Alton.

janeausten/ Alton in her days

• Jane Austen Regency Week is a celebration of the time the author Jane Austen spent in Alton and Chawton and is held in June each year
• LANSDOWNE HOUSE (74 High Street) 5 The home of Mr. Newman, apothecary and surgeon whom Jane visited with a friend in 1811 and afterwards wrote some humorous verse about the visit.
• HIGH STREET 4: Home of William Curtis, Jane Austen’s doctor whom she called her ‘Alton Apothy’. 
• 6: Home of James Battin Coulthard whose father had been a tenant of Chawton House prior to his death in 1811. The family were mentioned in Jane’s letters. 
• 10: Site of the Bank of (Henry) Austen, Gray and Vincent between 1806 and 1812. Henry Austen was one of Jane’s brothers and the Bank handled some of Jane’s letters.
• 1 HIGH STREET (Hill House) Jane Austen’s sister-in-law records dining here with Jane and Rebecca Parker Terry after their friend’s husband William died. 
• GEALES ALMS HOUSES 9 In 1653 Thomas Geale gave these cottages for the use of eight poor people who were born in Alton. They had changed little by the early 19th century and are now administered by the Alton United Charities
• ST. LAWRENCE’S CHURCH & CHURCHYARD 8 Jane’s brother Henry and Benjamin Lefroy, the husband of her niece Anna, both officiated here between 1817 and 1818. Several babies belonging to family and friends of Jane were baptised in the old font
• 40 & 42 HIGH STREET 40: Home of Richard Marshall who leased Wyards from Winchester College and sub-let part of the house to the Lefroys, Jane’s niece and her husband. 42: Home of Clement family who were acquaintances of the Austens & related by marriage to Gilbert White’s family.