CRALLÉ
Travel Photographer / Visual Story Teller
chasing the essence
info@garycralle.com | Images & text © 2025 Gary Crallé | All rights reserved
Jane Austen's World
Enter a time capsule of important sites in the life of the celebrated author.
PART 1
It's a banner year for Austenites! Celebrations of Jane Austen’s birth on a cold winter's night 250 years ago are erupting around the world, most of all in Ye olde England.
Join the birthday party by immersing yourself in the atmosphere of places where she lived and found inspiration. Some have changed, leaving only her writings, but much remains, allowing ample room to experience and imagine yourself in Jane’s world.
Through keen observation and engaging wit the novelist captured the social life of an era largely within the confines of south central England. Her characters meticulously reveal the human ambitions, societal norms, restrictions and romance of Georgian England.
Jane's world encompassed the counties of Hampshire, Derbyshire, Somerset and Kent. This series is centred on Hampshire with brief forays into the enduring city of Bath and lovely Stourhead Gardens in Somerset.
While the sheer volume of material about Jane in print and on the web could easily rival Pride and Prejudice in length, I’ll leave that reading to you. Here I’ve opted, with some (ahem) sense and sensibility, for a brief pictorial narrative of a few key places that influenced her writings.
STEVENTON
The village of SteVenton, where Jane was born, played an important role in her literary life. As the daughter of Reverend George Austen at St. Nicholas Church, her formative first 25 years were undoubtedly foundational for some of the characters, events and plots of her novels. Here she composed Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey, although not published until much later. Publication delays, however, allowed Jane time for critical revisions. Amazingly, she had been writing since the age of 12, long before these novels,
In proud acknowledgement of a favourite daughter, around 1850-60 a weather vane shaped as a pen and quill were added atop a spire on the tower.
Former church Rector Michael Kenning displays a marriage bann (announcement of an intended marriage) similar to one from which Jane could very likely have derived the name Darcy Fitzwilliam in Pride and Prejudice which begins with the famous lines "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Jane never married, but did receive a proposal from a suitor one evening which she turned down next morning. With a name like Harris Bigg-Wither to live under, maybe it's not surprising.
The present interior of St. Nicholas is mainly Victorian. In Jane's day it would have been quite plain, likely with benches instead of pews, no organ, altar or stained glass and no decorative wall material. All this would have either been covered up during the Reformation centuries earlier or added afterwards. Jane's view would have been pointedly plain with the explicit purpose of concentrating on worship. Her moral stance as a devout Christian shows itself in the character traits she gave to people in her novels, whether virtuous or devious.
A medieval wall painting of a bishop has only recently been discovered at the right front of the nave.
Steventon and the church provided 'the cradle for Jane's genius', as coined by her nephew in 1810. A pocketable souvenir booklet about Jane's association with Steventon is available for sale at the back of the church. Proceeds go towards church upkeep (and needless to say, Jane's legacy).
An old gnarled yew tree to the left of the entrance is where the church key was customarily hidden in a cavity between 2 large branches. As the daughter of the church minister, Jane would have known where to find the key and perhaps have access to the church register as a source of literary ideas.
The rectory, now gone, stood at the bottom of a long lane leading up to the church which now sits curiously on its own a half mile or so from the village. Cottages may once have lined the lane, connecting the church to the village.
Surprisingly, unlike much of southern England, Steventon has not yet succumbed to overwhelming urban development.
In the village you'll spot two endearingly antiquated victims of the digital age in a cozy embrace: a phone booth and paperback library. Note the name on the booth. Altogether too precious and definitely worth a picture. Surprisingly (or not) there were no Jane Austen books on the shelves. Out on permanent loan, perhaps?
HOW TO VISIT ST. NICHOLAS CHURCH
Individual visits to St. Nicholas require no advance arrangements. Group visits can be arranged and catered by contacting the church.
WHERE TO STAY NEAR STEVENTON
Booking.com has an extensive list of accommodations within easy reach of Steventon. You will need a car.
JANE AUSTEN 250TH CELEBRATIONS
A MONEY-SAVING TIP
The sun may have set on the British empire, but its currency, the pound (£), remains strong. One money-saving tip for travellers is to book flights out of the UK after your visit to destinations that are less than 2,000 miles away (such as Europe), then fly home from there. Otherwise, Britain applies a substantial Air Passenger Duty fee. Several airlines allow multi-city flights on the same ticket. Why not enjoy the APD savings on a second destination?
© Gary Crallé 2025
All Rights Reserved