Jane Austen (1775–1817) was born in the rectory at Steventon, Hampshire, where her father George was its incumbent. George died in 1805, after the Austens had moved to Bath, and in 1809 Jane, her mother Cassandra, her sister Cassandra Elizabeth, and Martha Lloyd moved to Chawton, where Jane would stay until a short time before her death in Winchester in 1817. It was in Chawton that Jane either wrote or revised her novels, and from where she became known as a novelist four of her six novels were published in her lifetime – Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), and the remaining completed two, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1818.
This was separate from house itself, and baking, the washing of clothes, and salting of pigs would have been carried out here.
This donkey carriage belonged to the Austen women. Jane and Cassandra walked for a few hours each afternoon, but the carriage was used for shopping trips to nearby Alton.
The Austens paid a cook, and the housekeeping would have largely been the responsibility of Cassandra and Martha Lloyd.
Unfortunately, in the house itself photography is not allowed.
At the entrance, we were asked if we wanted a 'short guide' for £1, so I took a leaflet from the plastic tray marked 'Short Guides £1' and bought it. It wasn't a guide at all and was obviously a hell of a rip-off, but when I later spotted one free in Alton, I realized they'd placed free leaflets in the wrong holder. Plus, the ten-minute video on the half hour didn't happen. Let's be polite and say there is room for improvements.
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Once belonging to the Knight family and therefore passing into the inheritance of Edward, this is now Chawton House Library – see the link at the bottom of this post.
At the parish church, it's easy to find the graves.
And the matching tombstones stand side by side.
Now known as 'Jane Austen's House Museum', this late 15th or early 16th century property was a farm house until 1769, when it was bought by Thomas Knight to become part of his estate and was a pub called the New Inn until it became home to the manager of the estate. Jane's brother Edward had been adopted by the childless Knight family (and he changed his name to Knight), and as he had inherited the property he let the women live rent free here until Jane's sister Cassandra's death in 1845, after which it was divided into three cottages for farm workers.
'JANE AUSTEN'S HOME
GIVEN BY
THOMAS EDWARD CARPENTER, J.P. OF MILL HILL
IN MEMORY OF HIS SON
LIEUT. PHILIP JOHN CARPENTER,
EAST SURREY REGT.
KILLED IN ACTION, LAKE TRASIMENE, 1944
OPENED 1959 BY THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, K. G.,
PRESIDENT OF THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY,
FOUNDED 1940 BY DOROTHY DARNELL, OF ALTON.'
'JANE AUSTEN
LIVED HERE FROM 1809–1817
AND HENCE ALL OF HER WORKS
WERE SENT INTO THE WORLD.
HER ADMIRERS IN THIS COUNTRY
AND IN AMERICA HAVE UNITED
TO ERECT THIS TABLET
SUCH ART AS HERS
CAN NEVER GROW OLD'
The Bakehouse.
At the entrance, we were asked if we wanted a 'short guide' for £1, so I took a leaflet from the plastic tray marked 'Short Guides £1' and bought it. It wasn't a guide at all and was obviously a hell of a rip-off, but when I later spotted one free in Alton, I realized they'd placed free leaflets in the wrong holder. Plus, the ten-minute video on the half hour didn't happen. Let's be polite and say there is room for improvements.
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'IN
MEMORY OF
CASSANDRA AUSTEN
WHO DIED THE 18TH. DAY
OF JANUARY 1827,
AGED 87 YEARS.'
'IN
MEMORY OF
CASSANDRA ELIZABETH
AUSTEN,
WHO DIED THE 22ND. DAY
OF MARCH 1845
AGED 72 YEARS.'
'IN MEMORY OF
CASSANDRA AUSTEN,
DAUGHTER OF THE LATE
REVEREND THOMAS LEIGH
RECTOR OF HARPSDEN OXFORDSHIRE,
AND RELICT OF THE LATE
REVEREND GEORGE AUSTEN,
RECTOR OF STEVENTON HANTS,
SHE DIED THE 18TH DAY OF JANUARY 1827,
AGED 87 YEARS.
LEAVING FOUR SONS
AND ONE DAUGHTER SURVIVING NAMELY
EDWARD KNIGHT,
OF CHAWTON HOUSE IN THIS PARISH,
HENRY THOMAS AUSTEN,
FRANCIS WILLIAM AUSTEN,
CHARLES JOHN AUSTEN, AND
CASSANDRA ELIZABETH AUSTEN
WHO HAVE INSCRIBED THIS TABLET
TO THE MEMORY OF
AN AFFECTIONATE AND BELOVED PARENT.'
'IN MEMORY OF
CASSANDRA ELIZABETH
AUSTEN
DAUGHTER OF THE LATE
REVEREND GEORGE AUSTEN
RECTOR OF SCREVETON
IN THIS COUNTY
DIED 22ND MARCH 1845 AGED 72'.
The plaque marking 200 years since Jane Austen's arrival in Chawton.
1 High Street, Alton, where Jane Austen dined with Rebecca Parker Terry following the death of her friend's father William.
4 High Street, the home of Jane Austen's doctor William Curtis.
'Site of Austen, Gray and Vincent
– the bank of Henry Austen
(brother of Jane Austen)
1806–1811'
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