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Jane Austen
Jane Austen

Celebrating 250 years of Jane Austen

Bonnets, gowns, top hats and tales of Jane Austen at the site where the author was born, now a field, in Steventon just outside of Overton.
Jane Austen period costume parade during the Steventon Fair

Jane Austen was born on 16th December 1775 in Steventon Rectory in the tiny village of Steventon, Hampshire. The rectory was demolished in 1823/24, but one sunny (with occasional showers) Sunday in July, the Overton Jane Austen Trails volunteers joined a thousand other Janeites in the field at the site of Jane Austen’s birthplace to celebrate her enduring genius.

The Jane Austen Steventon Country Fair

Organised by the local community, this delightful fair was held in celebration of the 250th anniversary of their, and Hampshire’s, most famous daughter! And what a wonderful celebration it was!

Travelling by horse and cart at Steventon Fair

Visitors were treated to Regency dancing and singing and a parade of beautiful regency costumes…             

Costume parade during the Steventon Fair in celebration of Jane Austen's birth.

…including from our very own Revd James, rector of Overton with responsibility for Steventon. Whilst not Jane Austen’s brother, the Rev James Austen, I’m sure you’ll agree he and his wife looked the part!

A couple in period costume
A couple in costume

Historian and author, Lucy Worsley, entertained a packed marquee with a lively talk about Jane Austen and her homes. 

Lucy Worsley stands on stage at a podium during the Jane Austen celebrations at Steventon Fair

Adrian Lukis answered our questions about playing the dastardly Mr Wickham in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice.  

Adrian Lukis on stage during the Steventon Fair in celebration of Jane Austen's birth.

Standing at the site where Jane Austen was born

But perhaps the best part was standing in the very place where Jane Austen was born and lived for 25 years, and where she wrote Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility and Northanger Abbey.   

Looking at the surrounding countryside we all imagined how Jane Austen would have seen this same landscape. Then taking the walk to the restored well, you could picture how it would have served the Rectory. The well now contains the remains of the water pump, which once stood at the back of the main building. Here, the lime tree, planted by Jane’s brother, James in 1813, stands tall – a superb, living reminder of the Austen family’s connections to Steventon.

Site of Steventon Rectory Steventon Fair

We couldn’t have said it better than Lucy Worsley on BBC South Today on 6th July 2025:

‘There’s something special that happens, I think, when you walk in the steps of somebody from the past that you admire and you get a kind of sizzle of history, and I get it here in this field knowing that this is where she was born and where she wrote her first three novels.’ 

– Lucy Worsley