Jane Austen's Hampshire

With a new adaptation of Emma soon to hit the big screen, we visit the novelist’s home village and discover her much-loved local haunts

- MONICA WOODS

A lofty lime tree marks the spot where Steventon Rectory once stood – the place where the country’s favourite author, second only to Shakespeare, spent the first 25 years of her life. Jane Austen’s roots run deep in this pretty part of the world, known for its traditional thatched cottages, gently rolling hills and chalk streams. It was in Chawton, a small, picturesque village in east Hampshire, that Jane was happiest, and most prolific. She was proud to call herself “a Hampshire-born Austen”, and the county shares its pride in its literary daughter with a host of sights, attractions and trails.

Of course, Jane Austen’s six novels (seven, if you count the unfinished Sanditon) are cherished the world over, and each new film or TV adaptation introduces her work to a fresh audience. Next up is another silver-screen outing for Emma, directed by Autumn de Wilde and scripted by Man Booker Prize-winning author Eleanor Catton.

Filming did not actually take place in Hampshire, but Chavenage House in nearby Gloucestershire was used as a location (Poldark fans may recognise the Elizabethan country pile). In fact, dear as the county was to Jane’s heart, actual Hampshire place names rarely crop up in her novels; Portsmouth features in Mansfield Park but Emma is set in the fictional Highbury.

The 2017 bicentenary of Austen’s death heralded a wave of new events, exhibitions and publications, but dedicated fans from every corner of the globe have long been making the pilgrimage to Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton.