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
Jane Austen's World 
I don’t necessarily agree with the longheld assumption that Jane did little writing in Bath. It’s much more likely that she continually returned to her early three novels as she learned her craft. As an example, I doubt she submitted the 1798 version of Northanger (then called Susan) to Crosby in 1803, two years after she moved to Bath. More likely it was a substantially revised version.
I agree with your statement. I should have said that the new original works she started after 1801 largely languished on her shelves unfinished, until her move to Chawton Cottage, where she flourished and was able to publish 4 novels before her too-soon death. Her family attests that she revisited/revised her early novels frequently, which makes sense. There is a thought that she left ‘Susan’ largely alone after 1803, but that doesn’t make sense. I think of her as being a perfectionist, always adjusting. I must also confess that I layer my own experiences in losing my creative juices when my life was interrupted by constant moving, trips, and paid work. I had some small success as a watercolour artist where we lived. Once we moved to the city, nature and the surrounding mountains were too far away for plein air sketching and painting, and for inspiration. I resorted to experimenting with smaller paintings and doodling, but my creative juices languished. And so it took a while to regain that zeal again. I’ve always wondered if Austen was affected in a similar manner by her moves to Bath, within Bath, then to Southampton, and finally to Chawton Cottage.
Cheers to all of you for a very interesting post and some lovely photos. This blog never seems to get boring – thanks so much!
I appreciate all that I learn here.
denise
A lovely look at some of Jane’s Steventon, thank you! (and all your photographers). Appreciate the link to Constance Hill’s book, also. Thank you!
I love Constance Hill’s book because she managed to talk to people and descendants of those who recall Austen and her sister Cassandra. Ellen’s sketches and Constance’s excitement are palpable.
In addition to Tony Grant’s blog on Steventon and Barton Cottage, others might like to read the paper written by Hazel Jones on the landscapes and buildings in Sense and Sensibility (from the 2022 JASNA AGM). Hazel lives in the area and provided insights into the buildings and landscapes Jane Austen used in her novel. Not directly related to your post, but interesting reading about real locations and the fiction they inspire. https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/volume-43-no-1/jones/