Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Courtenay photos (11 available)
Sutton Courtenay maps (2 available)
Map of Oxfordshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
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Personalised maps
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Sutton Courtenay books (11 available)
Banbury Town Walk Guide
Paperback
Banbury - A History and Celebration
Hardback
Henley-on-Thames Town and City Memories
Paperback
- 4 photos on Sutton Courtenay appear in 3 Frith books - View photos of Sutton Courtenay
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Sutton Courtenay and Oxfordshire
Sutton Courtenay memories
Read and share memories of Sutton Courtenay and Oxfordshire inspired by Frith photos
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Oxfordshire memories
The Prior family of Steventon
My grandmother lived in Steventon with her own grandmother around 1880. She was Florence Prior and her own gran was Eliza Prior who by then was a widow and a laundress living in Timsbury Cottage. I have tried to find the cottage but the only place I have seen with a similar name is Timsbury Villa. I sometimes wonder if it is the same place. My own visit to Steventon was around 1986. I remember visiting St Michael's Church and having a picnic in the next field among all the cowslips and other wild flowers. It was beautiful. I walked around the churchyard and found many tombstones for the Prior family including one who was in the Grenadier Guards and was ...read more here
A memory of Steventon contributed by John Howard Norfolk
The best time of my life
I was 8 when I moved to Steventon. We used to live in Didcot while I was a baby. I enjoyed Didcot and liked the town side of it. Also we moved here because my mum and dad wanted to live in the countryside while I was growing up to my teens. My mum is called Sharon Tappin and my dad is called Clive Tappin. So far we have been here for a year and I really like it here and also I am settled in to the school.
My name is Rebecca Tappin.
A memory of Steventon contributed by Rebecca Tappin
Homesick
I went to Steventon as a 'Mother's Help' to an Italian family. I came from near Manchester. I had to clean, look after a baby and a toddler and help with cooking.
But I had never been away from home before and decided it wasn't for me. It was a lovely house on the Causeway which was a listed building. The family didn't own it. I remember the lady making me wash and iron all my bedding while my mum sat with me in the kitchen to take me home!
A memory of Steventon contributed by Dianne Littlewood
A year in England
At the age of 11 I lived in Steventon with my family at 103 The Causeway for the school year 1968-69. This was a tremendous experience I have treasured all of my life. I attended school at St. Michaels and went to church there. My father was on a sabbatical leave as a college professor which is how we ended up there for that year. I now in 2007 am hoping to return with my family. My friend was Howered Wilkins. My parents reguarly had drinks at the North Star pub. My brother and I loved recording the engine names and numbers of trains as they passed and became friends with the men who operated the trains gates manually. I am ...read more here
A memory of Steventon contributed by First Name Last Name
Extracts From Sutton Courtenay & Oxfordshire books
This remarkable village has three medieval stone houses, as well as the Norman church whose tower we see in this view. The Swan pub dates from the 1870s and, apart from the loss of the boundary wall and railings, remains, as do the cottages. The green now has more lime trees along its edge and an unusual World War I memorial.
An extract from from"Down the Thames Photographic Memories".
Once a royal manor, until Henry II gave it to the Courtenays, the village of Sutton Courtenay has several notable
buildings. The 14th-century Abbey was built on land which once belonged to Abingdon Abbey, and was used as a
summer retreat by the monks there.
An extract from from"Oxfordshire Photographic Memories".
We are looking north-east from the green in front of
The Abbey’s large grounds; this view is remarkably
unchanged since 1890. The church has a Norman
tower, and in its churchyard is buried George Orwell,
the author of ‘1984’, buried under his real name, Eric
Arthur Blair. Also buried here is Herbert Asquith, the
Prime Minister from 1908 until 1916, who lived at
Wharf House (he died in 1928). The Swan pub on the
right, built in the 1880s, now has a car park replacing
the outbuilding by the sign.
An extract from from"Abingdon Photographic Memories".
The Crown and Thistle
Hotel, first mentioned
in 1605, was a coaching
inn, and one of the town’s
best known ones. It is
still popular, and has the
truncated remains of its
inn courtyard within – we
see it here from the yard
end of the carriageway
through the building.
The further part of the
yard in this view now has
a roof supported on posts
to give shelter to tables
and chairs.
An extract from from"Abingdon Photographic Memories".
Skirting the modern
shopping centre, our
tour reaches Stert
Street, which runs south
towards the Market
Place; in the 1890s, it
was one of Abingdon’s
main shopping streets.
On the right, W H
Hooke’s bookshop (now
a jeweller’s) is the start
of the market place
encroachment. We are
looking towards
St Nicholas’s Church.
Until 1883, only its tower
was visible; then two
pubs which jutted into
the street, one on each
side, were demolished for
road improvement. Little
survives on the left today
apart from the two gables
of No 3, a 15th-century
house, partly hidden by
the horse-less cart.
An extract from from"Abingdon Photographic Memories".