11:36am Tuesday 30th June 2009
By Richard Garfield
AMATEUR historians have been working hard to chronicle their village for one of the greatest publishing projects on English history.
Under the guidance of Dr Jean Morrin, from The University of Winchester, the history sleuths, who are members of North Waltham, Steventon, Ashe and Deane History Society, researched the past and present of Steventon – the birthplace of 18th-century novelist Jane Austen.
They are one of a number of groups in and around Basingstoke who are working to revive an encyclopaedic record of Hampshire as part of the nationwide Victoria County History project, known simply as VCH.
Back in November 2007, on the lookout for volunteers, Dr Morrin along with Sarah Lewin, from Hampshire Record Office, gave a talk about the Basingstoke project at Chute House, in Basingstoke.
She explained that the original VCH project was set up in 1899 to mark the 1887 diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. The intention back then was to produce a comprehensive parish-by-parish, multi-volume definitive history of the then 40-plus English counties. Hampshire’s five red-bound volumes were completed in 1912 and copies can be seen at Basingstoke Library.
Among the volunteers to take up the latter-day mantle was Richard Tanner, chairman of North Waltham, Steventon, Ashe and Deane History Society, and earlier this month he headed a group of Steventon residents who reported their findings at the society’s meeting.
On the panel with Richard was Marilyn Wright, Linda Sennitt, Geoff Mann and Joyce Bown and Tim Sennitt, who demonstrated the project’s IT.
Richard explained that Steventon was in what was called the Basingstoke Hundred – a measurement that goes back to Anglo Saxon times, where counties were divided into sub-units. It is believed that this division was an area that could sustain approximately 100 households.
The original entry about Steventon basically covers information about the church, the local manor and who owned what in the village, as well as its charities.
Commenting on the entry, Richard said: “You realise that , in 1910, they were writing it for the gentry and the upper-middle classes.
“Today, almost all of us can read and write and we all have views and attitudes so we have a different view of things.”
Steventon has quite an historic pedigree as Roman pottery and a Saxon cross-staff have been found in the area, although there is no unequivocal evidence of continuous settlement from Roman times.
There is plenty of information about owners of the manor, such as when it was under Henry Harris’ stewardship in the late 19th century.
Describing the revival of the VCH, which is being run from the Institute of Historical Research in London, as a remarkable project, Richard said: “They are experimenting to see whether amateurs can do the research and have professionals write it up.
“Of course, if you go back 100 years, the amateurs were the priests and gentry with plenty of time on their hands.
“We are fulfilling their role today with some guidance from people like Jean Morrin, who told us where to look for data.”
A major difference with today’s VCH project is that it takes account of social and economic history and education. This has brought to light to Richard and his team a number of interesting new angles about Steventon, such as its rise in population during the 19 th century.
Richard puts this down to people living healthier lives and with more children being born and surviving.
“There was a peak during 1881 because Henry Harris arrives and develops his estate. So you have all these craftsmen suddenly appearing who obviously want their children to go to school. But there wasn’t a school and so they have to walk to the school in North Waltham.
“Henry Harris then built a school, but by the time it was finished the craftsmen had left because all of the building work had been completed.”
Richard also noted a change in the size of households. “The average household size in 1841 was over eight. That was an incredible number of people living in tiny poor little houses, of which there were about 20 houses.
“During the 19th century, the lord of the manor, particularly Henry Harris, built houses which some of us live in now and the average household size drops to about five.”
The records also show where people originally hailed from. Richard said: “In 1851, most people came from Steventon and the other half came from other villages like Overton and North Waltham.
“By 1901, people born in Steventon are a minority, with North Waltham being the biggest contributor from outside. You even get a couple from Switzerland and then you realise they were the butler and cook at the manor.”
Richard said the panel thought that it would be useful to update the village records with a mini census, which dispelled a few stereotypes.
He said: “We tried to go through all today’s households, finding that one in four has children, which surprised me as I thought of most Steventon residents as retired.”
“We found there were only three or four people who were working on farms, whereas previously the majority would have been farm labourers.
“But there are a lot of people working from home and there are a lot of people who commute. We also counted the number of cars and I think we worked out there are more people with two cars than one, with only three or four households without a car.
“We hope people will visit our website nwsadhs.co.uk to check and amend our draft summary for VCH Steventon.”
Anyone interested in finding out more about the VCH project should contact Jean Morrin at jean.morrin@winchester.ac.uk.
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