Steventon

church of st. nicholas

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Photo: St. Nicholas' Church, Steventon, Hampshire

                                                                                                                                                     Photo: St. Nicholas' Church, Steventon, Hampshire

Apart from some decorative details, the structure of the church remains very similar today as it did when Mr Austen was the rector. 

British History Online has lots of information about the history of Steventon. If you would like to read more, click here.

Photos: St. Nicholas' Church, Steventon, Hampshire

Mrs Austen's niece, Jane Cooper, married Captain Thomas Williams here in December 1792. The service was taken by the young curate, Tom Fowle, and it is believed to be around this time that he became engaged to Cassandra Austen.

James Austen's first wife, Anne, was buried here by Mr Austen on 11th May 1795. A record in the Parish Register states that she was 'Buried in the Chancel (in a Brick'd Grave close to the South Wall).' There is a monument to her memory inside the church.

Mr Austen served here for 37 years until the spring of 1801 when he retired to live in Bath. He still retained the living in his name until he died, but when he retired James Austen took over the daily tasks as resident curate.

This church will continue to play a prominent role in the sequels to The Austens of Steventon, and more information will be available on those websites.

                                                     Photos: Ancient yew tree outside St. Nicholas Church, Steventon, Hampshire.

steventon rectory

Photos: Former site of Steventon Rectory, Steventon, Hampshire.

The rectory where the Austen family lived is no longer there, but the site of it is known to be on the corner where Steventon Road meets the lane leading up to the church.

Click here for the location on Google Maps.

Five children were born to Mr and Mrs Austen during the time they lived there between 1768 and 1801. They were:

• Henry Thomas  - 8th June 1771
• Cassandra Elizabeth - January 9th 1773
• Francis William - 23rd April 1774
• Jane - December 16th 1775
• Charles John - June 23rd 1779

The rectory also became a boarding school between 1773 and 1795, with Mr Austen as the schoolmaster. Around 15 boys attended over the years, in addition to the Austen boys who already lived there. 

When Mr and Mrs Austen moved to Bath in 1801 along with Cassandra and Jane, James Austen moved into Steventon Rectory with his wife, Mary, and their two young children, Anna and James Edward. 

Most of the household goods (including books, furniture, a piano, a globe etc.) were auctioned off on Tuesday 5th May 1801. The contents of the farm (including livestock, wagons, ploughs etc.) were auctioned off on Friday September 18th. You can read the notices which list the contents of the auction in the Jane Austen Collected Reports 1986-1995, available online from the Jane Austen Society. The relevant pages for the auctions are here.

Author, Linda Robinson Walker, wrote an excellent article for the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) in 2005 about Steventon Rectory. It contains meticulously researched information about what the house and grounds would have looked like, and evidence of the numbers of people who lived there during the years that the Austen family were in residence, including the names of all of the students from Mr Austen's schoolroom. To read the article, click here.

The lanes around the rectory and the church at the time of the novel would not be too dissimilar to how  they look today.

Photo: Former site of Steventon Rectory & its adjoining lane, Steventon, Hampshire

An archaeological project began taking surveys of the site in 2007 to  gather information about the house that stood on the site, and a Community Voluntary Project in 2011-2012 uncovered foundations, and objects made from metal, pottery and glass. A BBC News article was written about the project for the Hampshire & Isle of Wight region on 26th December 2012.  To read the article, click here.

THE WHEATSHEAF INN

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Photos: The Wheatsheaf, North Waltham, Hampshire.

The Wheatsheaf Inn was a coaching inn and a stopping place for travellers en-route from Basingstoke to Salisbury. Here, the horses would have been changed and refreshments served. The Austen family would have used this as one of their public transport stops. 

It also served as a post house where the Steventon villagers sent letters and collected their post, carried by mail coaches along the route.

Today, the building is a modern restaurant, but remains a Grade II Listed Building and still has many 18th century features.

The website for The Wheatsheaf can be accessed here.

On August 8th 1792, Jane and Edward Cooper along with their father and some family friends, stopped off at The Wheatsheaf Inn on their way back to Sonning from a holiday on the Isle of Wight. Jane Cooper had just become engaged to Captain Thomas Williams of the navy, and some members of the Austen family breakfasted with the travellers at the Wheatsheaf Inn as they broke their journey.

It was the last time that the Austens saw the Reverend Cooper as he died three weeks later. 

Steventon extract

If you would like to read an extract from The Austens of Steventon, where the events take place in Steventon, click here.