Steventon, Oxfordshire

Grandad

I spent several summer school holidays in Didcot with my mate and grandad,
he lived in Newlands Avenue with my Uncle Bert. Grandad ran the bar in the army camp. He used to send me round to wake up the men first thing. The man in charge was a Sergeant Biggs. Mum worked in the post office where she met Dad,... [more]

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... [more]

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... [more]

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... [more]

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... [more]

Oxfordshire Living Memories

The tree-lined B4017, running south to north, bisects a village green that is reputed to be one of the finest in the county. The photograph was taken from a position on the raised causeway that was built centuries ago by monks from the local priory as a route between the priory and Abingdon Abbey.

Oxfordshire Living Memories

An Usher's Brewery lorry is making a delivery to the Railway House Hotel, which advertises Usher's ales. In the days when trains stopped at Steventon, many commuters may have called in for a quick drink on their way home. The Railway House Hotel is now called the Cherry Tree. The building on the left, a newsagent's at the time of the... [more]

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.