Radenach, Radenai, Radenhach (xii cent.); Radenache (xiii-xv cent.); Radenhag, Radnashe, Radnage (xvi cent. onwards). Radnage is a border parish of 1,368 acres, of which 903 are arable and 250 permanent grass. The soil is chalky with a subsoil of light loam and clay. The crops produced are arable. The parish is well wooded, containing 52 acres; Ballards and Mead or Shaw are the principal woods. The latter name recalls Richard Mead, who in 1654 obtained the reversion of Leighton Manor, to which Radnage was attached. Radnage, though itself in parts more than 600 ft. above the ordnance datum, is surrounded and sheltered by the heights of the Chilterns. Langley remarks on the extreme salubrity of the air and consequent longevity of the inhabitants, and is corroborated by Sheahan. The village, which contains a few houses of the 16th and 17th centuries, lies high in the north-west of the parish. The church stands to the north of the village in a well-wooded churchyard with the rectory, a red brick house, to the west of it. An old well here bears the name of the Monks' Well. The houses collected in the south of the village, amongst them a timber and brick 17th-century cottage, are known as Town End, a name of some antiquity. Bennett End comprises an inn and a few houses, some of them of brick and timber with tiled or thatched roofs of the 17th century, and The City, the highest ground in the parish, where are a mission chapel and schools and some 17thcentury brick and timber cottages. Radnage Common is south of The City and includes Pond Farm, over 300 acres in extent, with a good house, and Ashridge Farm, a 17th-century timber and brick house, in the parlour of which is an open fireplace with chimney corner seats. Andridge Common with a farm of the same name is in the north-west. Just below the common is the Grange Farm with a large and ancient farm-house. Both these commons were inclosed in 1860. Radnage House, the principal house in the parish, belongs to Mr. Bennett and is at present occupied by him. The inhabitants of this parish are mainly engaged in agriculture, but chair-making is also carried on. Until recently lace-making by hand was a further industry.There are two small Primitive Methodist chapels in the parish.
No mention has been found in Domesday of Radnage, which at that date appears, according to a 13th-century document, to have been royal demesne attached to the manor of Brill. Early in the 12th century Radnage was divided, and the smaller part was granted by Henry I to Fontevrault Abbey and will be treated of later. The larger portion, afterwards known as RADNAGE MANOR, was retained by the Crown for some years longer and was made the subject of temporary grants. Under Henry II Walter son of Ernald is returned for £10 in Radnage Between the years 1200 and 1207 the name of Godfrey de Luvem appears as paying £40 in Radnage. A few years later in 1215 King John granted Radnage to the Knights Templars, and at various times during the next five years the sheriff of the county is commanded to give them seisin. The Templars received a confirmation in 1227, and in 1275–6 claimed view of frankpledge here. On the suppression of the Templars at the beginning of the 14th century the Hospitallers here, as elsewhere, acquired their lands, for which they were assessed in 1316. The rents derived from the manor about this time were 10 marks. One mention only of this manor has been found in the cartulary of the Hospitallers, and that is the election in 1522 of Andrew and Edmund Windsor as stewards of the manors of 'Radnache,' Temple Wycombe and Marlow at a salary of 26s. 8d. At the Dissolution this manor fell to the Crown. The manor was heavily mortgaged by Charles I in the first yeare of his reign to Edward Allen and other citizens of London. Langley, writing at the close of the 18th century, says that Charles II gave the quitrent to one of his mistresses, who afterwards sold it to the family of Chase. Stephen Chase certainly owned rents issuing from the manor in 1758, and Frances Hearne Bettesworth, spinster, appears as vouchee for the same interest in a recovery of 1808. The lordship of the manor, of which the lands are all freehold, still remains vested in the Crown.
The nuns of Fontevrault Abbey appear to have received a grant of £4 rent in Radnage at the same time as they received from Henry I the more important property in Leighton, Bedfordshire, to which this property was attached. The first mention of the nuns holding in Radnage is found on the early Pipe Rolls of Henry II. In 1164 he confirmed to them the grant of £4 from the manor of Radnage, which grant is also mentioned in the charter of Richard I of 1189 to the nuns. In 1200 a further confirmation was received by the abbey. Shortly previous to this last date a cell of Fontevrault, known as La Grove or Grovebury, had been founded at Leighton itself, and in 1228 the prior there claimed customary services from Ralph de Radenache and others. View of frankpledge was claimed here in 1254 and again in 1275 on behalf of Fontevrault, though on what warrant was not known. In 1285 the view for Radnage was held at Leighton. In 1344 during the war with France the Abbess of Fontevrault obtained a confirmation of her lands here and elsewhere. On the dissolution of the alien priories in England, Radnage, which now begins to be called a manor, was granted to Sir John Philip in 1413, by whom it was settled on himself and his wife Alice daughter of Thomas Chaucer, son of the poet, and their issue. Sir John Philip died childless in 1415, and his widow Alice married William de la Pole Duke of Suffolk. In 1444 she and her second husband granted the reversion of Radnage to Eton College with the consent of William brother and heir of her first husband John Philip. Between this date and 1472 it passed, together with Grovebury, through a series of temporary alienations. It was then finally confirmed to Alice and her heirs by a grant from the Crown, and on her death in 1475 descended to her son John Duke of Suffolk. In 1480 he, together with his wife Elizabeth sister of Edward IV, received licence to grant it to the Dean and canons of Windsor, who retained it till the 19th century. As with Leighton it was the custom of the dean and canons to let this property on long leases, and during the 17th and 18th centuries it was held thus by several generations of the family of Leigh of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. During the last century it passed to Colonel Fane, whose representative, Major John Augustus Fane of Wormsley in Stokenchurch, is at the present day one of the principal landowners in this parish.
A view of frankpledge was attached to the manor held by the Knights Hospitallers in Radnage, and Court Rolls of the time of Edward VI are still in existence. At a court held here in 1549 the tenants of the manor claimed right of common in 'Croull Wodd.' At the same court the village constable was elected, and William Wheler was fined 2s. because 'two swarme beis came into the demesne' of the lord.
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Knights Templars. Argent a cross gules and a chief sable.
Knights Hospitallers. Gules a cross argent.
De
la Pole. Azure a fesse between three leopards' heads or.
Dean and Canons of Windsor. Argent a cross gules.
Leigh of Stoneleigh. Gules a cross engrailed argent with a lozenge argent in
the quarter.
East of Radnage. Sable a cheveron between three horses' heads razed argent.
The family of Este or East of Radnage is returned in the herald's visitation of the 16th century. They appear to have held land in Radnage about this date.
THE HUNDRED OF DESBOROUGH Bradenham