Content derived from research undertaken as part of the Victoria County History project
Steventon was a small agricultural village mainly on the chalk of the Hampshire downs.
The two wills and three inventories reveal a sheep and corn farming community.
This period is interesting as it contains the inventories of two of the Orpwood family who were the rectors of Steventon in this period.
Woodruff’s will from just before the outbreak of the English civil war is interesting for its indication of a local commercial woollen industry.
The will and four surviving inventories indicate a mixed farming economy of crops, sheep and cattle.
Two wills and four inventories survive for this period, of which the Ansell and Crook families were copyholders of the manor of Steventon.
William Lover was a substantial freeholder with 60 acres. The three inventories reflect mixed farming of mainly sheep with wheat and barley.
The three surviving wills and inventories reflect a mixed farming community in which sheep and wheat dominated.
The three wills reflect Catholic practices of praying for the soul.
There is a suggestion of an epidemic disease in 1533 as only four wills survive for the 1530s, all of which are from July and August 1533 which in
