Chawton House is a grade ll* listed Elizabethan manor house in the village of Chawton in Hampshire. It was formerly the home of Jane Austen's brother, Edward Austen Knight, and is now a library and study centre.
In 1992 a 125-year lease on the house was purchased for £1.25 million by a foundation established by Sandra Lerner, co-founder of Cisco Systems.[1][2]
The house has been extensively restored and is now The Centre for the Study of Early English Women's Writing, 1600-1830,[3] which runs study programmes in association with the University of Southampton.
It incorporates Chawton House Library, opened in 2003, a collection of over 9,000 books together with related original manuscripts, formerly located in Redmond, Washington, U.S.
Chawton House is the venue of the Annual General Meeting of the Jane Austen Society of the United Kingdom.[4]
In 2003 the Jane Austen Society of North America held its 25th Anniversary AGM in the grounds of Chawton House.[5]
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Jane Austen's House Museum is a large 17th-century house in the centre of the village of Chawton, preserved in her memory, where she spent the last eight years of her life. It is a museum, owned by the Jane Austen Memorial Trust since 1947.[6]
The two houses, Chawton House and Jane Austen's House, are entirely separately run charities. This may not be clear to first time visitors who believe the two sites to be working in concert with each other.