Chawton
Chawton is most famous for its association with Jane Austen who came to live here in 1809, leaving for Winchester only shortly before her death in 1817.
The house had been both a village inn and a residence for the steward for the Chawton Estate. In 1809 Edward Austen, third brother of Jane and adopted son of Thomas Knight of Chawton Manor, offered this dwelling to his mother and sisters. Jane wrote, in a letter to her brother, Francis (who later became Admiral of the Fleet, and lived to be 91):
“Cassandra’s pen will paint our state,
The many comforts that await
Our Chawton home, how much we find
Already in it to our mind;
And how convinced, that when complete
It will all other houses beat
That ever had been made or mended,
With rooms concise or room distended”.
Jane here revised or re-wrote her six great novels, working with the family about her and with the busy life of the village just outside the window. The Austens’ house is now open to the public and contains many mementoes to her.
Down the road from the house is the great Chawton House built in the 16th and 17th centuries. Impressively sited amid trees it has a neighbour, the parish church, which replaces an early one destroyed by fire in the last century. The village itself has many old houses and thatched cottages with some dating back about 500 years.
Chawton Parish Council website (opens in new window)
