Steventon, the birthplace of Jane Austen, is a quiet village lying south of the B3400 six miles west of Basingstoke. The main village, mostly of 19c houses, straddles the lane south from the railway embankment, with the Norman church and Victorian manor house on the hill half-a-mile to the south-east. Four farms are dispersed across the 2000 acre parish.
Though the parish today forms a regular strip one mile wide running from the B3400 south for 3½ miles to the A303, before the 1950s this had a 300 acre bite from it to the northwest as Ashe Park and Ashe Park Copse were in the Parish of Ashe. Even before the arrival of the railway, this cut Cheesedown Farm off from the rest of the parish (Map_1). Apart from the inclusion of Ashe Park, there have been only minor changes to the parish boundaries: the addition of the manor’s Victorian Garden into Steventon from North Waltham parish and the southern extension to the A303 (Map_2). Run from the manor, the 2000 acre estate has roughly matched the parish, certainly from Thomas Knight’s time until its break-up in 1989.
The parish of Steventon seems to follow the typical Saxon pattern of a strip running up from a river valley. The valley at the north is normally dry, though months of heavy rain can move the River Test westwards from its source at GR531499. At the Deane Gate (GR 544500) the land is below 100m, from where the road south follows the bottom of a wide valley some 25m deep for a mile to the railway arch. Here road and valley bifurcate, the main valley turning east to where the old village lay before 1820 and then south-west towards North Waltham, while the road south gently climbs to 121m at Hatch Gate (GR 541470) and the downlands at above 160m at its south-western extremity. This high point is marked by Popham Beacons, a row of Bronze Age tumuli adjacent to the parish boundary, and now by Popham Airfield. The parish boundary has been adjusted to run along the A303, a dual-carriageway road from the M3 from London to the South-west.
Mostly chalk upland, Steventon was traditionally sheep-and-wheat country with lusher valley bottoms offering more intensive farming and settlement, while the more exposed, higher land to the south was either less intensively farmed or wooded for coppicing and game.
Steventon’s northern boundary is the B3400, a turnpike road from mid 18c, then with regular mail and stagecoach traffic and now with half-hourly Stagecoach buses and heavy commuter traffic between Overton/Whitchurch and Basingstoke, the largest town with over 100 000 inhabitants. The service road south narrows as it passes under Steventon Arch, and crosses Hatch Gate to Steventon Warren, after which the narrow lane joins Burley Lane from Ashe to form the border between the two parishes before reaching the old A30. Now upgraded into the A303, this forms a barrier to the south, with no access from the westward side. The airfield here is mainly for light aircraft flown for pleasure (more of the flyers than the residents).
Waltham Lane, which crosses at Hatch Gate, links Overton and North Waltham. This is reputed to be part of an Early Bronze Age drove road linking the Ridgeway to the Hogsback and Dover. Jane Austen would have known this lane for she described the mud gathered when walking to check her mail* at the Wheatsheaf Inn on the A30. The long-distance Wayfarer’s Walk is more modern, like the cycle trail along Waltham Lane (Map_3).
The railway isolates the Cheesedown part of the parish. Built in 1839 as the final section of the London-Southampton line, the huge embankment provided the gentle gradients required by the feeble locomotives of that early period. No station was ever built, though a siding was added to the Up side in Northdown Plantation (GR 532472) between the World Wars, probably to rebuild and supply Steventon Manor*.
Carriers linked the villagers with Basingstoke, usually through North Waltham, in the later 19c, the last surviving until 1965*. A few buses start from the Triangle passing through North Waltham and Dummer en route to Basingstoke. While children have used school buses to reach North Waltham Primary School and Basingstoke secondary schools and colleges since 1964, almost all villagers have cars, half the households having two or more. Apart from the mobile shop, internet and other delivery services, villagers have to travel, to North Waltham or Overton for everyday goods and services and to Basingstoke for a wider range, since the shop and post office closed in 1978.
A Roman farmstead, ¼ of a mile SE of the manor house, the ancient yew tree and the rediscovered Saxon cross-shaft point to continuous occupation of the hill-top site of the Norman church and manor. Finds through the ages from Roman times have been recovered from ‘Jane Austen’s Field’ where the old rectory stood (GR 550480)* and Roman pottery from the old school site (GR 543484)*. However, there is no unequivocal evidence of settlement here before 1086, when there were two estates, the larger owned by Alfsi Berchinistre and the smaller by Godwin the falconer*. The parish name is Old English (*Richard Coates Hampshire Placenames 1993), probably meaning ‘a farm at the place of grubbed-up trees’.
The population has always been small (*Richard Tanner Steventon – Jane Austen’s Birthplace 2008). From 1600 to 1750, there were fewer than 100 residents occupying some 20 houses. Increasing survival rates allowed the population to double over the next century, putting pressure on the limited housing. Mainly due to flooding, the village moved from the valley leading eastwards onto the lane heading south, while both the manor house and the rectory expanded. Population peaked at nearly 300 under Henry Harris’s development in the late 19c, since when it’s halved, with the 60 or so households each having an average of about 2½ people.
The village nucleates south of the Arch and becomes linear along the west side of the lane to Hatch Gate. Most of the houses date from 1780 to 1880, the earlier ones being near the Triangle and the later being the railway cottages at Stonehills. This linear set includes the group of council houses from the 1950s, four bungalows and six semis, while the rest are mixed ages and styles [map4 on P23 of Richard Tanner’s Steventon – Jane Austen’s Birthplace]. Bassetts Farm lies in the middle of this line beside a cottage from c1700. The other farmhouses are dispersed on their farmlands, Cheesedown, sold off as its owner farms from Oakley, South Warren Farm and Stoken Farm, one of the very few houses built since the 1950s.
The manor has a complex history (*see Richard Tanner, op. cit.) comprising: a Norman manor house and outbuildings, later downgraded to farm buildings which were burnt, its site now marked with humps and bumps; a Tudor manor house wing extended 350 years later only to be requisitioned in WWII, vandalised thereafter and demolished in 1970; and a Victorian manor that suffered a disastrous fire in 1932, after which most fell derelict, only a minor part having been restored into today’s manor house. The Victorian Garden has also been restored, enhanced by a Georgian orangery style house.
Other clusters are around Ashe Park Cottages, once the later 19c farm workers’ cottages of the Ashe Park estate, Cheesedown Farm, where farm buildings have been converted in fine homes, and Deane Gate, most of which is now lies in the parish of Deane (See Map_2).
Still rural, Steventon was managed by and for its estate holder. This could be a tenant family like the Digweeds (1758-1877) or an owner-occupier like Henry Harris (1877-1898). Though the latter appears to have sold Cheesedown to fund his improvements, this was bought back by a later owner since when, though cottages were sold off as demand for labour decreased, the estate remained intact until 1989 when it was split up. Now, a handful of farmers and workers manage the four farms, and the village consists mainly of business and professional people who commute, work from home or are retired.
The earliest record comes from Domesday Book. In 1086, there were two estates, one owned by Alfsi Berchinistre with land for 5 ploughs, assessed at 3 hides and worth £4, the other by Godwin the Falconer at half a hide and worth 4s; these coalesced in the 12th century (*Hampshire VCH 1910, p171). Ownership of the estate is traced through the Norman period to the Brocas family (1337-1649) who replaced the Norman manor house with the Tudor wing in 1571. Purchased by Anne Mynne, the estate passed through her family until 1706 when it was bequeathed to William Woodward and Elizabeth his wife, who willed it to Thomas May of Godmersham (1738). He, like his distant nephew Edward Austen, brother of Jane, had to change his surname to Knight after inheriting Steventon along with Godmersham and Chawton in 1794. [*Deirdre Le Faye has a more detailed though unreferenced account in Jane Austen’s Steventon, 2007].
References to there being “more glebe among the Lord of the Manor’s land in former times” (*1696 Terrier: HRO 21M65/E15/112) and “½ acre in middle common field” (*1728 Glebe Terrier: HRO 35M48/16/374) suggest that Informal Enclosure was taking place in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Thomas Knight seems to have completed the process when acquiring the estate in 1738. Dr Nicholl’s farm, assessed for purchase about that time, has 33 acres enclosed and 24 acres common with rights for sheep out of the 133 acre total (*HRO 39M89E/B/559), while a valuation of somewhat earlier date (*ibid.) mentions the Third Farm as having 77 acres in the first common field, 58 acres in the second common field and 100 acres in the third common field out of its total of 392 acres. If this is neither the main farm (with 1067 acres) nor Cheesedown (with 495 acres), it’s likely to be Warren Farm, especially as Hazledown Common is mentioned.
In 1741 Thomas Knight had his steward Edward Randall draw up a set of plans of his estates which included two for Steventon (*HRO 18M61). The first has the central valley area around the former village (S1-12) separated from Cheesedown in the north by Mrs Jones’ land round Ashe Park. The other has Manor Farm (1353 acres) adjoining New Farm (404 acres), the latter perhaps consisting of the Third Farm now enclosed – there are 3 huge 75 acre fields shown - or including Dr Nicholl’s farm. These are leased by John Bassett till 1757/8 when the two Richard Digweeds, father and son, signed an Indenture for an initial 15 years which lasted 120. During this period, Thomas Knight was buying out the copyholders e.g. the Taplins in 1784 (*HRO E/B559/14). [Map]
On Thomas Knight’s death without issue in 1794 (*VCH 1910), Edward Austen inherited the Steventon estate along with several others, and changed his name to Knight in 1812 (*VCH 1910). He enlarged the glebe for his son, William, who acquired the lease for 60 years on Edward’s death in 1855 (*HRO 39M89/E/B36). The move to the new Rectory in 1825 and the raising of the railway embankment in 1840 led to the glebe being relocated and run from Street Farm, most of whose buildings date from the mid 1850s. The 1839 Tithe Survey shows the 2000 acres used for arable 1708, pasture 74, woodland 160 and glebe 50, a pattern preserved to the early 20c, when the area of woodland expanded as shooting became the estate’s prime activity.
In 1854, the estate was sold to the 2nd Duke of Wellington. It was managed in four parts:
When in 1863 WF Digweed died, he asked for his possessions to be converted into cash to be shared five ways between nephew James, niece Marian, niece Ellen, the children of both his niece Frances (William and Francis Osman Holding) and of his nephew Hugh’s son (Hugh Lyford Digweed) (*HRO M249 5M62/6 page 474).
By 1872, the usage of the 2155 acre parish was little changed with 1730 acres arable (80%), 130 acres pasture (mostly small fields), 270 woodland (mostly copses except one 50 acre wood) and 50 for the manor house grounds, plus the glebe. [Coloured 1872 OS Map passed to Jean Morrin, Dec 08].
Shortly afterwards (1877), Henry Harris purchased the estate, the first resident-owner in 400 years, to begin his major development of farmland and village, partly financed by the sale of Cheesedown. John H Fooks from Dorset farmed Cheesedown (Kelly’s 1899). His tenancy with first S. Hallett (1908 Sale details) and then Maj. AWH Beach of Oakley Hall (1913 Valuation, HRO 68M72), was passed onto Charles Fooks (*Kelly’s 1923 p639 – 1939 p540).
The main estate of 1632 acres passed through Mrs Janet Harris on Henry’s death in 1898 to their son Henry who sold to Robert Mills in 1910. The sale brochure shows 131 acres of mansion gardens and park (including 30 in North Waltham around the Victorian garden) let for 1000 guineas pa, 882 acres at Bassett’s Farm, mostly arable with dairy cows, piggeries and cart-horse stabling, let to Walter Cann for £600 pa, 369 acres at Warren Farm, mostly arable with dairy cows, piggeries and sheds, let to F&C Shirvell for £200 pa, and 227 acres of woods retained for shooting.
Advertised as providing as a “Residential & Sporting Estate” providing “some of the finest Shooting in the South of England”, the ascendancy of sport over production is significant. Arable farming had gone into decline following the opening of the Prairies so, despite Henry Harris’s investment in the Steventon estate, shooting was becoming more important than grain production. Patches of woodland increased and the gamekeeper acquired a team.
Robert Mills, the new owner, added Litchfield Grange with its 306 acre stud farm, of which only 64 acres lay in Steventon with the rest in Ashe parish, to the estate*. He let the 1400 acres at Bassett’s and Warren Farms (800 arable and 500 pasture) to FW Bloomfield for £800pa and doubled the area of woodland to 400 acres by the time of his sale to the Onslow Fanes in 1926. (The 6” Map identifies arable, grazing and woodlands.) Percy Mortimer of Ashe Park still owned most of the land north of the railway line and Street Farm served the glebe.
With the death of William Knight, the Rev Herbert Alder held the glebe’s 56 acres, his father Rev Gilbert Alder having bought the advowson from the Duke of Wellington in 1860 (*VCH 1910, p174). Herbert’s brother Edward bought it in 1888 and was rector till 1901, after which his widow held the title. The Rev Steedman followed until 1930 when Steventon was united with North Waltham and the glebe and rectory sold (*HRO 68M72/DDZ14). Lot 1 was the Rectory and Grounds of 20 acres and Lot 2 the 32 acres of pasture opposite recommended for development, including Street Farm with its cowshed, stable, piggeries and poultry house. George Stone, a former manor bailiff who had been farming Street Farm in 1913 (*HRO 68M72) was succeeded by John Heal (*Kelly’s 1927 p615 and 1931 p540).
In 1936, the estate was sold again, this time to the Hutton Crofts. 1913 acres with 39 cottages were sold by John D Wood, but Jack Onslow Fane auctioned his pedigree Shorthorns and pigs separately*. During WWII, the manor house and grounds were requisitioned and attempts to sell the 2180 acre estate in mid 1944 for £70 000, said to be what Mrs Hutton-Croft paid for it in 1936, failed*. Records show the rental income in 1945:
Correspondence with Capt Woolley, a prospective purchaser, and Ellis Jones, who leased the buildings for Hilsea College, show Bruce Durham, the agent from Herriard Estate, acting for Capt Hutton Croft (*HRO 51M76/P/5/51). The 1930s ‘Tudor’ manor house fell into decay and was demolished in 1970 (*see Richard Tanner, op.cit.).
According to a knowledgeable local resident, the executors of Mrs Vera Hutton Croft, who died 3 Mar 1967, sold the estate to Angus Mackinnon. When his son Andrew married Janie Lockett in 1972, the estate was split between the two sons, Andrew getting Steventon and Robert Litchfield and Warren farms. Sold in 1976 to the Prudential Assurance Company, Andrew got it back in 1987 to sell on behalf of Mr and Mrs Mackinnon, Robert and himself, mainly to developer Charles Church, with smaller areas going to farmers Colin Baylis and Joseph Bown, and plots to Julian Pilcher et al. When Charles Church died crashing his Spitfire in 1989, the estate was partitioned and sold in freehold lots to the tenants of Bassetts and Warren farms.
Houses had been sold off as the estate was split up: 4 or 5 ‘Attractive Period Cottages’, now called Meadowside, Jasmine and Elm Tree Cottages, were sold at auction in November 1969 by Messrs James Harris & Son, Winchester, Yew Tree Cottage in1974, Quintans in 1976, Kelmscott 1983 and Steventon House, William Knight’s rectory, in1987, leaving only the 17c semis at Bassetts as tied cottages, needed for the workers milking the dairy herd.
Cheesedown Farm was bought by Ernest and Dorothy Hine in 1946, mainly to grow cereal, and inherited by their son Fred who retired in 1985, selling to Michael Small who farms from Oakley (*Southern Evening Echo, 1st April 1985). The farm buildings were sold off to be converted into desirable properties.
Today, Steventon Parish is divided into 4 freehold farms. To the north of the railway line is Cheesedown with 350 acres which has been separate from the Estate for over 110 years. Stoken Farm’s 300 acres lie south of the railway line, then Bassetts’ 400 acre dairy farm lies in the centre, with Warren Farm occupying the high ground up to the A303.
Until the later 20th century, Steventon’s inhabitants depended on agriculture. From time immemorial, this had been managed from the manor. The northern part of the parish, cut off by the heavily embanked railway line and Ashe Park, had become detached by 1900 (*Note: George Austen rented this as a separate unit in late 18c), but the bulk of the estate remained intact until 1987. The limited rural trades and crafts practised both by the manor and in the village died out during the 20th century, to be replaced by small scale activities based in former farm buildings. Farming remains important, though most people commute to Basingstoke, Newbury or London, or work from home.
Steventon is a Saxon strip parish running 3½ mile from the Test Valley in the north to the chalk uplands in the south but barely 1 mile wide. The valley bottom produced the best land, lush grazing for fattening stock and provision of hay for winter feed. A tributary valley in the middle of the parish provided richer pasture for the village, but being subject to flooding, this was abandoned between 1780 and 1820. The poorer, lighter soils of the downland supported sheep at lower densities, which were folded at night on fallow arable fields to “put them in heart” (*Robert Clark and Gerry Dutton, Jane Austen in Context, ed. Janet Todd, CUP 2007). Improvement of this land during the Agrarian Revolution to produce cereals produced a major change to Steventon in the 18 and 19th centuries, while the 20th century was marked by an increase in woodland for the hunting and shooting set.
Thomas Knight eventually of leased out the estate at Steventon and Ash (sic) to the Digweeds in 1758 for £308 pa*. It required both the Great Farm and the Little Farm to be properly fallowed, manured and crops rotated. 100 acres of the Great and 40 of the Little Farm were to lie fallow each year and wheat followed by grass or sainfoin to maintain fertility. Sheep were being kept and 12 horses were needed at Great and 5 at Little Farm. Coppicing was allowed on 8 acres pa (Great) and 3 acres (Little), but standards were to be preserved and no oak, ash or beech trees cut as the woodlands were excluded from the lease
The Digweeds began by digging a new pond at Bassett’s, where they had a wheat barn (£32)*, barley barn (£80), fodder-house and cart-house (£50) barn; later they built a threshing mill powered by 4 horses (*Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen’s Steventon, 2007 p11). These supplemented the Norman buildings at Manor Farm, comprising the Long Barn (£96), an oat barn (£120), two stables(£50), the dog kennel (£50), a granary (£50) and “the well-house … with its great wheel worked by a donkey” (p12) [* Values taken from the Royal Exchange Fire Policy 146258 of 1794 (HRO 18M61/ Tin BoxC/Bundle7), confirming the importance of arable farming - wheat, barley, oats and fodder crops – with sheep.]
Production was quantified in the Defence of the Realm Act survey of 1798* when, in preparation for the expected Napoleonic blockade and invasion, Steventon had 380 quarters of wheat, 250 of oats, 200 barley, 50 vetches, 220 loads of hay and 10 of straw, 34 draft horses and the threshing machine. Sheep were important still, with 1100 recorded, but the 5 cows and 64 pigs were for domestic use (*Deirdre Le Faye, op. cit. p42). The 1801 Report confirms the arable statistics showing Steventon with 267 acres wheat, 250 barley, 250 oats, 60 turnips or rape, 28 rye, 12 peas and 1½ potatoes (*Deirdre Le Faye op. cit. p43).
The Digweeds continued the tenancy, Hugh willing his messuages to his sons Harry and William in 1798 and Harry leasing his share to brother William Francis in 1811 (*HRO 18M61 Box EK2 Bundle 17). WF Digweed was to continue farming the main estate until his death in 1863.
In the last quarter of the 19c, Rev. George Austen leased Cheesedown’s 170 acres using John Bond as his bailiff (Jane Austen Letters 8 Jan 1801). He would certainly have been keen on farm improvements not only to increase profits from his own activities but also from his tithes (*discussed in Clark and Dutton, op. cit.). Cheesedown remained separate, with the lease passing to Mr Holder who kept John Bond on much to Jane’s relief (*Jane Austen Letters 14 Jan 1801).
Detailed information about early 19c farming can be gleaned from the Knight Collection (*HRO 39M89/E/B238). Cheesedown and Warren farms had been let to Robert Hall who, failing to keep up his payments, was bankrupted. The auction of his goods in 1816 shows the contents of his house and farm, while detailed accounts submitted by Messrs. Graveley and Digweed, appointed to manage the farms in Hall’s absence 1814/5, paint a full picture of farm practices at the end of the Napoleonic era.
The Tithe Survey conducted in 1839 as the London-Southampton railway line was being built across the parish, shows the ownership, tenancy and use of the land. As each field is labelled with crop, farmer and owner, exact farming practice can be seen. Of the 2000 acres, arable covered 1708, woodland 160, pasture 74 and glebe 50 acres.
The survey showed Edward Knight, Rev George Austen’s third son who inherited the estate from Thomas Knight, owning the bulk of Steventon parish except for one field in the north-west held by William Portal and let to Rev St John along with Ashe Park, three little fields west of the Arch belonging to WF Digweed, Edward Knight’s main tenant and a long narrow strip in the south-west owned by John Stephens and let to Jesse Vidler along with Litchfield Grange.
Edward Knight had Cheesedown farmed for him, as his father George had, but this was now cut off by the railway embankment as well as Ashe Park Copse (reincorporated into Steventon parish since 1950). With the removal of the old village from the floodable valley bottom complete, Edward bestowed an enlarged glebe on his son William, rector of Steventon, together with the small fields running north to the railway line. On Edward’s death in 1855, this was leased to William for 60 years (*HRO 39M89/E/B36). Bassett’s or the Great Farm was let to William Francis Digweed and Little Warren Farm in the south to Aaron Gale, except for the woodlands which Edward retained (see Map_4a).
William Knight had some parkland round his new rectory, mostly to the south to look over the valley from which the old rectory and cottages have been removed. On a larger scale, the Digweeds’ parkland covered the approaches to the Tudor manor. Woodland increased under the new owner, the 2nd Duke of Wellington, but the vast bulk of the land remained under the plough. Fields near the railway line had been rationalised since 1839, and others changed a little, but most remained the same from 1839-1872, and indeed since Thomas Knight had his estates mapped in 1741.
The 1847 Post Office Directory shows William Francis Digweed as chief tenant, Rev William Knight as rector with the glebe and two farmers, Abraham Davies and Richard Reed (*HRO, p1217).
The 1851 Census named Charles Littleworth as gamekeeper, the first reference to this activity which was to grow in importance. When in 1854 the Knights sold the estate to the 2nd Duke of Wellington the sale notice (*HRO M57/SP639) showed the estate in 4 lots:
In 1863 WF Digweed died, his possessions being converted into cash and shared five ways between nephew James, niece Marian, niece Ellen, the children of niece Frances (William and Francis Osman Holding) and the son of nephew Hugh (Hugh Lyford Digweed) (*HRO M249 5M62/6 page 474). Rev JJ Digweed took over Manor Farm, employing first Philip Balner as his bailiff (*Kelly’s Directory 1867, p672) and later Denis Taylor of Cheesedown. Rev Gilbert Alder acquired the title of Lord of the Manor (*Kelly’s 1867 p672).
The 1872 6” OS map [coloured and given to Jean Dec08] identified the arable, grazing and woodland areas of the 2155 acre parish, where the main crops were still wheat, barley, oats, turnips and sainfoin (*Kelly’s 1875, p224) and remained so through to 1939 (p540). In 1877, the estate was sold to the corn factor, Henry Harris, the first resident landowner for 240 years. As well as building himself a grand Gothic manor with 130 acres of parkland running down to the abandoned village valley, he set about modernising the estate. Bassett’s was provided with a fine new farmhouse and various brick barns, built to replace the dilapidated Norman buildings in the manor grounds. While the Knights had gradually replaced the tumbledown cottages in the valley bottom with more brick semis along the lane running south, Henry Harris erected better ones nearer Bassett’s. He may have helped pay for these developments by selling off Cheesedown, for by 1899 JH Fooks and his “little colony of Dorset-born workers” (*Deirdre Le Faye op. cit. p49) were there (*Kelly’s 1899 p520). Wheat, barley, oats, turnips and sainfoin continued as the main crops, probably with sheep, managed by bailiffs John Wallis (*Kelly’s 1885 p967), William Mattick (*Kelly’s 1889 p445) and George Stone (*Kelly’s 1895).
The main estate of 1632 acres passed through Mrs Janet Harris on Henry’s death in 1898 to their son Henry who sold to Robert Mills in 1910. The sale brochure shows 131 acres of mansion gardens and park (including 30 in North Waltham around the Victorian garden) let for 1000 guineas pa, 882 acres at Bassett’s Farm, mostly arable with dairy cows, piggeries and cart-horse stabling, let to Walter Cann for £600 pa, 369 acres at Warren Farm, mostly arable with dairy cows, piggeries and sheds which were let to F&C Shirvell for £200 pa and 227 acres of woods retained for shooting.
Robert Mills, the new owner, brought Litchfield Grange with its 306 acre stud farm, of which only 64 acres lay in Steventon with the rest in Ashe parish, into the estate. He let the 1400 acres at Bassett’s and Warren Farms to FW Bloomfield for £800pa and had doubled the area of woodland to 400 acres by the time of his sale to the Onslow Fanes in 1926.
Gilbert Goddard (*Steventon in the 1930s, Hampshire Jan 1995) gave a rich insight into farm life under their bailiff, Henry Henshaw. “Men (women did not work on the estate) worked hard …. from 6.30 in the summer … and finished at five, (when) during haymaking and harvest, women and children would arrive in the field with tea … before the men got back to their toil until darkness fell” (p21/22). Improvements included a tractor for ploughing and a Thornycroft lorry. As well as general duties, the latter “was fitted with special seating to carry the ‘guns’ on shooting days.” (p22) The gamekeeper now had three assistants to look after the pheasants, partridges and hares. Jack Onslow Fane also introduced pedigree animals: Shorthorn cattle, Hampshire Down sheep and Large White pigs (Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen’s Steventon, 2007, p14), which he auctioned at the time of the 1936 sale to the Hutton Crofts.
The manor had now expanded to 2291 acres (*Kelly’s 1939 p540). FJ Ramm was still the head gamekeeper but Henry Henshaw had retired. Capt AG Shirra-Gibb was renting Home Farm, where the main crops were still wheat, barley, oats, turnips and sainfoin. The Hutton Crofts can barely have established themselves in the estate when WWII broke out, and they had to move to William Knight’s rectory as the manor house and grounds were requisitioned.
Farming since WWII (*based much on George Molton’s notes of 1969-95 and Joyce Bown’s memories of early 2009)
Capt Shirra-Gibb passed his tenancy on to a cousin, L. J. Bown. It was a mixed farm, growing wheat and barley for sale, turnips and kale for winter feed, grass for both summer grazing and hay, and lucerne in rotation to enrich the soil.
Tractors had replaced horse power, so heavier machinery could be used – combined drill for seed and fertiliser, threshing machine and binder for the cereals. Later, specialisation occurred; cereals were grown for seed, their higher quality producing higher returns, and newer varieties of maize for indoor feeding of cows (since 1987). Seed corn was dried in the on-site drier, but other cereals were sent to Hampshire Grain, a nearby co-operative set up 30 years ago, for drying and sale.
The dairy herd, British Friesians established by Capt Shirra-Gibb in 1939, is now 70 years old. Out all year, the milking sheds erected by Henry Harris using his two line-ups, were replaced with an Alfa-Laval herringbone parlour in the 1960s. The Friesians were crossed with Holsteins from 1970 to produce more milk for the Milk Marketing Board. They are now kept indoors in the barns built by the ‘Pru’, today’s purchaser being Dairy Crest which supplies Marks and Spencer. The old cooler plant, churns and lorries have given way to larger bulk tanks and modern refrigerated tankers which transfer the high quality milk to Hanworth.
Sheep were kept, supplemented with 200 Romneys brought from Kent to over-winter away from the flooding marshes. Shipped by rail to Oakley Station, they made a sight being driven along the B3400 each autumn. They too would be grazed outside, controlled by electric fences, and the Romneys returned to Kent to fatten in summer. Surplus sheep and cattle would be sold at Basingstoke market until it closed in 1966, and then at Reading, Guildford and Salisbury markets.
L. J. Bown retired in 1976. His son Joseph continued the tenancy, at which time the farm was renamed ‘Bassett’s’ after an earlier tenant. Sheep had become less important, and dairying increased, but in 1984, due to the over-production of milk in the EEC, the government imposed milk quotas. By then, Andrew Mackinnon’s dairy herd at Gravelly Bottom had gone, but Joseph Bown was forced to diversify. Surplus milk was fed to store pigs which were fattened in a cattle barn. Soon afterwards, the outbreak of BSE in 1986 affected many herds, including the one at Steventon.
Though few changes have occurred to the size and location of fields, ‘set-aside’ since 1993 has forced farmers to leave some fields fallow, while environmental subsidies have controlled hedges and nurtured fieldstrips along them for wildlife. Hunting was never very significant, but shooting has been, particularly in the coppiced areas further south.
Machinery reduced the need for manual labour; whereas LJ Bown needed 10 men to run his 900 acre mixed farm, his grandson manages with a third of that number. Tied cottages have been sold off to incomers and the allotments near the Arch have disappeared. The shepherd’s gone the way of the Land Army girls and Italian POWs, and with them the service providers.
The Mackinnons sold the estate in 1987, mainly to Charles Church, a local developer, though the main house and Victorian garden were bought and restored by others. After Charles Church died crashing his Spitfire in 1989, the tenants were able to buy their farms, viz. Bassetts and Warren farms.
Stoken Farm of 300 acres north of the railway line grows wheat and oilseed rape, with some barley and oats.
Grain Store at Nurshanger (1977)
Light Industrial complex – repairs to Piper PA 18-150 planes, biodiesel 2008, Hampshire Sweepers, etc
*Check Matt Raymond/ Tamsin 397257/398800
Warren Farm is mostly arable – wheat and barley – with the woodlands preserved for coppicing and shooting - some ancient but much from 19c and supplemented with grants today.
*Check Peter Harrison/ D R Worgan 397110
Ashe Park was incorporated into parish c1950. This includes a large are of woodland, called Ashe Park Copse, the landscaped grounds surrounding the big house, some coppices and several paddocks used for polo ponies in 1990s, plus the former water bottling plant.
Cheesedown Farm
Severed from the main estate by the railway line and sold off by Henry Harris, the 300 acre Cheesedown Farm was bought in 1946 by Mr and Mrs Ernest Hine. Their son Frederick continued to grow cereals there until he retired to Devon, having sold the land to Mr M Small of Oakley (Southern Evening Echo, 1 April 85). The farmhouse and buildings were sold separately and are now converted into private houses.
Basically agricultural, Steventon’s trades and crafts would have been based on farming needs and services for the villagers, and located in the manor or the village. These increased with mechanisation during the 19c and decreased through the 20c.
The village blacksmith featured in all censuses (1841-1901) and continued through to the 1930s. He was often of long-standing - George Bone 1867-89, who probably moved from Jasmine Cottage to the Forge, and John Gascoigne 1911-31. The blacksmith was joined by a carpenter-wheelwright from 1851 through to WWI, the Church boys locating in sheds behind their mother’s alehouse to perform this role from 1875 to 1907. At their peak, building Henry Harris’s mansion, there were three blacksmiths and 12 carpenter joiners (1881 Census). Throughout the 19c there were a couple of woodmen, coppicing for fences and wood for heating being so important. William Myrtle was the wood dealer from 1907-23. After the railway cottages were built in the 1870s, signalmen and platelayers arrived to maintain their section of the London to Southampton line. Though the 1881 Census shows a dozen plasterers and two bricklayers, this merely reflects Henry Harris’s activities as none are seen in 1871 or 1891. A bootmaker and a dressmaker were usually found in the village, sometimes combining these activities with retailing.
Post Office 1847
Craven 1857
Kelly's 1867
White's 1878
Kelly's 1885
Kelly's 1895
Kelly's 1907
Kelly's 1915
Kelly's 1923
Kelly's 1931
Kelly's 1939
Hall erected 1938
School closed 1964
Most of this time, the post office must have been a general store, though perhaps with specialist aspects – George Soper being the shoemaker for instance. There were a couple of other small shops in people’s houses near the Triangle in the mid 19c, but these closed in favour of the post office-cum-shop at 1 Stonehills. During WWII, the post office-cum-shop was run from North Waltham by Victor Rosenthal, after which it moved to the Churches’ old house under Miss Lytle until 1977. A fortnightly village shop ran in the village hall on alternate Saturdays from 1983-98.
Isolated as it was, Steventon needed carriers to export farm products and import specialist goods. Unsurprisingly, these peaked in the late 19c with Henry Harris’s developments. Post WWI, Steventon’s needs were served as an extension from North Waltham, with twice-weekly links to Winchester and Basingstoke right up until 1965*.
George Titt delivered milk round the village from1964 to 1994, and today there is a mobile shop. Jim Neller, the travelling grocer/greengrocer, delivers thrice weekly; as well as groceries, fruit and vegetables, he supplies milk, papers and small household items. On other days, these may be collected from the North Waltham shop or from Overton, though some villagers use the internet to order through supermarket delivery systems. A local farm makes deliveries of vegetables while a West Country farm supplies meat and eggs. Coal deliveries come from Baker’s of Oakley, while a village group orders oil collectively.
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As can be seen from the table below, the average household size declined during the 19c. With an average of 7 people in each tiny, squalid cottage, life must have been harsh for the farm labourers of the early 19c. In 1841, 2/3rds of the 36 households had children, 6 having more than four. Others had adult children at home, servants or lodgers, increasing household size further, to over ten occupants in 4 cases. Some new houses were built and others divided to bring average household size down below five by 1861, a figure further improved by the building of the railway cottages and then Henry Harris’ houses, all of a much better size and construction befitting the increasing wealth of the later 19c. By 1881 only 30 of the 55 households had children, though 15 had four or more. 15 took in lodgers/boarders, probably because of Henry Harris’s development, which accounts for the average size rise and the fact that six of the old cottages were still housing 8 or more people. By 1901, the number of households with children had fallen to 50%, and only 5 of the 57 (10%) had more than four. Quite a number had adult children living at home, while several had children living with grandparents. A similar proportion, 13 of 57 households, had boarders, but only three still had servants: the Manor, the Rectory and Cheesedown.
| 1801 | 1811 | 1821 | 1831 | 1841 | 1851 | 1861 | 1871 | 1881 | 1891 | 1901 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 153 | 167 | 151 | 197 | 193 | 187 | 167 | 199 | 288 | 240 | 229 |
| c20 | c20 | n.a. | n.a. | 31 | 37 | 38 | 49 | 55 | 52 | 56 |
| 7.5 | 8 | est.7 | est.7 | 6 | 5 | 4.5 | 4 | 5 | 4.5 | 4 |
Both the manor and the rectory had large households with live-in servants and relatives. In 1841, WF Digweed had his brother, a farmer and 7 male and 3 female servants living in the Tudor wing, while William Knight had his wife and 3 surviving daughters, their governess and 3 male and 4 female servants at the rectory. In 1891, Henry Harris had 9 family members, governess, cook, butler, 3 grooms and 7 maids living in his new manor house, while the Reverend Alder had his wife and 6 daughters, their governess and 3 female servants at the rectory.
Generalising about household nature is difficult. Taking a nuclear family of 2 adults with 2-4 children as normal, they constitute a varying minority of Steventon households with 11/36 in 1841, falling to 9/38 in 1861 and 7/55 in 1881 (when there were more large families), but recovering to 13/57 in 1901. However, Steventon’s upper class members continued to breed prolifically. In 1901, Edward Alder’s 7 daughters were living at the rectory and JH Fooks’ 7 children at Cheesedown. Surprising to us today is the wide range of family and non-family members living together. Less surprising is that the number of small households with one or two people increases from 4 (10%) in 1841 through 8 (20%) in 1861 and 8 (15%) to reach 15 (25%) in 1901, a process that continues today (over 65%). Today’s 60 houses have about 150 occupants, giving an average household size of about 2½, with about a quarter having children, but rarely more than two.
Half the people living in Steventon in 1851 were born there, and of these about 2/3rds were children. Birthplaces of residents decrease with distance away, with 20% being born within 3 miles (5km), mostly in Overton and Waltham. By 1901, only 20% had been born in Steventon, with 4/5ths of these being children. Though there’s still some evidence of Distance-Decay and particularly of the link with North Waltham, more than 1/3rd of residents were born outside Hampshire, leaving one wondering what attracted them to Steventon. Today, less than 10% of residents were born locally, most of these being children born at Basingstoke Hospital.
| 1851 | 1901 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where born | No | % | No | % | ||
| Stev’n | 94 | 50 | 44 | 20 | ||
| <5km | 37 | 20 | Overton 20, Waltham 8 | 27 | 12 | Waltham 12 |
| 5-10 km | 19 | 10 | 27 | 12 | Kingsclere 10 | |
| 10-20 km | 12 | 6 | 35 | 15 | ||
| >20km | 19 | 10 | S.Hants 2, Berks 8 | 92 | 40 | S.Hants 13, Dorset 27, Wilts 15, Other 24 |
The data comes from the two maps using the censuses of 1851 and 1901 to plot the birthplaces of Steventon residents. 1881 was not used because of the distortions caused by Henry Harris’ labour being imported temporarily to build his mansion (Map_6 and Map_7).
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A survey of wells in 1952 (WI Scrapbook 1952) shows a well at each farm and others shared between two or three houses. The borehole which Henry Harris dug in the 1880s at Bassetts to supply his model farm and the new workers’ cottages below it still supplies the dairy with its water supply. Mains water has been supplied to all villagers since 1952, but there is no mains drainage and so little housing development. Neither is mains gas available, Calor gas or oil being used more than wood or coal for heating today. Electricity was supplied by generator to farms and houses of the gentry early in the 20c, but villagers had to wait until the 1950s to put their oil-lamps away. [Map 8]
We know from Jane Austen’s diaries that she and her sister Cassandra would walk the two miles past North Waltham to the Wheatsheaf Inn to send and collect their mail. Craven’ Directory of 1857 has George Smith as shoemaker and postmaster, a joint role continued through 1875 (*Kelly’s) when the nearest money order office was at Overton. George Soper took on the joint role from 1878 through 1895 when North Waltham had the money order office and Oakley Railway Station the telegraph office, continuing to 1911. The post office and shop were housed at 1 Stonehills but moved across the road to Miss Lytle’s shop in the 1950s (Photo_1), closing in 1977. For a few years Steventon residents used North Waltham’s post office but, after this closed in the 1990s, they have come to depend on Overton. They still have their telephone box at Stonehills.
Education in Steventon was limited to the Rector’s private pupils in the Eighteenth Century and a small free school supported by the Lord of the Manor in the Nineteenth Century until a Board School opened in 1894 which closed in 1964.
‘No school’ was recorded in 1725 (*Visitation HRO 21 M65/B4/1/1). Rev George Austen took in boy scholars alongside his sons, adding his daughters Cassandra and Jane in the mid 1780s. By 1835, a small daily school {*Anne Austen, who lived in the old rectory from 1801-20, wrote much later of ‘the schoolmistress … an elderly woman but still called young Dame Tilsbury’ (Deirdre Le Faye,op.cit.)} supported by Edward Knight served 2 males and 12 females, while Rev William Knight supported a Sunday School for 13 males and 7 females (*Parliamentary Papers) from a population of around 200.
‘A free school supported by the Lord of the Manor’ served a few children through the mid 1800s (*1847 Hants PO Directory and Kelly’s 1867, 1875), but only 9 ‘scholars’ from just 3 of Steventon’s 37 households are recorded in the 1851 Census. The 1861 Census has the first schoolmistress, Mrs Green, and 21 ‘scholars’, which had grown to 34 by 1871 under Susan Annetts. From 1873 to 1894, older children were encouraged to attend the new Board School in neighbouring North Waltham, but though this wasn’t compulsory as the school was over 2 miles away (*School Attendance Byelaws HRO 48M71/30), 67 scholars were recorded from the 288 people in Steventon in 1881 (Census). Mrs Frances Roe, born 1862, did not attend as she had to care for her sick aunt’s family, but had probably been to the Dame School at 2d a week (*North Waltham & Steventon WI Scrapbook 1952).
After his acquisition of Steventon Estate in 1877, Henry Harris set about improvements and, with the village growing to nearly 300 people, a School Board was set up in June 1893 (*Kelly’s 1893) and the new school opened to 40 pupils on 12 Oct 1894 under S Collings with Mary Munday as Assistant. The School was red brick and tile (Photo_2), with separate playgrounds behind for boys and girls plus infants, and a detached house for the headmistress. Inside was a bigger room (Photo_3) with a smaller one for ‘the babies’ (*Gilbert Goddard, ‘Steventon in the 1930s’, Hampshire Jan 1995).
The curriculum must have been mostly prescribed and assessed by visiting inspectors, with RE taught by the rector and tested annually by the diocesan inspector (*School Log Book 1894-1927 HRO 23M71). In addition, the Head spelt out the Object Lessons – Sheep, Frog, Potato, Apple, Gloves, Silk, Policeman etc – Recitations by Standard and Geography by Standard - I&II Cardinal points, Use of a Plan and Map, Definitions, III England, with special knowledge of the local district, IV&V Scotland, Ireland and British North America (*School Log Book op.cit.)
As her Assistant was unqualified, we may assume the Group Work for 1895-6 refers to the two classes:
There are also references to
Needlework cancelled 24 May 95 as the teacher had ‘gathered her right thumb’
Knitting from HMI reports
Science and Drawing from 17 April 95 report.
By 1896-7, Object lessons had advanced so the Upper Division studied such things as books, soap, glaciers, newspapers, ostrich and sugar cane, and now a Group III studied Decimals & Simple Interest (Arithmetic) and British Colonies (Geography).
Numbers increased towards the 60 capacity, except when harvest or illness reduced them. Four boys aged 12, 10, 8 and 7, reported haymaking for Lord of the Manor Robert Mills, a school manager, were back in school the next day (5 July 1916), while a measles epidemic closed the school through June 1898.
After 1903, when the school was taken over by the County, it followed their curriculum:
| Group I | Group II | |
|---|---|---|
| English | (detailed study) | (detailed study) |
| Arithmetic | Follow Schedule 1 Scheme B | |
| Geography | Local and England | Study Geographical Reader |
| History | Stories linked to subject | Historical Reader |
| Nature Study | Objects | |
| Drawing | As under former codes | |
| Needlework | As Appendix III | As Appendix III |
| Physical Training | Schedule III | Schedule III |
and Games including cricket and croquet when weather permitted.
Numbers on roll increased to over 60 under F E Norwood as Mistress (1909 - 12), apparently requiring a third teacher, with a rapid staff turnover during and after WWI - 9 Heads in 9 years. Cocoa with milk was supplied at 1d per child per week from 3 Oct 16 as a winter supplement, but proved none too successful as sickness and absence increased during the cold of Feb 1917 when one child died.
The timetable was modified for children to cultivate the gardens of empty cottages with Robert Mills’ permission, a practice stopped to the regret of a visiting HMI in 9 Nov 21. The ‘routine medical exam’ of children born in 1915, 1914, 1912 and 1908 produced 2 exclusions for vermin and 2 eyesight checks.
Kate Willett arrived as the first long-term Head on 5 April 21 talking about ‘My Scheme of Work’ and with the long- serving Mrs Dennis (Infants) was roundly criticised by HMI who reported ‘little change’ on 17 June 1924. Both left in 1926 when HMI praised the new Head, Winifred Duffield, and her Assistant’s efforts to improve a ‘very backward’ school of around 50 pupils achieving an ‘unsatisfactory level of attainment’.
From the 1930s, Rev Hall as incumbent of both parishes managed Steventon School jointly with North Waltham School. Meetings and minutes were brief, leaving Mrs Grace Tanner to run the shrinking Steventon School from 1938 to its closure in 1964. Photographs show the number of children and their outdoor activities [Photo 4]. While a few abler pupils passed their 11 Plus exams to attend grammar schools in Basingstoke, the opening of secondary schools there made Steventon School with below 20 pupils unviable, so they transferred to North Waltham Primary School under Mrs Tanner. The buildings were sold, the school converted into a large house with a workshop, the schoolhouse making a separate home.
Steventon was dominated by the manor, the owner usually living outside the parish. Its only public building was the church. More recent resident owners have broken this manorial hold, principally Henry Harris who had the school built in 1894 and the Hutton Crofts who helped provide the church and parish halls just before WWII.
Combined with North Waltham in 1932 and since 1968 with Ashe and Deane too, St Nicholas’ Church hosts fortnightly Sunday morning services and a United Benefice service annually. Important feast days like Christmas, Easter and Ascension Day are celebrated and Jane Austen’s 25 years in Steventon commemorated each July. Beating the Bounds still takes place on Rogation Sunday. The Methodist Chapel, housed behind 2 Pond Cottages, closed in 1973 after 70 years’ service*.
Social events are held in the 1930s Parish Hall, including Harvest Festival supper, Christmas bazaar and similar events. Recently, the annual pantomime in which more than a quarter of village residents participates, has become a major event in the February half-term holiday. Meetings of the Parochial Church Council and the Parish Council are held here. While the Diocese owns the freehold of the building, the Parish Hall Committee has responsibility for its maintenance and day-to-day operation. The cricket club closed in 1997.
[*Information for the past 60 years comes from several long-term residents.
Other information needs to be gathered from interviews with long-term and former residents and from newspapers, parish magazines (since 1959), county/district magazines, etc. for local residents to comment on and amend. The published sources should provide illustrative material to enhance the presentation.]
VCH, nwsadhs website (Gerry Dutton etc), other websites
[Photos]
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Summarise from Richard Tanner, Steventon – Birthplace of Jane Austen, 2008.
[Maps and Photos]
RT 30 May 09