Radley

Radley railway station serves the villages of Radley and Lower Radley and the town of Abingdon, in Oxfordshire, England. It is on the Cherwell Valley Line between Didcot Parkway and Banbury, 58 miles 35 chains (94.0 km) measured from London Paddington.

Radley College, formally St Peter's College, Radley or even the College of St. Peter at Radley, is a public school (independent boarding school for boys) near Radley, Oxfordshire, England, which was founded in 1847. The school covers 800 acres (320 hectares) including playing fields, a golf course, a lake, and farmland. Before the counties of England were re-organised, the school was in Berkshire. Radley is one of only three public schools to have retained the boys-only, boarding-only tradition, the others being Harrow and Eton. Formerly this group included Winchester, although the latter school is currently undergoing a transition to co-ed status. Of the seven public schools addressed by the Public Schools Act 1868 four have since become co-educational: Rugby (1976), Charterhouse (1971), Westminster (1973), and Shrewsbury (2014). For the academic year 2022/23, Radley charged boarders up to £14,850 per term, or £44,550 per annum. It is a member of the Rugby Group.

Abingdon Junction railway station was a junction station for the branch line to Abingdon. It was opened by the Abingdon Railway Company on 2 June 1856 along with the branch, and was subsequently closed and replaced by Radley railway station on 8 September 1873. Radley station was in a more convenient place for access. At the same time as the station's opening, the next station to the south, formerly known as Abingdon Road was renamed Culham.In 1837 the first Bill for a railway to Abingdon was laid before Parliament; it would have brought a direct line from Didcot to Oxford through the town. The House of Commons passed the Bill, but the Lords rejected it. The Bill for the Oxford line was revived in the following year, but so strong was the opposition of Mr. Duffield, Abingdon's M.P., that the proposed line was forced to by-pass Abingdon; it eventually opened on 12 June 1844 and ran no nearer to Abingdon than the village of Radley, some two miles to the east.Located at the point where the branch diverges from the main line, Abingdon Junction was provided purely for interchange for services to Oxford, Culham and Didcot and was not shown in timetables. No proper road access to the station was provided and only modest passenger facilities were afforded consisting of two facing wooden platforms with a small building constructed on the up main side and a run-around loop for branch services and connections with the main line.Following the conversion of the branch to standard gauge in November 1872, works began to extend the line a further ¾ mile northwards alongside the main line to reach a new station at Radley where it terminated in a bay platform on the station's west side. The station building from Abingdon Junction was transported to Radley, where it was sited just south of the road bridge, most likely on the down side. It remained there until well into British Railways days and was used by gangers and platelayers. The remains of Abingdon Junction survived for several years before their demolition, so that the only trace of the station today is the widened formation to the west of the main line before the Abingdon branch curved away.

Radley College Boat Club is a rowing club on the River Thames based in Lower Radley, Radley, Oxfordshire.

Lock Wood Island is an island in the River Thames in England just downstream of Nuneham House on the reach above Abingdon Lock. The island sits on a sharp bend in the river. It is densely covered with tall trees and has a narrow channel behind it. In the nineteenth century there was a thatched cottage on the island linked to the bank by a rustic bridge which was a popular place for picknickers. Alice Liddell used to visit the island with Lewis Carroll, who penned Through the Looking-Glass shortly after one of these visits. There is evidence of weirs and flash locks here, at one time owned by Lord Harcourt, which may account for the name of the island.

Nuneham Viaduct, also known as Nuneham Railway Bridge and the Black Bridge is near the town of Abingdon-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, England. It is a two-span, bowstring truss bridge that carries the Didcot to Oxford section of the Cherwell Valley Line across the River Thames between Abingdon Lock and Sandford Lock. Its name is derived from the neighbouring Nuneham House. The total length is 99 yards (91 m); the southern and northern ends are respectively 57 miles 24 chains (92.22 km) and 57 miles 29 chains (92.32 km) from Paddington (via Didcot station).As well as passenger trains, the line over the bridge carries freight from the Port of Southampton to distribution centres in the Midlands and North of England. By 2023, up to forty freight trains per day were using the route, which is part of the core UK intermodal freight network, and was to have been part of the proposed Electric Spine. From March 2022, the bridge suffered a progressive failure with sinking of the southern end of the southern span. This led to its temporary closure to all rail traffic on 3 April 2023 and a major remedial project being undertaken; the line was reopened to traffic on 9 June 2023.

The Carfax Conduit was a water conduit that supplied the city of Oxford with water from 1610 until 1869. The conduit ran in an underground lead pipe from a spring on the hillside above the village of North Hinksey, beneath Seacourt Stream and the River Thames, to a building at Carfax in the centre of Oxford. The system was built by Otho Nicholson, a London lawyer, to supply the citizens of Oxford with clean water. It replaced a system built by Osney Abbey between 1205 and 1221 that had fallen into disrepair.The conduit building at Carfax was an elaborate structure, some 40 feet (12 m) tall, with eight niches containing statues of historic and mythical figures. By 1787 it had become an obstacle to traffic and it was removed in 1797 and replaced by a smaller cistern. The original structure was given to the Earl Harcourt, who had it re-erected in the grounds of his home, Nuneham House, where it remains to this day. Two plaques are attached to opposite sides of the building, giving a short history in English and Latin. The re-erected conduit is a Grade I listed building and scheduled monument.A building, now called the Conduit House, was built at Harcourt Hill over the spring. It remains in situ and is in the care of English Heritage. The Conduit House site is designated as a Grade II* listed building and a scheduled monument.The entire system fell into disuse in the 19th century. In 1869, when it was carrying very little water, the conduit was sold to Oxford Corporation.

Nuneham House is an eighteenth century villa in the Palladian style, set in parkland at Nuneham Courtenay in Oxfordshire, England. It is currently owned by Oxford University and is used as a retreat centre by the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. In September 2016 the house and a thousand acres of surrounding parkland and farmland, including the village of Nuneham Courtenay, were put up for sale in three separate lots for a total of £22 million.

Sandford Hydro is a small hydroelectric scheme located on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England. It uses the head of water provided by the weir at Sandford Lock in Sandford-on-Thames, but is actually situated on the opposite bank of the river in Kennington. It can generate 450 kilowatts (600 hp) of electricity with its three archimedes screw turbines. Construction began in 2011, and the plant became operational in 2018.Sandford Hydro is owned by Low Carbon Hub Sandford Hydro Ltd, which is itself a subsidiary Low Carbon Hub IPS Ltd, an industrial and provident society for the benefit of the community that seeks to develop a decentralised, locally-owned renewable energy infrastructure for Oxfordshire.As part of the development of the hydro scheme, a new fish pass has been constructed. It is designed to help fish adapted to both fast and slow watercourses, and comprises a 120 metres (390 ft) gravel-lined channel with a gradient of 1 in 160, flanked at either end by sections with a gradient of 1 in 20 and brush and baffle components.

Old All Saints Church, or Harcourt Chapel, is a redundant Church of England church near the village of Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church is southwest of the village, in the grounds of Nuneham House overlooking the River Thames, some 6 miles (10 km) southeast of Oxford.

Fiddler's Elbow is the largest of a set of islands in the River Thames in England alongside and upstream of Sandford Lock, near Kennington, Oxfordshire. Fiddler's Elbow Island is in the shape of a leg of lamb with a wide expanse tapering upstream to a narrow point. The navigation channel passes to the east of the island and the main weir stream, leading to the Sandford Lasher (weir pool) passes to the west. Two smaller weir streams across the lower end of the island create two additional smaller islands. The island is entirely given over to open space and meadowland.

The Thames Path is a National Trail following the River Thames from one of its sources near Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Woolwich foot tunnel, south east London. It is about 185 miles (298 km) long. A path was first proposed in 1948 but it only opened in 1996.The Thames Path's entire length can be walked, and a few parts can be cycled. Some parts of the Thames Path, particularly west of Oxford, are subject to flooding during the winter. The river is also tidal downstream from Teddington Lock and the lower parts of these paths may be underwater if there is a particularly high tide, although the Thames Barrier protects London from catastrophic flooding. The Thames Path uses the river towpath between Inglesham and Putney and available paths elsewhere. Historically, towpath traffic crossed the river using many ferries, but few of these crossings exist now and some diversion from the towpath is necessary.