this was long put to secular use, and was restored to the church in 1840." Noted and illustrated in the CRSBI (2008): "The font is one of the most elaborate in the county, and while other elaborate arcaded fonts survive at Avington, Enborne, Clewer and St Agnes Spital, Windsor, none of them is very close to this. What impresses most about it is the varied forms of its fictive capitals and bases; micro-architectural forms rarely found at this early period. These, and the high degree of elaboration, point to a date in the 1170s" [followed by a detailed description of rach shaft and bay on its basin]. The 'This is Oxfordshire CommuniGate' web site [www.communigate.co.uk/oxford/radleyhistoryclub/page1.phtml] [accessed 24 June 2007] notes: "a fine Norman pillared font, dating from the thirteenth century. This was retrieved for the church in 1840 from the farmyard opposite the church, where it had been buried to escape Civil War damage" and reports in the archves "P.1.28. St. James Church, Radley - Font. (Taunt Collection)." A reproduction of this [?] photograph from the English Heritage NMR apears in [http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/reference.asp?index=25&imageUID=53405&main_query=&theme=&period=&county=&district=&place_name=radley] [accessed 24 June 2007]. Noted in the website of the United Benefice of Radley and Sunningwell [www.parishes.oxford.anglican.org/radley/] [accessed 24 June 2007]: "The font, on the other hand, is Norman. It lay buried for many years in a shed at the farm opposite the church and was discovered and restored in 1840." The font consists of a cylindrical basin the sides of which are decorated with a blind arcade of richly ornamented arches with capitals and bases; there appear to be floral motifs in the spandrels of the arcade, and the upper and lower rim of the basin have decorative mouldings; the basin is raised on four (?) shafts that could date from the Victorian restoration of this font ca. 1840 [cf. supra], as are the round lower base and the round wooden cover.