Steventon, Deane Gate Inn

 

Steventon, the village of Jane Austen's birth, lies in a quiet spot between two main thoroughfares to Basingstoke. On the Winchester road to the south near Dummer, which was known as Popham Lane, is the Wheatsheaf Inn (see separate entry). Like Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, Jane was a keen walker and often walked here to collect the family's letters.

On the Andover road to the north is Deane and the Deane Gate Inn. Despite the fact that stage coaches to and from London halted here twice a day, we know that Jane's brother Charles was once unlucky enough to find the coach full and had to return home to Steventon.

Although Jane was a frequent traveller by stage there is no record of her catching a coach at Deane Gate but it seems more than probable. She often journeyed to visit her relations in Kent and she is known to have gone shopping in Andover, Alton, Alresford, Basingstoke and Whitchurch.

There are also frequent allusions in her letters to the county balls at Basingstoke which took place once a month on a Thursday during the season. They were held in the Assembly Rooms (probably part of the old Angel Inn which stood in the market place). The present day Basingstoke branch of Barclays Bank stands were the Assembly Rooms used to be and a plaque on the wall of the bank commemorates Jane Austen's association. The balls were frequented by all the well-to-do families of the out-lying neighbourhood; many of them, like the Austen's, coming from long distances, undeterred by the dangers of dark winter nights, lampless lanes, and stormy weather.
Today the Deane Gate Inn is an unpretentious friendly family pub. There are a number of Victorian photographs showing the surrounding area (and the inn) little changed since Jane Austen's day.