ARTICLES
SAVA regularly publishes articles on various local historical themes in the village magazine Steeple Aston Life (SAL). A selection of these is shown below, together with other documents of interest. Just click on the title to view the full article.
- Skimmity-riding
"It's an old and foolish thing that they do in that locality", writes Thomas Hardy. It was also a thing done in Steeple Aston in 1867!
- The Hanging Judge
Middle Aston House was the home of notorious Judge Page. But was he mis-judged.......?
- The Surgeon Extraordinary and The Grange
The Grange at Steeple Aston has been home to Thomas Davis, Surgeon Extraordinary to King William IV, and Capt. Richard Bradshaw, who became a Vice-Admiral of the Fleet.
- Steeple Aston Inclosures Award
Steeple Aston's Inclosure took place in 1766. The Steeple Aston Award, with its Map, was signed, sealed and delivered in 1767. With the coming of the Inclosures, the local "open field" system was over.
- Richard Duckworth (1650-1706)
Richard Duckworth, instituted as Rector of Steeple Aston in 1680, was a keen bell ringer. He is famous to bell ringers across the globe for writing the first book on change ringing.
- Army exercises during the war
A personal recollection of Steeple Aston during the Second World War - British infantrymen, Canadian tanks and Italian prisoners of war.
- Love and Bread making at Old Toms
The story of one of Steeple Aston's oldest houses and its inhabitants
- Steeple Aston sends its poor to Tasmania
How in 1852 the Parish paid to send some of our residents across the world
- My visit to Rose and Jack Skinner
An invitation to the home of a couple living in a bygone era telling stories of their life spent working the Oxford Canal
- Midwinters
A look at the notoriously harsh and lengthy winters of 1947 and 1963
- A ghostly story for Xmas
Cuttle Mill in Steeple Aston seems to have been haunted
- A strange object
A huge circular stone object in a Steeple Aston back garden reveals its history in a lost local industry
- Old Byways of Steeple Aston
An article about the village's paths and roads, based on SAVA's Environment exhibition of 2007
- The Flower de Luce and the Doctor's House
Was Paynes' Hill the site of a pub owned by one of the village rascals?
- A job seeker in Steeple Aston around 1790
One "certificate of settlement" for a Steeple Aston man has survived in the archives. What does it mean?
- Seventy-four years ago in the village school
Extracts from Dr. Radcliffe's school magazine of 1936
- Steeple Aston and the Census
Why is the 2011 Census important to Steeple Aston?
- Steeple Aston in 1801
Part one of an analysis of what the Census records tell us about people in Steeple Aston over 200 years ago
- Steeple Aston in 1801 continued
The second part of the fascinating story of our village people
- The Painted Lady
The summer of 2003 produced a huge influx of beautiful butterflys
- The Story of Great Aunt Ada
The story of a young girl in service who eventually died at the age of 96, having lived in Steeple Aston almost all her life.
- Fossils
Just below the surface of Steeple Aston, ammonites and other fossils have been found
- Steeple Aston Through the Lens
Photographic historian Audrey Linkman discusses how photography depicted villages like ours from its inception to modern times
- Murder at the Holt
A gravestone in Steeple Aston churchyard records the murder in 1754 of the publican and his wife at our local Inn
- Village Gardens of the past
Historian Anne Wilkinson has written about how village gardens looked in Victorian times- a synopsis of her talk in the Village Hall
- A Walk around Steeple Aston 100 years ago
A grandmother recalls her earliest memories of Steeple Aston to her grandson
- The Bradshaw Legacy
The story of the Bradshaw family of the Grange in the 20th Century
- Gazetteer of buildings in Steeple and Middle Aston
The results of a survey conducted during 2010 recording every house in the two villages
