Skip to content
More than two centuries after her death, Jane Austen’s novels remain some of the best-loved books in the English language.s
Her characters, observations and wonderfully sharp sense of humour have travelled around the world, but the story of the woman who created them is rooted in a surprisingly small corner of southern England.
From a tiny Hampshire village where she spent the first 25 years of her life, to the cottage where some of her greatest work was written and revised, the Georgian streets of Bath and finally Winchester, where she spent her last weeks, it is still possible to follow much of Jane Austen’s life through the places she actually knew.
And that is exactly what we do on our two-day journey through Jane Austen’s England.
Steventon: Where Jane Austen’s Story Began
Our story begins in the small Hampshire village of Steventon.
Jane Austen was born here on 16 December 1775, the seventh of eight children of the Reverend George Austen and his wife Cassandra.
Steventon Rectory where the family lived is long gone, but St Nicholas Church, where Jane’s father and later her brother James served as rector, survives.
Members of the Austen family are buried in the churchyard and the village remains an important place in understanding Austen, as except for relatively short periods away, it was her home for the first 25 years of her life.
It was here that Jane grew up alongside her sister Cassandra and her six brothers, surrounded by the Hampshire countryside, neighbouring families, local clergy and the complicated social world of rural Georgian England.
And it was here that she began to write.
Some of the earliest versions of the novels that would eventually become Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey have their origins in her Steventon years.
The Austen rectory may have disappeared, but for anyone interested in Austen, Steventon is a fascinating stop to understand where her story began.
Jane Austen’s Bath
The Austen family moved to Bath in 1801, when Jane was 25, and the city is now inseparable from her story.
This was fashionable Georgian England on display: assemblies, balls, promenades, gossip, social hierarchies and the constant business of seeing and being seen.
It is not difficult to understand why the city provided such rich material for a writer fascinated by class, manners, money, marriage and human behaviour.
Bath features particularly prominently in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, and many of the streets and buildings Austen would have recognised survive remarkably intact.
Our time in the city includes a Jane Austen-themed walking tour with an Austen specialist from Strictly Jane Austen.
It gives us the opportunity to explore Jane’s relationship with Bath in greater depth: where she lived, the places she knew, Georgian society and the real city behind the fictional Bath inhabited by characters such as Anne Elliot and Catherine Morland.
Take a further step back in time by visiting No1 Royal Crescent. A wonderful house refurbished in classic Georgian style. It has been voted the Best Small Visitor Attraction in England and is a true glimpse of the life and times of Jane Austen’s Bath.
Even without Austen, Bath would be one of Britain’s most fascinating historic cities. With her stories layered over its streets, it becomes something else again.
But it was while living in Bath that tragedy struck the Austen family
Chawton: The House Where the Novelist Flourished
In 1805 Jane’s father passed away peacefully after a sudden illness, and after his death Jane, Cassandra and their mother moved between various temporary homes. That changed in 1809 when Jane’s brother Edward offered them a cottage on his estate in the Hampshire village of Chawton.
Today that cottage is Jane Austen’s House, and it is probably the single most evocative place associated with her life.
At Chawton she returned seriously to her writing, revising earlier manuscripts and producing the novels on which her reputation rests. Sense and Sensibility appeared in 1811, followed by Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published after her death.
The building Jane knew still stands in Chawton and among its most famous objects is the tiny writing table traditionally associated with her work. Its modest size feels wonderfully at odds with the enormous cultural legacy of the books produced here.
Walking through the rooms and garden also puts Austen back into the context in which she actually lived: not as the remote literary figure we know today, but as a daughter, sister and aunt living within a busy family household while quietly becoming one of Britain’s greatest novelists.
Winchester: The Final Chapter
By 1816 Jane Austen’s health had begun to deteriorate.
The following year, she and Cassandra travelled to Winchester, where Jane could be closer to medical care. They rented rooms in a house on College Street, close to Winchester Cathedral.
It was here that Jane Austen died on 18 July 1817. She was just 41 years old.
The house remains a private residence, so it cannot be visited inside, but its location makes for a poignant stop on the journey.
From here it is only a short walk to Winchester Cathedral, where Austen was buried.
Her grave lies in the north aisle of the Cathedral.
Interestingly, the original inscription makes no mention of her novels or her achievements as a writer. It praises her character, faith and personal qualities, reflecting the fact that the extraordinary literary reputation we associate with Jane Austen today was not widely known at the time of her death. Because of social propriety and privacy her works were published anonymously, credited to ‘A Lady’
Later memorials inside the Cathedral would recognise the significance of the author buried beneath its floor.
Having begun in the quiet village where Jane was born, standing beside her grave brings the geographical story of her life to a natural conclusion.
Not only a Trip for Janeites
For a committed Jane Austen fan, Steventon, Chawton, Winchester and Bath form a fascinating journey through the different chapters of her life, but you don’t need to know every Bennet sister or be able to quote Mr Darcy to enjoy it and it is a special experience to follow the life of a writer through the actual landscape in which that life unfolded.
Our private two-day Jane Austen tour travels from London through Hampshire to Bath, following Jane’s life from Steventon to Chawton and Bath, with visits to Stonehenge, The Cotswolds, the Roman Baths and the magnificent Winchester Cathedral
It is a vacation bucket list in its own right and as much a journey through English history as a literary pilgrimage and includes the Jane Austen-themed walking tour of Bath with Strictly Jane Austen, all attraction tickets included in the itinerary and overnight accommodation, so the practicalities are taken care of as part of the journey.
The itinerary can also be adapted depending on how deeply you want to disappear into Jane Austen’s world — and how enthusiastic everyone else travelling with you is about coming along.
For those who are serious Janeites, however, there is one particularly good time to make the journey.
Every September, the Jane Austen Festival takes over Bath, bringing Regency dress, talks, performances, walks, dancing and Austen enthusiasts from around the world to the streets of the city.
The festival isn’t essential to the trip — Jane’s England is here throughout the year — but it does make September a particularly atmospheric time to visit.
Contact Tour Britannia to enquire about this private tour or if you’re looking for a bespoke vacation anywhere in the UK.
If you are planning a private group tour, cruise transfer, airport pickup or bespoke multi-day itinerary, we would be very happy to help.
Our mission is simple: to make travel across Britain effortless, personal and memorable. At Tour Britannia, we combine expert planning, comfortable private transport and genuinely attentive service to create journeys that feel smooth from the first enquiry to the final drop-off. Wherever you want to go, and whatever you need along the way, we’ll help make it happen.
Browse our private tours or get in touch to start planning your perfect UK getaway