Route
Start to Chawton House
From the free village car park, return to the main road alongside Cassandra's Cup tea room. On the opposite side of the road you will see Jane Austen's House Museum.
The museum is open daily in the summer and weekends only in winter and entrance fees apply. You may wish to explore the museum before or after your walk. The house was Jane's home (along with her mother and sister) from 1809 to 1817, the last eight years of her life. It is a large 17th-century house, preserved in her memory, and where she wrote the novels Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion.
Facing the museum, turn left along the pavement of Winchester Road signed to St Nicholas Church and Chawton House. Continue ahead passing the primary school on the right and, further along, Home Farm on the left. Immediately afterwards on the left you will see Chawton House and St Nicholas Church, both of which have strong connections to the Austen family.
Chawton House is a Grade ll listed Elizabethan manor house which was formerly the home of Jane Austen's brother, Edward Austen Knight. Edward had been adopted by his fourth cousin, Thomas Knight, adopting his name and inheriting his estate. Jane's house in the village was part of the estate and provided by her brother. Chawton House has been extensively restored and is now The Centre for the Study of Early English Women's Writing, 1600-1830. It incorporates Chawton House Library which opened in 2003, and holds a collection of more than 9,000 books together with related original manuscripts. Chawton House is the venue of the Annual General Meeting of the Jane Austen Society of the United Kingdom. The graves within the grounds of St Nicholas Church include those of Jane's mother and sister, both called Cassandra.
Marks
Waypoints
Meon Valley Railway to A32
The Meon Valley Railway was a 22 mile cross-country railway that ran between Alton and Fareham on the south coast. It was authorised in 1896 and opened in 1903, making it one of the last major railways to be built in the UK. It was closed to passengers in 1955 and finally closed completely in 1968. Shortly after the closure, the line was used to film the first of the Milk Tray Man adverts, where the character jumps onto the roof of a moving train.
Follow the disused railway and keep straight on at the cross roads by farm buildings. Some distance further, ignore the track to the right and instead keep ahead to pass under the brick arched bridge. As the stone track ends, keep straight ahead on the grass footpath between arable fields, passing to the right of a pair of cherry trees.
At the top of the field, follow the grass path as it swings right and then a little further on as it swings left into a small copse of trees. As you emerge from the trees keep right on the field edge path and ahead you will come to a metal kissing gate just before the main A32.