Day trip by train - Guided Walk/Hike around Jane Austen Country in Hampshire!

Come along on Saturday 21st June for a guided walk/hike around Jane Austen country in Hampshire!

Whilst we are in Alton, in the High Street there will be celebrations to mark the 250th anniversay of Jane Austen's birth in 1775, so they might be people dressed up and some dancing.

About the trip
We will be walking from Alton to Chawton and then to the village of Farringdon, before we loop back. On the walk, we will be stopping as I tell you about the references to her life. The village of Chawton is where she lived and her former house is now a museum. We will also see her brother's house and the church where her sister and mother are buried.

We will walk about 7 miles, so sensible shoes are advised. The terrain is reasonably flat amongst heathland and forest and we will be sticking to paths.

The trip is part guided walk by myself/part hike and we will have time at Chawton if you wish to visit her house where she did her best writing.

If you wish to visit her house at Chawton, the cost is £15 or £7.50 if you are an ArtFund member.

About Jane Austen
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817) was born in and spent most of her life in Hampshire. She lived her entire life as part of a close-knit family located on the lower fringes of the English landed gentry. She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers as well as through her own reading. The steadfast support of her family was critical to her development as a professional writer.

Her plots, though fundamentally comic, highlight the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security. Her works, though usually popular, were first published anonymously and brought her little personal fame and only a few positive reviews during her lifetime, but the publication in 1869 of her nephew's 'A Memoir of Jane Austen' introduced her to a wider public.

She wrote six novels in her lifetime, four of them: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815) were published while she was alive. Northanger Abbey (1818) & Persuasion (1818) were published after her death.

All were written during the last 8 years of her life whilst she was living at Chawton and this year is the 250th anniversay of her birth!

Aprox Itinerary
9:15am - meet at the station and get GroupSave train tickets (in groups of 3) to Alton
9:43am - catch train
11:28am - arrive at Alton
11:40am - start walk through Alton and onto her house in Chawton
12:30pm - optional house visit at Chawton
1:30pm - stop for lunch in café across the road to the house or bring a packed lunch
2:00pm - continue walk (round trip walk to Farringdon)
2:45pm - arrive at Farringdon, which she knew as she had friends living there
3:00pm - walk back to Alton
4:00pm - arrive back at Alton
4:00pm - freetime - head back to London, look around the town or head to a pub:
Trains going back: 4:15pm, 4:44pm and the same times past each hour - it takes 1h 15mins). There is another train at 4:15pm and the same time past each hour which stops at Woking before going onto Waterloo

Payment
Full Members of the group will be free, everyone else the cost is £7 per person (payable on the day by cash, bank transfer or PayPal).

- send a bank transfer: TSB Bank plc, sort code: 77-66-65, account no: 00030809, Account name: Cultureseekers
- go to PayPal - https://www.paypal.com/uk/, ‘send a payment’ to [general@cultureseekers.org](mailto:general@cultureseekers.org) and click on the ‘Goods & Services’ option and change it to ‘Friends & Family’, as this avoids a charge from PayPal.

Become a Full Member
To become a Full Member (£14 a year):
- go to PayPal https://www.paypal.com/uk/ and send the payment to general@cultureseekerss.org, if you could use the ‘For Friends & Family’ option, as this avoids a charge from PayPal
or
- send a bank transfer: TSB Bank plc, sort code: 77-66-65, account no: 00030809, Cultureseekers
- Pay cash on the day

Train Tickets
We will be getting GroupSave tickets (3 for 2) which work out at £18.00 each (we will be purchasing these in groups of three on the day as people arrive).

Please note, we only wait under the clock tower for 10 minutes after the advertised meeting time, so please be early or on time.

If you can't see us under the clock, please text.

Look out for the red and blue 'London Cultureseekers' group sign.

Hope to see you there!

Robert
07905 901 834 (prefer text) or email: general@cultureseekers.org

On the day, if you can’t make the trip, just change your RSVP to No or text me to say you can’t make it.
Please don’t post any messages in the comments that you can’t make it, as this generates spam for everyone else.

Please make sure you are aware of the group rules here before RSVPing - https://www.meetup.com/london_cultureseekers/photos/22974682/523578875/Group_Rules/