St Nicholas' Church, Chawton

Free church to enter with many of the Knight and Austen families buried in the cemetery (Chawton House).

Saint NICHOLAS, Bishop of Myra, to whom the church in Chawton is dedicated, is – alongside Saint Martin, Bishop of Tours in France – one of the most popular saints of all. His feast day in the calendar of saints, December 6th, is probably known to almost every child. On the eve of this day, children used to put their shoes or boots – which had of course been carefully polished – outside the door so that Saint Nicholas could fill them with gifts during the night. In more agricultural areas, it was also customary for children to put out a small gift of food for the donkey, Saint Nicholas's mount (according to another tradition, it was a white horse).