The Lordship of the Manor was held from 1569 by the Stonhouse family and from 1794 by the Bowyers. In 1727 Sir John Stonhouse completed the building of Radley Hall. A school was established there in 1819 but failed in 1844, while 1847 saw the beginning of St. Peter's College, now known as Radley College, a public school for boys aged between 13 and 18 years, now with some 600 pupils. Radley Hall, now known as the Mansion, still stands as part of the college buildings. In the college grounds stands the Radley Oak, a tree of unknown antiquity but said to have been rejected for naval construction in the Napoleonic Wars because it was already diseased. It has a girth of 28 feet and a broken branch, still attached to the lower trunk of the tree, resting on the ground but with its own live canopy.

The Bowyer Arms, the village's public house, was built in the middle of the 19th century, and the railway station lies behind it. Morland, the former Abingdon brewers, bought the pub in 1889, having previously leased it from the Bowyer Estate, and it is now owned by Greene King, who extensively refurbished it a few years ago, so that now it is a very popular place for entertainment and good meals.