Sunday, April 28, 2024

Celebrate Jane Austen's Birthday With a 360-Degree, Interactive Tour of Her House Travel

jane austen house

In 1940 Dorothy Darnell, a local woman, founded the Jane Austen Society with the aim of saving the House. The Society attracted the attention of a benefactor, Mr. T.E. Carpenter, who personally acquired the House for the sum of £3000, and endowed it to the nation  as a permanent memorial to his son, Philip Carpenter, who had been killed in action in Italy in 1944, aged just 22. With the house's more tactile offerings now off-limits, Dunford and her team set about creating a new kind of Austen experience, one less rooted in touch and more rooted in atmosphere—including the clever deployment of hidden audio players throughout the house. "I've overseen a strange period" in the house's life, Dunford says, with smiling understatement, via Zoom. All other dogs on short leads are welcome throughout the gardens and outside the tearoom, where water bowls are available for them.

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“It’s not just a love story,” says Louise West, curator of Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, England. Soldiers returning from WWI were given the novel for its soothing abilities, West says, to help calm shell-shocked nerves. And it was a frequent crutch for Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who cracked the book in times of stress. Today, Jane Austen’s House is a Grade I listed building, an accredited Museum, and one of the most important literary sites in the world.

Hatton Garden

Mentioned numerous times in Jane Austen’s letters as ‘the great house’, Chawton House belonged to Jane Austen’s brother, who inherited the home from Thomas and Catherine Knight, but was also enjoyed by Jane Austen as much as her own home. Located near the town of Basingstoke, Manydown Park was the house where a teenage Austen first danced with Tom Lefroy, an impetuous suitor who later became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. “Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together,” Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra in 1796. Sadly, Lefroy was shipped home to the Emerald Isle to curb the budding romance. Six years later, Austen was again embroiled in a romantic intrigue at Manydown after receiving a proposal from the wealthy, younger Harris Bigg-Wither, whose family owned the house. Although she initially accepted, Austen scandalously reneged just hours later, then fled the scene.

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jane austen house

In 1940, a local woman, Dorothy Darnell, founded the Jane Austen Society with the aim of saving the House. The Society attracted the attention of a benefactor, Mr T E Carpenter, who personally acquired the House for the sum of £3,000 and endowed it to the nation as a permanent memorial to his son, Philip Carpenter, who had been killed in action in Italy in 1944, aged just 22. Mr Carpenter set up the Jane Austen Memorial Trust to run the House as a museum, and it was formally opened by the Duke of Wellington in July 1949.

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The Jane Austen House is situated in the village of Chawton, about 50 miles southwest of London and has long been a mecca for the novelist's most passionate fans, often referred to as Janeites. The Museum's collection includes eight music books owned by Jane Austen, with pieces transcribed in her own hand. Jane lived at what is now Jane Austen’s House for the last eight years of her life. She moved here in 1809 with her mother, sister Cassandra and friend Martha Lloyd after a period spent living in lodgings. The house was owned by Jane’s brother Edward, who had been named heir to the wealthy  Knight family and had since inherited the Chawton Estate. The house – a 17th century building – was offered to the women rent-free for life.

Jane was a frequent guest at the house, where she spent time playing with her favorite nephew, George; sitting in the library; and revising Sense and Sensibility. Visitors to the House can freely explore Jane’s home and beautiful cottage garden whilst learning about her life through exhibitions and displays. Hands-on activities for all ages can be found alongside in-depth information panels and family objects, housed in the rooms that Jane would have known. Ever fascinated by the world of stories, Austen began to write in bound notebooks.

Free parking is provided in the public car park opposite the Museum beyond the pub car park. In 1809, Edward offered his mother and sisters this small house on his Chawton estate. "We use the language of religion when talking about writers’ houses," Dunford observes. In the kitchen, for example, you'll hear actress Gina Beck as Mrs. Bates, a character in Emma, praising a certain batch of baked apples, as well as a recipe from the Austens' close family friend Martha Lloyd.

"[Austen is] an extraordinary writer in that she encourages this sense of intimacy with the reader," Sutherland says via Zoom. Kathryn Sutherland, a celebrated professor at Oxford and the Austen House's education trustee, says that the house's new exhibits offer readers new avenues to explore what is often a deeply personal relationship with Austen and her novels. Her name is a byword for wit, social observation and insight into the lives of women in the early 19th century.

For Sale: Jane Austen's Countryside Birthplace in Hampshire - Mentalfloss

For Sale: Jane Austen's Countryside Birthplace in Hampshire.

Posted: Mon, 11 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

They have been translated into dozens of languages and are regularly adapted for film, TV and theatre. They have spawned sequels, prequels and spin offs, and there are countless festivals, clubs and societies in her honour. Admission to Chawton House with a day or annual ticket includes entry to the House, the Gardens, and our current exhibition. Outside tour guides are not permitted to conduct guided tours at Chawton House.

Alternatively, a taxi service or the number 64 Stagecoach service that runs daily between Alton train station can be used for the onward journey. Today, Jane Austen’s House is one of the most important literary sites in the world, attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year. Since her passing, Austen’s novels have become hugely popular , widely published and today, many are often listed as compulsory reading on school curriculum.

Austen frequently dined at Chawton House, and the Knight family dining table where Austen sat is still there to be seen today. Many people believe that Mr Knightley’s Donwell Abbey in Austen’s Emma was modelled upon Chawton House. A visit to Chawton in Alton, Hampshire is a perfect day out for Jane Austen fans. Chawton offers everything from a Jane Austen trail to follow, her own home, and an Austen themed tea-room, to the magnificent Chawton Estate owned by Austen’s brother (frequented by Austen herself often). Jane Austen’s House is a registered charity in receipt of no regular public funding. We are hugely grateful to our visitors and our audiences worldwide, for all their support.

It was built by the Knight family in the 1580s following the acquisition of the estate by Nicholas Knight in 1578. There was already a manor house on the estate prior to this, first recorded in 1224. Due to the small size of our rooms, we limit capacity to 12 visitors entering the House every 20 minutes. To guarantee entry we strongly recommend pre-booking your visit to Jane Austen’s House.

Every space is filled with fascinating information about Austen and her family. You will also discover many items that belonged to Jane Austen, as well as first editions of her work, and get a chance to explore the quaint cottage garden. Jane Austen's House is located in the rural village of Chawton near the town of Alton in Hampshire. The historic city of Winchester is just over 15 miles to the south west of the village, and the market town of Farnham is 10 miles to the west.Jane Austen's House and the village of Chawton are just off the A31 at the A31/A32 roundabout near the town of Alton.

She continued to write, developing her style in more ambitious works such as Lady Susan, another epistolary story about a manipulative woman who uses her sexuality, intelligence and charm to have her way with others. Austen also started to write some of her future major works, the first called Elinor and Marianne, another story told as a series of letters, which would eventually be published as Sense and Sensibility. She began drafts of First Impressions, which would later be published as Pride and Prejudice, and Susan, later published as Northanger Abbey by Jane's brother, Henry, following Austen's death.

Smaller and more intimate than Chawton House, your journey through the building will take you through the simple life that she, her mother, and her two sisters lived in from the drawing-room to the dining room, and bedrooms. You will follow a linear path through the house after a short introduction from the staff and end at the gift shop and library. There are numerous copies of Austen’s books to purchase as well as other souvenirs.

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