STEVENTON
Stivetune (xi cent.); Stivintona (xii cent.); Stiventon, Stiveton, Stivington, Stivelton (xiii cent.);
Stubyngton (xiv cent.); Stevynton, Stephyngton
(xv cent.); Stepington (xvii cent.).
Steventon is situated 3½ miles south-south-west
from Oakley station on the Salisbury and Exeter line
of the London and South Western Railway, and 7
miles south-west from Basingstoke. The parish is on
high ground, rising generally from north to south and
ranging from 343 ft. above the ordnance datum at
Street Farm in the north to 536 ft. above the ordnance datum at Misholt Copse on its south-eastern
borders. St. Nicholas' Church is on the eastern boundary of the parish, and near it is Steventon Manor,
the residence of Mr. Mills, standing in a well-wooded
park of 170 acres and commanding pleasant views of
the surrounding country. Among the woods on this
fine estate is still to be found at a distance of a mile
from the house one which goes by the name of Brocas
Copse, thus preserving the memory of the family
which held the manor so long. The rectory standing
in very pretty and well-wooded grounds of 53 acres is
some distance north of the church. The novelist
Jane Austen lived at Steventon for the first twentyfive years of her life (1775–1800), her father, the Rev.
George Austen, being rector of Steventon for over
forty years, and it was here that she wrote Pride and
Prejudice, 1796–7 and Northanger Abbey, 1798. (fn. 1) The
rectory-house where she lived has been pulled down
for more than fifty years, the present one being
situated about 500 yards distant from where the old
one used to stand. At present no vestige of it remains,
but up to within the last twenty years garden flowers
used to bloom every season in the meadow where it
formerly stood. (fn. 2)
The Salisbury and Exeter line of the London
and South Western Railway traverses the north of
the parish. The area is 2,155 acres, of which
1,066¾ acres are arable land, 426½ acres permanent grass and 271½ acres woods and plantations. (fn. 3)
The soil is clay and gravel and the subsoil chalk.
The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, turnips and
sainfoin. Among place-names in Steventon mentioned
in the 16th century are the following:—Cockley
Land, Why teland, Isvangers, Halefield, Cwenton field, (fn. 4)
The Parsonage Piece, Graunge Haye and Oldberie
Piece. (fn. 5)
Manor
At the time of the Domesday Survey
there were two estates in STEVENTON—one assessed at 3 hides and worth
£4 and the other assessed at half a hide and worth
4s. The former, which had been held of Edward
the Confessor by Elfelm, was the property of Alsi
Berchenistre, while the owner of the latter was
Godwine the Falconer, who had remained in possession for over twenty years. (fn. 6) The two estates subsequently coalesced, the owner of Steventon in 1167
being a certain Geoffrey, (fn. 7) possibly father of the
Geoffrey de Luvers (fn. 8) who in 1231 was summoned to
show by what warrant he held the manor of Steventon,
which was alleged to be the escheat of the king of the
lands of the Normans. (fn. 9) He apparently failed to make
good his claim, as two years later Henry III granted
the land which had belonged to Geoffrey de Luvers
in Steventon to Geoffrey des Roches to support him
in the king's service during the king's pleasure. (fn. 10) In
1234 Geoffrey des Roches obtained licence to lease
the demesnes of his land in Steventon to the men of
that vill or others at métayage or at farm as he preferred, (fn. 11) but in the same year the heirs of Geoffrey de
Luvers—his sister Annora wife of Hugh de Wengham
and his nephew Philip de Sandervill—paid the king a
fine of £80 and recovered possession of the manor. (fn. 12)
In 1249 Steventon was held jointly by Manser de
Sandervill, probably son and heir of Philip de
Sandervill, and Hugh de Wengham, the son and
successor of Hugh and Annora. (fn. 13) The following
year Hugh de Wengham guaranteed that after his
death his property in Well in
Long Sutton and Steventon
should descend to his son
Geoffrey, and promised that
in the meantime he would
provide sufficient food and
clothing for him and his
children and Egelina his wife. (fn. 14)
Manser de Sandervill apparently sold his moiety of the
estate to Martin des Roches,
son and heir of Geoffrey des
Roches, (fn. 15) who purchased the
other moiety from Geoffrey and Egelina in 1260,
at the same time promising that as long as Geoffrey
and Egelina lived they might take yearly by view of
his forester twelve cartloads of wood in his wood of
Sterenton. (fn. 16) In 1275 Martin des Roches was holding
Steventon of the king in chief for 2½ hides of land, (fn. 17)
and two years later he died seised of a messuage and
2 carucates of land in Steventon, leaving as his heir
his brother Hugh. (fn. 18) In 1285 Hugh granted the
reversion of the manor on the death of Lucy widow
of Martin to his son John, (fn. 19) who shortly before his
death in 1312 settled Steventon in tail upon his
son and namesake. (fn. 20) In 1337 the latter settled the
manor upon himself and his wife Joan in tail-male
with contingent remainder in fee-tail successively to
his daughters Mary the wife of John de Boarhunt and
Alice the wife of Henry Romyn, (fn. 21) and he had died
before 1346, in which year his relict Joan was stated
to be holding half a fee in Steventon. (fn. 22) On the death
of Joan in 1361 Steventon Manor passed in accordance with the settlement of 1337 to her daughter
Mary, by this time a widow, (fn. 23) who brought it into
the Brocas family by her marriage with Sir Bernard
Brocas the same year. (fn. 24) From this date Steventon
followed the same descent as the manor of Beaurepaire
in the parish of Sherborne St. John (fn. 25) (q.v.) until
about 1584, (fn. 26) when, on the coming of age of Sir
Pexall Brocas, there seems to have been some arrangement made whereby Lady Eleanor gave up the twelfth
part of the manor which she and her husband Sir
John Savage had purchased from John and Elizabeth
Jobson (fn. 27) in return for a life interest in Beaurepaire. (fn. 28)
Sir Pexall also apparently bought up Oliver and
Margery Beckett's twelfth part, for he did fealty for
the whole manor of Steventon at the view of frankpledge held at Basingstoke on 14 January 1587, (fn. 29) and
he lived, or rather was supposed to live, at Steventon—for he really resided chiefly in London—until he
passed it over to his son and heir Thomas Brocas and
shifted his country quarters to Little Brickhill. (fn. 30) Thomas
Brocas mortgaged Steventon to Sir Thomas Jervoise
of Herriard (co. Hants) and Sir Henry Browne of
Writtle (co. Essex) in 1622, (fn. 31) and three years later
conveyed the manor to Thomas Coteel of London. (fn. 32)
Of this Thomas very little is known. At this date
there were two Thomas Coteels living—father and
son—London merchants of Dutch extraction—but
the purchaser of Steventon was most probably the son,
for he was high sheriff of Hampshire in 1630. (fn. 33) In
1626 Thomas, as lord of Steventon, made a loan of
£20 to Charles I. (fn. 34) He was residing at Steventon
in 1631, (fn. 35) and held a court there in 1632, (fn. 36) but the
following year reconveyed the manor to Thomas
Brocas, who in 1635 mortgaged it to Sir John Baker
and Richard Parkhurst, trustees of George Mynne,
lord of the manor of Epsom (co. Surr.). (fn. 37) George
Mynne died in 1648, and in the following year his
widow Anne finally purchased the manor from
Thomas Brocas. (fn. 38) George Mynne, the only son of
George and Anne, died without issue in 1651, and
thereupon Steventon passed to his sisters and co-heirs
Anne and Elizabeth, (fn. 39) the former of whom married
(1) Sir John Lewkenor, K.B. of West Dean (co. Suss.)
and (2) Sir William Morley of Halnaker (co. Suss.),
while the latter became the wife of Richard Evelyn
of Woodcote in the parish of Epsom, younger brother
of the author, John Evelyn. (fn. 40) On the death of
Elizabeth Evelyn without surviving issue in 1692 (fn. 41)
her moiety of the manor passed to her sister Anne,
who died in 1704 and was succeeded by her son John
Lewkenor of West Dean, M.P. for Midhurst in 1661
and 1681 to 1705, and knight of the shire in 1679. (fn. 42)
John dying without issue in 1706 bequeathed
Steventon to William Knight (heretofore called
William Woodward) and Elizabeth his wife. William
died in 1721 and four years later his widow Elizabeth
re-married Bulstrode Peachey, who assumed the name
of Knight. (fn. 43) Elizabeth by will left the manor to her
second cousin Thomas May of Godmersham (co.
Kent), (fn. 44) who changed his name to Knight on succeeding to the estate in 1738. (fn. 45) He died in 1781 and
was followed by his son Thomas Knight, who died
without issue in 1794, leaving his estates to his kinsman Edward Austen, the second son of the Rev.
George Austen, rector of Steventon, (fn. 46) who changed
his name to Knight in 1812. (fn. 47) From this date the
manor remained in the Knight family until January
1855, when Edward Knight son of the last-named
Edward sold it to Arthur Richard second Duke of
Wellington. (fn. 48) From the latter it passed by sale in
1877 to Mr. Henry Harris, on whose death in 1898
it passed to his widow, Mrs. Harris, for her life and
then to her son Henry, who this year (1910) sold it
to Mr. Robert Mills. (fn. 49)
Roches. Sable two leopards argent.
Steventon Manor House is a good red brick building by Waterhouse; the old hall, which Sir Richard
Pexall was engaged in rebuilding when he died—a
pretty flint and stone building with mullioned
windows—stands to the south-west, and is now used
as a stable. It contains no old fittings except a single
fireplace now in the harness-room, but has at the north
end a projecting two-story bay with large mullioned
windows, and on the east side a small porch running
up the full height; in its outer archway are spandrels containing blank shields. To the south is a part
of the garden known as the nuns' walk, and in a
fernery here are several fragments of 12th and 13th-century masonry found on the spot, while in the
stable-yard is a large respond capital of c. 1130. In
the wall of an outbuilding of the new house is part
of a large cross shaft with interlacing patterns, probably of 10th-century date, also dug up here.
Church
The church of ST. NICHOLAS
consists of a chancel 20 ft. 1 in.
by 15 ft. 5 in. inside and a nave
44 ft. 3 in. by 20 ft. 2 in. with a small inclosed west
tower.
The church has been little altered since its first
building, c. 1200, and is a very interesting building,
the stone being of excellent quality, and chiefly from
Binstead in the Isle of Wight. The ashlar angle
quoins of the nave are two and sometimes three stones
wide, and show the original tooling. An unusual
feature is the inclosed tower (little more than a bell
turret) which stands partly on the west wall of the
nave and partly on an inner wall pierced with three
arches. These make a balance to the chancel arch
and its flanking arched recesses for nave altars, but are
of more equal spans. The chancel is slightly wider
at the east end than the west, and its north and south
walls are set with a regular outward inclination; the
stone is inferior to that used in the nave, and has
been retooled at a late date. The east wall and
possibly both side walls have been rebuilt. The east
window is a partly restored insertion of the 15th
century of three cinquefoiled lights under a traceried
two-centred head with a moulded label outside. In
each side wall are two small lancet windows, chamfered
and rebated outside and splayed inside. There is
apparently a piscina in the south wall, but it has been
covered by the plasterwork.
Plan of St. Nicholas' Church, Steventon
The chancel arch is original but partly of modern
repair; its jambs are slightly chamfered and have
chamfered abaci; the arch is two-centred and
chamfered. The two arched recesses flanking the
chancel arch are similar in detail but narrower and
have no abaci at the springing. They are 10 in. deep
and that on the south shows many traces of ancient
colour decoration where the modern plaster has been
broken away. On the jambs is a running pattern in
red of 13th-century date, and on the back of the
recess an arcade of five arches, that in the middle
wider than the others, with a figure standing under
each. The principal figure is that of a deacon,
St. Laurence or St. Stephen, but the others are too
faded or covered by plaster to be identified.
The nave is lighted by three windows on each side,
the middle ones being original lancets; that on the
south has a round head, but seems to have been
altered. The other windows are square-headed, of
two cinquefoiled lights, the eastern pair being 16th-century work and the western pair modern copies of
them. There were probably north and south doorways where the modern windows now are, and the
present west doorway has a sundial cut in its south
jamb and was doubtless once in the south wall of the
nave.
The wall below the window is recessed and contains
the remains of a pointed piscina. The
arcade of three bays across the west end,
already mentioned, resembles in detail
that at the east end of the nave; the
two outer arches are now closed up by
thin modern walls, and in the middle
one is a modern doorway and partition.
From the two piers cross walls run to
the west wall of the nave, pierced at the
ground level by chamfered pointed
arches, and above by similar rebated
arches; the space closed in on the north
side is used as a store and also to take
the ladder to the bells; the other inclosure on the south serves as a vestry.
The west (and only) entrance to the church has jambs
and two-centred arch of two chamfered orders with
moulded abaci and label; it is clearly an insertion, and
its head cuts into the sill of an original lancet window,
now blocked and only visible from the inside. Above
it is a modern lancet, and on either side modern twolight windows; they are partly blocked inside by the
springing of the pointed barrel vaults which form the
ceiling of the side chambers; the bell turret stands
above the nave roof and is lighted by modern lancet
windows; the parapet is embattled, and from inside
it rises an octagonal slated spire. The walls of the
nave and tower are all cemented like those of the
chancel.
The chancel has a modern plaster vault with wood
ribs, and the nave has a plastered collar-beam ceiling
with open trusses, and the beams cased in modern
boarding.
In the south-east corner of the nave is a 17th-century pew with high sides, the upper part with very
well-designed open tracery; it is of very light
construction, the tracery cut out of thin oak boards.
The font is a white marble one of 1868 and the other
furniture is also modern.
There is an ancient yew tree in the churchyard to
the north-west of the church.
There are three bells; the treble has no mark or
inscription, the second is by Henry Knight, 1670,
and the third is mediaeval, but bears only the stamp
of the lion's face, groat and floral pattern found on
the bells of Roger Landon.
The plate consists of a silver chalice and paten
cover of 1663, a paten of 1722 and a flagon of 1867
given by William F. Digweed in that year.
There are three books of registers, the first
containing baptisms, burials and marriages from
1604 to 1725; the second contains baptisms and burials
from 1738 to 1812 and marriages from 1738 to 1753;
the third contains marriages from 1753 to 1812.
Advowson
The first mention of a church at
Steventon is in 1238, in which year
it was arranged that Hugh de Wengham and Annora his wife should present a clerk, and
that on his death Philip de Sandervill or his heirs
should present a clerk, and so on de clerico in clericum, (fn. 50)
Hugh and Annora, and Philip, and the heirs of
Annora and Philip presenting in alternate turns.
The advowson of the church followed the descent of
the manor until about 1860, (fn. 51) when Arthur Richard
second Duke of Wellington sold it to the Rev. Gilbert
Alder, rector of Hurstbourne Tarrant. He gave it in
1868 to his son the Rev. Herbert Alder, who was
rector of Steventon from 1875 to 1889. (fn. 52) The Rev.
Edward Alder purchased the advowson from his
brother in 1888, and was rector from 1889 until
his death in 1901, when he left it by will to his
widow Mrs. Alder, of Amoril House, Batheaston,
Somerset, who is the present patron. (fn. 53)
The Elementary School, with accommodation for
sixty children, and a teacher's residence were erected
in 1895 at a cost of £1,200.
Charities
William Henry Digweed by his
will proved at London on 22 July
1881 bequeathed to the rector and
churchwardens the sum of £100 upon trust to apply
the income for the benefit of the poor. This sum
was invested in the purchase of £99 2s. 8d. consols in
the name of the official trustees, producing yearly
£2 9s. 4d., which is applied in the distribution of coal.