Archaeologists in Hampshire have uncovered signs of the house where Jane Austen spent more than half of her life.

The Austen family lived in the rectory in Steventon, near Basingstoke, from 1775 to 1801, where the writer began three of her novels. The house was demolished early in the 19th Century soon after Austen and her family moved to Bath. Volunteers involved in the dig hope to gain an insight into life in the house. Debbie Charlton, of archaeologists Archaeo Briton, who led the dig, said: "Our main focus for the project is putting together the puzzle of what Jane's first home was like." Although the original shape of the building was recorded on a local map in the early 1800s, it was not to scale and the few drawings made by different artists appear 

contradictory. The excavation was undertaken by a team of volunteers

Austen's social life while she lived at Steventon is said to have provided her with material for her novels. While at Steventon, she started to pen the drafts that became Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. They were later completed when the family returned to Hampshire to live in the village of Chawton, near Winchester. The house there is now a museum and tourist attraction. Maureen Stiller, of the Jane Austen Society, said: "Experience went into writing her novels, so obviously the people she met and things she did must have fed into her work. This is where it all started. "I hope the Austen devotees are going to be excited - it gives us a bit more insight into the proportions of the rectory and hopefully a bit of the social life." Ms Charlton said: "It's been fantastic and a wonderful opportunity. It's been a joy - every day has brought some excitement."Having completed the archaeological excavations, the project volunteers will collate the finds for display at the Willis Museum at Basingstoke next year. The work was carried out with a £10,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and supported by The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation.

In the Kitchen with Jane Austen

 from: Jane Austen/in-the-kitchen-with-jane-austen

Jane was certainly no stranger to the kitchen. To begin, I turned to Martha Lloyd’s own household book- a little notebook she kept with many of the family’s favorite recipes. I also searched period cookbooks, like Hannah Glasse’s “Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy.” This could very well have been a staple in Mrs. Austen’s kitchen, as it is written not to “professed cooks, but … to instruct the ignorant and unlearned (which will likewise be of great use in all private families), and in so plain and full a manner, that the most illiterate and ignorant person, who can but read, will know how to do everything in Cookery well.”

Period recipes used in the Austen household, updated for modern kitchens.

Now you can discover Jane Austen's world in a whole new way with these authentic recipes drawn from the pages of Jane Austen's own writings. 'Cooking with Jane Austen and Friends' brings the food of the Regency Era to life, converting period recipes into easy to follow instructions for the modern cook. Here you will find over forty dishes suitable for breakfast, dinner, dessert, teas and weddings, as well as ideas for hosting your own Regency dinner, card party or tea.

By Laura Boyle, paperback edition.

“Chawton village, a dozy place that was startled into attention several times a day by the clatter of rapid coach traffic through its centre, stood where three roads met: to the north, Alton and London; to the south, Winchester if you followed one fork, Gosport along the other.

Grotere 

The Austens’ cottage was on the corner of the divide, so close to the road that the beds in the front rooms upstairs were sometimes shaken by the six-horse coaches that thundered past. Slower carriages allowed curious passengers to see into the rooms. “I heard of the Chawton Party looking very comfortable at Breakfast, from a gentleman who was travelling by their door in a Post-chaise,” Mrs Knight (Jane’s sister-in-law) wrote to Fanny (her daughter, and Jane’s niece). 

Jane liked to look out at the village street, and often looked out the sunny dining-room window where she wrote to enjoy whatever it offered by way of entertainment. She amused herself with the passing traffic: at the start of the Winchester term she observed ‘a countless number of Postchaises full of Boys pass yesterday morning – full of future Heroes, Legislators, Fools and Villains’.” 

Jane Austen: A Life – C. Tomalin

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A prolific letter writer Austen left many clues as to the ups and downs of life at Chawton. The following are extracts from letters written in 1809.

“Our Pond is brimfull and our roads are dirty and our walls are damp, and we sit wishing every bad day may be the last”.

“We have had a great deal of fun lately with Postchaises stopping at the door; three times within a few days, we had a couple of agreeable Visitors turn in unexpectedly.”

“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 have been made or mended,

With rooms concise or rooms distended.”

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Chawton in the snow

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Chawton Cottage

Godmersham Park

Godmersham Park Design Sponge

Jane's brothers and sisters were all going their own way, into the navy, into marriage. Her brother Edward had been adopted by the wealthy Knight family and had become a landed gentlemen in Kent. He lived at the family seat in Godmersham, and Jane would often visit to help with Edward's rapidly expanding family. Jane probably had Godmersham Park in mind when she was creating the Darcy estate of Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice. On her first visit to Pemberley Elizabeth Bennett thought to herself: "To be mistress of Pemberley might be something." Jane must have thought the same looking at Godmersham, a place where she was often treated as the poor relation. Godmersham Park can still be seen in the village of Godmersham, just off the A28 between Ashford and Canterbury, Kent. Godmersham is privately owned and is not set up for visitors. However, you can see the front of the house, and there is a walk from the estate's main gate, through the park down towards the river Stour.

 http://www.infobritain.co.uk/jane_austen.htm

Viewed from the old bridge over the Stour.

Godmersham Park and Mansion has a famous literary connection. Jane Austen spent time in the mansion between 1794 and 1813 and possibly based Persuasion and Mansfield Park on her experiences of local Kentish society. 

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