Radnage is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-e ...

district of

, England. It is in the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshi ...

about two miles north east of

Stokenchurch Stokenchurch is a village and civil parish in south-west Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about south of Chinnor in Oxfordshire and west of High Wycombe. Stokenchurch is a commuter village, served by junction 5 of ...

and six miles WNW of

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...

. The parish is set in folds of the

to the south of Bledlow Ridge next to the border with Oxfordshire. Although not a large parish, the residential areas known as the City, Bennett End and Town End, are separate hamlets. Radnage (also spelled Radeneach, Rodenache etc. in old documents) meant ‘red oak’ in

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

History

Settlement in the area dates back to Roman times as demonstrated by the excavation of a

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

glass ribbed bowl from the village, now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. Radnage is not mentioned in Domesday Book and it appears from a 13th-century document to have been royal demesne attached to the manor of Brill. Later, it was divided into two parts. The smaller part was granted by King Henry I to the newly established

Fontevrault Abbey The Royal Abbey of Our Lady of Fontevraud or Fontevrault (in French: ''abbaye de Fontevraud'') was a monastery in the village of Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, near Chinon, in the former French duchy of Anjou. It was founded in 1101 by the itinerant preach ...

in France and attached to property at Leighton in Bedfordshire, which was also given to Fontevrault. The larger part, known as Radnage Manor, was for a time retained by the crown and then in 1215 was granted by King John to the

Knights Templar , colors = White mantle with a red cross , colors_label = Attire , march = , mascot = Two knights riding a single horse , equipment ...

. When this order was suppressed in the early 14th century, their lands passed to the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

. On the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII the manor was again acquired by the crown. King Charles I mortgaged it with other crown lands to the City of London in order to raise money. Later, King Charles II was said to have given it to one of his mistresses. But by the 19th century both parts of the manor again belonged to the crown and so remained until the abolition of manorial rights in 1925. Dedicated on 1 May 1920, Radnage War Memorial sits in a walled garden at Mudds Bank.

Amenities

Radnage has two

public houses A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

: The Crown and the Mash Inn (previously known as the Three Horseshoes). There is also a

village hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

, which is used as the meeting place for the parish council and W.I. In addition to this, the hall also has a playing field and separate children's playground. The village also has two

campsite A campsite, also known as a campground or camping pitch, is a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight using te ...

s: Bella Vista and Home Farm.

Outdoor activities

Radnage is situated in the heart of the

and is served by multiple

footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...

s and bridleways. As such, it's popular with cyclists, walkers, runners and horse riders. The village holds an annual 5k and 10k trail run race to raise money for the local school. BottomWood 1

Notable trails and locations

* Yoesden Nature Reserve, a chalk grassland bank with rare butterflies and wildflowers. * Bottom Wood, a 35 acre ancient woodland and nature reserve *

Chiltern Way The Chiltern Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in the Chiltern Hills of southern England. It was created by the Chiltern Society as a Millennium project. Route The Chiltern Way runs for around .Chilterns Cycle Way, 170 mile (273.5 km) circular route of the Chilterns AONB passes through the village

Church of St Mary the Virgin

St Mary the Virgin is the local parish church, situated towards the northeastern edge of the parish. The church is part of the West Wycombe

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

, the building is Grade 1 listed.

History and construction

The church was built in the late 12th Century, early

13th Century The 13th century was the century which lasted from January 1, 1201 ( MCCI) through December 31, 1300 ( MCCC) in accordance with the Julian calendar. The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan, which stretched from Eastern Asia to Eastern Eur ...

in much the same form as it appears today, though larger windows were inserted in the

14th century As a means of recording the passage of time, the 14th century was a century lasting from 1 January 1301 ( MCCCI), to 31 December 1400 ( MCD). It is estimated that the century witnessed the death of more than 45 million lives from political and na ...

and the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

appears to have been lengthened and heightened in the 15th century, when the present roof was built. There is a central tower, which is unusual in being narrower than either the chancel or the nave. There are three original

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet ...

s of the early 13th century in the east wall of the chancel. The other windows in the church are 14th century. The south doorway is original of the early 13th century. A similar north doorway has been blocked up. The south porch and outer door are original of the 13th century, but with a 15th-century roof and 15th-century windows in the side walls. The fine 15th-century nave roof has embattled

tie-beam A tie, strap, tie rod, eyebar, guy-wire, suspension cables, or wire ropes, are examples of linear structural components designed to resist tension. It is the opposite of a strut or column, which is designed to resist compression. Ties may be ...

s supported by arched brackets with tracery in the

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

s and also in the triangular spaces above the beams. The lower-pitched chancel roof is probably 16th century. Inside the church there is an archway through the tower with 13th-century arches in pointed style at either end. The chancel has a 13th-century

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...

(damaged) in the south wall. The nave has traces of early wall painting and also post-Reformation texts (16th-to-18th-century). The font is probably 17th-century.For the history and architecture of the church, see VHCB Vol.3 pp.91-2, RCHMB pp.274-5 and Pevsner & Wiiliamson pp.612-3

References

Books mentioned in the notes

* VHCB = ''Victoria History of the County of Buckingham'', ed: William Page, Volume 3 (1925) * Pevsner, Nikolaus & Elizabeth Williamson: Buckinghamshire (''The Buildings of England'' - Penguin Books. 2nd edition. 1994) * RCHMB = Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England): ''An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Buckinghamshire'', Volume 1 South (1912)

Notes

{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire