Jane Austen travel guide: Where to go in the UK to celebrate 200th anniversary of author’s death
Places around the country are putting on a show in honour of the Pride and Prejudice author
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Your support makes all the difference.Two hundred years after Jane Austen’s death on 18 July 1817, we’re still besotted with her tales of romantic intrigue, biting wit and guaranteed happy endings where the heroine always gets the right man.
In honour of the author of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Emma (among others), places up and down the UK are offering special activities, exhibitions and tours. Here’s where to celebrate all things Austen.
Hampshire
Jane Austen was born in Hampshire and wrote most of her books there, including her first novel Sense and Sensibility.
A trip here isn’t complete without a wander round Jane Austen’s House Museum (jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk) in Chawton, located in her former home. Chawton House Library (chawtonhouse.org), meanwhile, is hosting a range of exhibitions, talks and activities until December.
The Mysterious Miss Austen exhibition (janeausten200.co.uk/event/mysterious-miss-austen) in Winchester, where Austen died, runs until 24 July – it boasts special Jane Austen pieces, including loans from the National Portrait Gallery, British Library and private collections. Winchester Cathedral is also running Tours and Tea on the first Saturday of each month until November, which include a walk through the Cathedral's historic Inner Close to the house on College Street where Jane and her sister Cassandra stayed during their time in the city. Tickets cost £12.50 (winchester-cathedral.org.uk/events/jane-austen-tour-tea).
In Basingstoke, visitors can follow a downloadable sculpture trail made up of 25 Book Benches (sittingwithjane.com) until 31 August; each has been designed and painted by a professional artist with their personal interpretation of a Jane Austen theme.
Bath
Between 1801 and 1806, Austen lived with her family in the charming spa city of Bath. The city’s well preserved Georgian architecture conjures up the backdrop depicted in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.
A free audio walking tour of the city, “In the footsteps of Jane Austen”, is available to download – it includes extracts from her novels and letters, which describe Bath in its Georgian heyday. The Jane Austen Centre (janeausten.co.uk), located in a Georgian town house just a few doors down from where she once lived, is home to costumes, manuscripts, and film clips, helping bring the author’s world to life.
The ultimate fan experience takes place in September. From 8 to 17, Bath plays host to the largest gathering of Jane Austen enthusiasts at the Jane Austen Festival (janeaustenfestivalbath.co.uk). Previous years have seen visitors donning full regency garb at the Grand Regency Costumed Promenade and attending the Country Dance Ball and Regency Costumed Masked Ball. This year is the 17th edition of the popular annual festival. Tickets are priced individually for each activity.
Derbyshire
Austen once said there is “no finer county in England than Derbyshire”, and the area has featured widely in adaptations of her work for the big and small screen. Lyme Park played the part of Mr Darcy’s house, Pemberley, in the BBC series of Pride and Prejudice – including Colin Firth’s famous lake scene. Entry to this National Trust property is £11 (nationaltrust.org.uk/lyme).
On the big screen, Chatsworth House was used as the location for Pemberley in the 2005 film adaptation. It is believed that Jane Austen based her idea of Pemberley on Chatsworth House, as she wrote the novel while in nearby Bakewell, which is considered to be the inspiration behind Lambton. Entry to the house and garden at Chatsworth is £21.90 (chatsworth.org).
It is also believed that Jane Austen once stayed in local hotel The Rutland Arms while visiting the area and revising the final chapters of Pride and Prejudice. The hotel offers the Jane Austen Four Poster Room (from £157 per night, B&B) and guests staying for three nights or more can receive free tickets to Haddon Hall, another location used in the film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (rutlandarmsbakewell.co.uk).
Berkshire
Jane Austen only lived apart from her family once, between 1785 to 1786, when she attended school at Abbey Gateway in Reading. A free walking tour, the Readipop Reading Literary Trail (readipop.co.uk), has been developed, encouraging visitors to explore the area’s literary history, including Jane’s old school.
Austen fans should also check out the 18th-century mansion of Basildon Park, which was used as Mr Bingley's house, Netherfield, in the 2005 production of Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett and Matthew MacFadyen as Mr Darcy. Entry to Basildon Park costs £14 per adult, £7.50 per child (nationaltrust.org.uk/basildon-park).
Lyme Regis
Letters from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra show that she visited Lyme Regis on at least two separate occasions – her last novel, Persuasion, was even set in the Dorset seaside town. Literary Lyme offers 90-minute guided walking tours, where visitors can follow in the footsteps of Jane and her characters around Lyme Regis. The tour takes in the Cobb to see the steps from which Louisa Musgrove fell in Persuasion, and the inns mentioned in the novel, plus the place where the author actually stayed. Tours cost from £10 per person (literarylyme.co.uk).
Kent
Jane’s father had strong links to Kent; he was born in Tonbridge and attended school there. A Jane Austen walk and audio tour around the town is on offer for fans to find out more.
Kent has also been used extensively in on-screen adaptations of Austen’s books. The Jane Austen Movie Trail (kentfilmoffice.co.uk) highlights locations from the BBC adaptation of Emma starring Romola Garai and Johnny Lee Miller, including the village of Chillham, which represented 18th Century Highbury, and Squerryes Court in Westerham, which was Emma’s family home. The Keira Knightley big screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice used Groombridge Place in Tunbridge Wells as the Bennet’s family home. Visitors can take in the gardens and forest of Groombridge for £10.95 (groombridgeplace.com).
East Sussex
In Pride and Prejudice, Brighton is where the flirtatious Lydia Bennett becomes embroiled with the ultimate cad, George Wickham. In celebration of Austen’s relationship with coastal resorts, an exhibition, “Jane Austen by the Sea” (brightonmuseums.org.uk), will be displayed at The Royal Pavilion until 8 January 2018 (free with admission). It looks at life in Brighton during her time, painting a picture of the fashionable seaside destination in the early 1800s when it was a thriving garrison town. Items on display include King George IV’s personal, specially-bound copy of Emma, a mourning brooch containing a lock of Jane Austen’s hair, one of her music books, and important rare manuscripts and letters including her unfinished novel, Sanditon, set in a seaside town in Sussex. These sit alongside prints, paintings and caricatures of the resorts and fashions popular with coastal visitors in Austen’s lifetime, as well as original Regency costumes from Brighton and Hove’s own collection.
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