A Visit to Steventon: Jane Austen’s Childhood and EarlyLife
February 24, 2024 by Vic
Inquiring readers,
Since 2007, this blog has published a number of posts regarding Steventon, the village where Jane Austen and her parents and siblings lived until the parents and sisters moved to Bath in 1801. Austen was 26 years old. It is said that upon hearing of her parents’ plans to leave Steventon, she fainted.
Well, girls, it is all settled. We have decided to leave Steventon and to go to Bath.’ To Jane, who had been from home and who had not heard much before about the matter, it was such a shock that she fainted away . . . . Constance Hill, Chapter IX, Leaving Steventon
The probable truth was that she was deeply unhappy to move from a community and friends and family she knew so well, and where her writing skills had flourished. Her creativity blossomed in Steventon, while her life in Bath resulted in a writing desert, where her projects were not completed – until she moved in 1809 to Chawton Cottage.
Regardless of her difficulties in Bath, this post is about her life in Steventon, where Austen grew up. Contributors Brenda Cox, Rachel Dodge, and Tony Grant published their outstanding (copyrighted) images in these posts!
Steventon Village
A Drive Through Steventon to St. Nicholas Church
Sadly, my five visits to England focused on London, Bath, Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, Brighton and the South Downs, Warwickshire, Eton, Oxford, Windsor, etc. I missed Austen’s villages of Steventon and Chawton by a smidge. Thank goodness that I could take the road to St. Nicholas Church via Google street view.
St. Nicholas, Steventon
Jane Austen’s Family Churches: St. Nicholas’, Steventon
This past summer, Brenda Cox, after an extensive trip to England, wrote a series of posts regarding the churches in Austen’s world. Cox’s original photos and historical information are unique to this blog and provide us with a fabulous way to view these beautiful buildings and their history.
Steventon Rectory:
Steventon Rectory: Jane Austen’s Childhood Home
This was the first post I published in 2007 regarding Steventon Rectory. During that time I was a Jane Austen groupie and knew very little about her life. In the article, I focused on pattens, shoes with which I was not familiar. Good news: After all these years in this old post, the links still work! Looking back, the one negative comment still gives me the shivers, for I had no idea at that time how to title a post! The reader came looking for substance and got clattering pattens instead!
The image below of the remaining remnant of the Steventon Rectory (a pump) was drawn by Ellen G. Hill, whose sister, Constance wrote a book now in the public domain: Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends by Constance Hill, 1901. See the link at the bottom of this post. Like me in 2007, Ellen and Constance were Austen fans. They visited the sites three quarters of a century after Austen died. In a some instances, they talked to a few aging villagers who recalled those who knew Cassandra Austen in her old age (dod 1845) and related some first-hand minutiae about her.
Ellen Hill’s sketch of the pump on the site where the rectory stood.
The Garden:
Steventon Rectory Garden: Imagining the Landscape of Jane Austen’s Youth
Rachel Dodge, another outstanding writer for this blog, wrote a post about her visit to Steventon, Chawton, and the Austens’ self-sufficient gardens. Her photographs, as Brenda’s and Tony’s, are outstanding. This blog is blessed to have these contributors!
The Rectory:
Servants in Jane Austen’s Houses
This post leads to an article that details the life of the Austen family in Steventon Rectory. It refers to Linda Robinson Walker’s 2005 Persuasions-Online article entitled Why Was Jane Austen Sent away to School at Seven: An Empirical Look at a Vexing Question. Ms Walker describes the Austen parents’ incentive to provide sufficiently for themselves and six children, which was not enough on Rev Austen’s two livings. The parents’ hard work to oversee a boy’s boarding school allowed the family to live a life of some comfort. Walker’s information regarding their daily lives and the costs for maintaining the boarding school and hire the servants is quite insightful.
Last but not least:
Steventon and Barton Cottage by Tony Grant
Tony Grant, a contributor to this blog since 2010, wrote this post and supplied his photographs to demonstrate the relationship between cottages in Steventon and Barton Cottage in Sense and Sensibility. His articles are always intriguing and informative, for he acted as a guide in Jane Austen tours in his native England for many years.
More on the topic:
This online, public domain book, published in 1901 and referenced in this blog post, was my initial introduction to a first-hand Jane Austen fan account of her life. Enjoy the read! Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends By Constance Hill
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