Chawton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chawton is a small village in Hampshire, England, near Alton. Neighbouring villages are Lower and Upper Farringdon, West and East Worldham and Beech. Chawton lies just off the A31 which runs between Farnham and Winchester.
In 2000, Chawton had a population of around 380. It is within the census area of Downland which has 2,149 people.[1]
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[edit] History
[edit] Village History
Chawton's recorded history begins in the Domesday survey of 1086. In the 13th century, there was a royal manor house. The owner, John St John, served as deputy to Edward I in Scotland. Henry III visited the manor on over forty occasions. The descendants of John Knight, who built the present Chawton House at the time of the Armada (1588), added to it and modifed the landscape in ways that reflect changes in politics, religion and taste. One of those descendants was Elizabeth Knight, whose progresses were marked by the ringing of church bells and whose two husbands both had to adopt her surname. Later in the 18th century, Jane Austen's brother Edward (who had been adopted by the Knights) succeeded, and in 1809 was able to move his mother and sisters to a cottage in the village, now "Jane Austen's House" and visited by 30,000[2] people each year.[3]
[edit] Jane Austen
Jane Austen lived here in Chawton Cottage with her mother and sister, Cassandra, from 1809 until May 1817, when because of illness she moved to Winchester to be near her physician. She died there on 18 July 1817.
Austen wrote many of her books in Chawton, and her house is now a museum. Among the items of furniture are a Clementi pianoforte (about 1810) and a Hepplewhite bureau-bookcase containing several of her works.[4]
By the start of the twentieth century the house was tenanted by a workmen's club.[5]
[edit] Today
Chawton Cottage, Jane Austen's house and garden are open to the public.
[edit] Chawton House
Chawton House, the 400 years old grade ll* listed Elizabethan manor house that once belonged to Jane Austen's brother and 275 acres of land, has been restored as part of a major international project to establish the new Centre for the Study of Early English Women's Writing, 1600 - 1830. It houses a collection of over 9,000 volumes, together with some related manuscripts. Visitors can see the relationship between the library, the house, the estate and a working farm of the 18th and early 19th centuries.[6] The Manor, having been bought on a long term lease hold, now belongs to Sandy Lerner, the co-founder of Cisco Systems.
[edit] Services
Chawton C of E Primary School is the only school in Chawton.[7] Strung along the minor road (Winchester Road) that runs through Chawton there is the Greyfriars pub, Cassandra's Cup (a tea shop), however usually there are no retail stores. Adjacent to Winchester Road lies a green containing a cricket pitch and the home of Chawton Cricket Club, a newly refurbished playground and a set of allotments.
[edit] References
- ^ UK Census data
- ^ Chawton Heritage website
- ^ Chawton House Library
- ^ Wyatt, Sue (ed.) (1997), The Hidden Places of Dorset, Hampshire & the Isle of Wight, Altrincham, Cheshire: M & M Publishing Ltd.
- ^ Home, Gordon (1908), What to see in England: a guide to places of historic interest, natural beauty, or literary association, London: Adam & Charles Black.
- ^ Chawton House Library
- ^ Primary School website
[edit] External links
- Chawton village
- Hampshire Council — Chawton
- The Jane Austen Museum
- Quicktime Virtual Reality image of Chawton
- The Jane Austen Society of the United Kingdom
- Cricket Club
