Grafton and Radcot

Grafton and Radcot
Civil parish
Poplar Farm, Grafton
Grafton and Radcot Location within Oxfordshire
Population	63 (Parish, 2021)[1]
Civil parish	Grafton and Radcot
District	West Oxfordshire
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Bampton
Postcode district	OX18
Dialling code	01993
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Witney
List of places UK England Oxfordshire 51°42′00″N 1°36′14″W / 51.700°N 1.604°W / 51.700; -1.604

Grafton and Radcot is a civil parish in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Radcot, on the north bank of the River Thames, and Grafton. The parish lies 3 miles (5 km) south-west of Bampton, its post town. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 63.

History

The parish has its origins as two townships of the ancient parish of Langford. Each of Langford's four township took on civil functions under the poor laws from the 17th century onwards. As such, the four townships each became separate civil parishes in 1866 when the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws.^[2] The two civil parishes of Radcot and Grafton were subsequently merged into a new civil parish called Grafton and Radcot in 1932.^[3]

Radcot Bridge over the River Thames, which forms the southern boundary of the parish

Governance

There are two elected tiers of local government covering Grafton and Radcot, at district and county level: West Oxfordshire District Council, and Oxfordshire County Council. The parish is too small to have an elected parish council, and so has a parish meeting instead.^[4]

References

1. "2021 Census Parish Profiles". NOMIS. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 31 March 2025. (To get individual parish data, use the query function on table PP002.)
2. Youngs, Frederic (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England: Volume I, Southern England. London: Royal Historical Society. pp. xvi, 400. ISBN 0901050679.
3. "Grafton and Radcot Parish". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
4. "Parish councils contact information". West Oxfordshire District Council. Retrieved 15 October 2025.