Radley Church, dedicated to the apostle St James the Great, stands on the site of an earlier Norman or even Saxon building which was reputedly destroyed by fire. The current building was consecrated around 1300AD. The Church contains a fine Norman pillared font, dating from the 13th century. This was retrieved in 1840 from the farmyard opposite, where it had been buried to escape damage in the Civil War.
There are many other treasures in the Church, such as the piscina, the Stonhouse monument, the pulpit canopy and the reredos – all described in the Radley History Club book, The Story of a Village Church: St James the Great, Radley. A further publication, Faith and Heraldry, describes the fine stained glass and its history.
Radley Church is part of the Abingdon deanery within the Dorchester episcopal area of the Diocese of Oxford, which covers Berkshire, Buckingham and Oxfordshire. In February 2015 the parish of Radley became part of the Benefice of Radley, Sunningwell and Kennington.
