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| Steep lies about a mile to the north of
Petersfeidl and is a parish that does not warrant the title of a village
and was not mentioned in the Domesday Book as it was probably included
in the entry for the Meons. It was almost certainly part of the great
Episcopal Manor of East Meon. and until 1916 the parish had a strip of
land ten miles away in Ambersham in the county of Sussex and links
between these two places during the mid-nineteenth century were strong. The church is dedicated to All Saints and is 13th century and inside it contains members of the Austen family. There are also some remains of a wall painting and a 9th century Saxon cross-shaft. The occupations of the inhabitants were agricultural but there was a very prosperous cloth making industry going on in the early part of the 17th century.The churchyard has a yew which is said to be over 600 years old and has a circumference of 23 feet. Today the village has become famous as the home of the public school Bedales, founded by John Halden Badley at Lindfield Sussex in 1893. Bedales moved to Steep at the beginning of the 20th century and the children of many famous people including Princess Margaret were educated here. Edward Thomas the poet also lived in Steep and his children went to Bedales and for a while his wife taught thre as well. He died in 1917 at the Battle of Arras and thre is a simple sarsen stone in his memory on top of Shoulder of Mutton Hill which overlooks the village.
The name of the village got its name from the slopes of the wooded hangars and the climb to a plateau at Week Green passes through what has been described as dramatic landscape that gave it the nickname of Little Switzerland and from here there are splendid views of Butser Hill and the South Downs. IMAGES OF
STEEP
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