The Parish Church of St. Nicholas
The Very Church Where Jane Austen Worshiped!
Image Courtesy: Wikipedia
Image courtesy: Astoft
Okay, I happily admit it! I am a true Jane Austen fan! I think she was just an amazing woman and that the world is a much better place for what she accomplish and gave to it during the time allotted her. So to know that this 12th c St. Nicholas Church (Anglican) is the very one where she worshiped for the first 25 years of her life - well, that is something to write home about! Not only did she worship here, but her father was the rector here for all of her first 25 years (until 1801), while her brother became rector afterwards.
Location of Hampshire within the U.K. - Jane's Birthplace of Steventon (1775)
Image courtesy: Wikipedia
Since most all by now know the great respect with which I hold Nicholas of Myra, I think I might be forgiven for saying that I can't help but feel that the fact that her church building was dedicated to him probably inspired her somehow... Whimsical thought maybe but then again... whose to say? She did write "Pride and Prejudice," "Northanger Abbey," and "Sense and Sensibility" while she lived in Steventon! (Tell me, have there ever been better titles for books? I sigh for want of such titles!) Perhaps dear St. Nick "helped" this very deserving and wonderful young woman out a bit!
Now, I would like to direct all who would like to see more of this historic St. Nicholas church to a wonderful site. Astoft, not only has 82 pictures of the church for us to enjoy but presents a wonderful history to go along with the photos. I highly recommend a "trip" over to Astoft!
A few photos from Astoft
Many thanks to Astoft for the work and attention that went into documenting this very special St. Nicholas Church.
Now I must go... I am suddenly in the mood to reread, "Pride and Prejudice"!!
8 comments:
How lovely! I think that I might go pick up my copy of Pride and Prejudice too... or perhaps I'll watch the movie :)
Astoft is a beautiful site, thanks for sharing!
enjoyed this post!
I can't help but think that St. Nicholas was in fact an inspiration for Jane Austen. This is a very beautiful church.
My kind of church, I love the old style churches, I just cannot get my head around the modern ones.
I have found another church for you and took masses of photos which I will send to you in the near future. See http://www.stnicholascenter.org/galleries/gazetteer/2012/ for a small taste of what is to come :-) Keep well Diane
That is fascinating and so cool!
I posted a comment here sometime ago but there is no sign of it so..... I loved this church but I also wanted to tell you that I have found another St Nicholas church not far from us. I will be posting about it next week and You can have any photos from that I have. Keep well Diane
The Advent book arrived yesterday, just in time. I'm looking forward to enjoying it through the season. Thanks so very much!
Ann the best info I think is at http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbaye_Saint-Pierre_de_Cellefrouin you will maybe need to translate it. I don't know how good your French is. Can you let me have an email address to send the photos to dps france @ gmail. com with no spaces!
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