If you live a rich literary life and want to back this up by building your home in a town with rich literary history, then why not settle in one of the places where your favourite author was brought up, or where he or she got inspiration to write a certain novel? The relocation might be hard, but that is nothing compared to the satisfaction to living in the same place where your favourite novel got its first pages. And if you are a fan of Jane Austen, then you have come to the right place.
Jane Austen is one of the romantic authors who have a very mysterious past. The details of her biography are researched even today. There are very few proven facts about her life, but one thing that is for sure are the places she lived in and where she found inspiration for some of her works.
Steventon, Hampshire
Steventon is a rural village whose fame comes exactly from being Jane Austen’s birthplace, and as the village she lived in for 26 years. Settled between Andover and Winchester, it is a very quiet place to live in and any avid reader can appreciate the peace of mind which such a place would bring. This is the perfect spot for writers to delve into their art and to strive and do the best they can. And you can tell exactly what the best of them can do, as this is the place where Austen wrote First Impressions, Susan, and Elinor and Marianne, which would later be revised and become the well-known Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Sense and Sensibility. Sadly, the rectory where these pieces of art were written has been demolished, but there is a landmark that stands there as a sign of its once existence – a lime tree that has supposedly been planted by Jane Austen’s brother, James. Walk around the fields and gardens where she enjoyed walking, and even see the Steventon Church where Austen worshipped and which has not changed since the 12th century when it was built.
Bath, Somerset
Austen moved to Bath where she lived for 6 years, and found an interesting setting which she used as the basis for Northanger Abbey, as well as the later novel Persuasion. See where the Gothic novel-obsessed Catherine Morland strolled to get her inspiration of being the satirical heroine of her own story. It is a wonderful place, especially if you are one to love the arts. Despite it being less of a technological city, it has strong software, publishing, and service-oriented industries, and is a home to many wonderful museums, theatres, and other entertainment venues that strengthen the city’s tourism. Moving house here means becoming part of the literary life of Catherine while being engulfed by the many entertainment options.
Hertfordshire
You can instead steer your moving van towards one of the towns in the county of Hertfordshire – the setting of Pride and Prejudice and the home of Elizabeth Bennet and her vivid family. There you can find anything you could want – it has all the big store names, it has many peaceful parks for nature lovers and people who seek inspiration in tranquillity, and has plenty of transportation links to the surrounding areas. If you want to live exactly in the town where the Bennets sought their way up the hierarchy, then Ware is the town you seek.
Chawton (Mansfield Park) – the last 8 years of her life
Chawton is another one of the peaceful places where Austen spent her life and where you can direct your moving company’s teams. In fact, this is where she spent the last years of her life, writing Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Emma, and the unfinished Sanditon. Her very house has been turned into Jane Austen’s House Museum (informally known as Petty Johns and Chawton Cottage), a tribute to the author and a place to further your literary education in her works and in the Romantic period.
As you see, there are plenty of places in the UK for devoted Jane Austen fans. Relocation there will give you a taste of the same fresh air and inspirational atmosphere she experienced in her lifetime and you can seek your own motivation. So if you are still planning on moving house to a place with a rich literary history such as any of those, then what are you waiting for? Call your local removal company and start planning!
