England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Steventon St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Steventon lies in northwestern Berkshire, within that area ceded to Oxfordshire in modern times, roughly 5 miles southwest of the market town of Abingdon. Steventon  sits on the former route of the A34, now downgraded as the B4017, which links Oxford with Winchester and the south coastal ports, it now lies a half mile west of that busy dual-carriageway highway. Steventon  is a mid-sized village largely built along a narrow oblong of lanes running southwestwards from the B4017, one of those lanes following an ancient causeway is lined with, as Pevsner states, "a superb collection of late medieval timber houses". Steventon  sits within the vale north of the chalk Berkshire Downs on marshy ground, hence the causeway's original function. That marshy ground produced a mixed regime of farming with arable and pastoral methods almost equal in proportion. Modern developments have come in abundance, the now-abandoned Berkshire & Wiltshire Canal being followed by Brunel's Great Western Railway en route from London to Bristol and finally the A34, now almost motorway standard and relieving vast quantities of heavy traffic. A small stream, the Mill Brook, drains the parish northeastwards towards the Thames, here forming the county's boundary with Oxfordshire, the Thames heads eastwards through the capital to the North Sea. Steventon  is sited at around 60 metres with its eponymous hill at 99 metres to its south whilst the main line of the Downs rises to 203 metres at Scutchamer Knob and is capped by the Ridgeway National Trail. Steventon  parish was fairly extensive, covering almost 2,400 acres which would have supported a population of around 950 parishioners. In Domesday times Steventon  was important too, its 68 households large enough to place it amongst the largest 20% by population recorded in that book; retained by King William its assets of 14 ploughs, extensive meadows and no fewer than 3 mills made it a wealthy manor to hold.

The Church

St Michael's church sits as almost the westernmost building in the village on the northern side of Church Lane which forms the northern edge of the village's oblong. The church is unusual in the placing of its tower, not conventionally at the western end or indeed centrally but in a southwestern location, it is also unusual in having the main entrance through the base of that tower. A single pier tells a tale of a 13th century origin but all else of that era was removed in the 14th when the church was enlarged and almost totally remodelled. That work began in the early 14th century in a Decorated style shown by the sedilia and the tower arches and continued into the late 14th century with Perpendicular styling replacing that as shown by both east and west windows. A fairly modest Victorian restoration of the mid-1850s has been the only significant change since completion of that medieval reordering. The verge outside the churchyard is widened and gravelled for parking allowing 2-3 cars to park safely off-road. Trees gather closely around the eastern end do somewhat take away that favoured aspects whilst the proximity of the church to both churchyard boundary and road leads to the best views being from across Church Lane.