Modern day Langley, including Little Langley, is now a scattering of houses, mostly along the road past TWR, the home of the Arrows racing team. In the medieval period, however, it was a manor in its own right and a substantial settlement. Some of the house platforms of the deserted medieval village can still be traced in the bumpy surface of the ground in a field next to what is now known as Langley Farmhouse.

"King John's Palace"

The surviving farmhouse has traditionally been called "King John's Palace", but whilst there is evidence that the court sometimes used it as a hunting lodge in the late medieval and early modern period, it was never a palace and nor is there any firm evidence that King John ever visited it. It was originally the manor house of the de Langley family, who held the office of Chief Forester of Wychwood and exercised considerable power in the district. In the time of Henry VII, it was extended to form a royal hunting lodge with a park.

The present farmhouse contains the considerable part of the outer wall of an early Tudor building. It is pierced by several windows and contains a decorative feature of a Tudor rose with the initials "H" and "E", undoubtedly referring to Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth. The Tudor hunting lodge was originally larger than the present farmhouse; a survey of 1803 recorded extensive ruins, including some walls up to window height, but the stone was subsequently robbed out for local building works.

The Manor of Langley

The de Langley family held the manor of Langley and were hereditary Foresters or keepers of Wychwood until 1362. The last of the family was Thomas de Langley. He was responsible for the erection of several buildings in and around the manor. In Langley, two timber granges were built in 1352, called Whytehevesdeplace and Smyth's tenement, and also several cottages. In 1361 the plague struck; Thomas and his sons, John, Simon and Peter, all died, though his two married daughters and wife survived. It is likely that many other inhabitants of Langley died at this time, leading to the village becoming deserted and ruined. Some people continued to live in Langley, but it was never again as populous following the Black Death. In the time of Edward IV there were 18 tenants, but not all were resident in Langley.

On Thomas de Langley's death, the manor passed first to the de Verney family and then to the Danvers family. It remained in Danvers family hands until the Civil War. Sir John Danvers was amongst those who signed the death warrant of Charles I. Though he died during the Commonwealth, when Charles II was restored to the throne, the Danvers family estates were forfeited to the Crown and granted to the Earl of Clarendon.

The King John's Oak

This oak is an ancient landmark at Little Langley, near the Radio Mast; it is reputed to have been a historical meeting point for locals and hunters for several hundred years. It is usually called "King John's Oak", presumably after the nearby "King John's Palace", but in the 19th century permutations of Leafield was referred to as "the Gospel Oak in Purfield Corner". More than one oak has stood on this site. The 1844 perambulation refer to the oak as having been newly planted; this tree still survived in 1960, but was by the late 1990s just a decaying, but still magnificent, stump. A new oak was planted in 1999 by the Fieldtown Millennium Tree Planting Project.