Relevant Locations in Jane Austen's Life and Works

Jane:

Steventon: This is where Jane was born (at the town rectory). She grew up here and lived at her father’s home from when she was born on December 16, 1775 until he moved the family (just himself, his wife, Jane, and her sister Cassandra) to Bath in 1801. Jane was 26 when they moved.

Bath: Jane visited bath a few times in her life. Before moving to Bath after her father announced his retirement in 1801, she visited her brother James and his wife in 1797, and then travels there again with her mother in 1799. However, after living at 4 Sydney places, Bath for four years, her father, George Austen, suddenly dies in 1805. Due to the fact that women could not inherit from their fathers, Jane, her mother, and Cassandra are left no choice but to move to 40 Gay Street, Bath.

London: Jane and her brother Henry travel there to meet with publishers. This is also where Henry and his wife Eliza (Jane’s Cousin—I will explain this in my “extra things I noticed" section after my written report) live and she visits them often.

Lyme Regis: Jane and her family spend the summer months here. This is where Persuasion will be based.

Manydown Park: Jane and Cassandra visit here in 1806 (I think this might be where her inspiration for Mansfield Park came from. They sound strikingly similar.)

Southampton: Jane, her mother, and her sister, as well as their friend and widow Martha Lloyd, move to Southampton to live with Jane's newly married brother Frank.

Chawton House: Jane, her mother, and Cassandra move here for a more quiet and settled life. (located in Winchester)

Carolton House: Jane is invited here by the librarian of Price Regent because the Prince admires her work. He then not so subtly asks her to dedicate her next novel to him, and left with little choice, she reluctantly agrees. This next novel is Emma. (Side note: I find this interesting that they would know who to invite since she published anonymously. But perhaps since he is a Prince and all, they just asked the publisher and her told them.)

Cheltenham: This is where Cassandra takes Jane to seek medical care after her health starts declining.

Winchester: Jane passes away in Chawton house on July 18, 1817 (located in Winchester).

Winchester Cathedral: Jane Austen was buried here on July 24, 1817.

Sense and Sensibility:

Sussex: Due to the death of their father, Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret are forced to leave the fictional Norland Park, and settle in the also fictional Barton Cottage, in Devonshire. 

Devonshire: This is where they move to after the death of their father. They move into one of their uncles unused estates. (Now referred to as Devon, England)

Oxford: Sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood go to Oxford in Sense and Sensibility to discretely scout out their love interests, Edward Ferrars and John Willoughby. However, they find Willoughby with his new fiancée, much to Marianne's dismay. 

Pride and Prejudice:

The Most Prominent Locations were Fictional: Even though it is stated in the book that the Bennet’s live in Longbourn, a town in Hertfordshire, Mr. Bingley’s home is Netherfield Park, and Mr. Darcy’s is Pemberley, none of these locations actually exist.

Brighton: The town of Brighton is located in Sussex. Brighton is mentioned in the novel and movie adaptation, and in Lydia’s words, “That's the place to find husbands.” Lydia is taken there by some family friends, and then runs away with the perfidious Wickham. This is a problem since women of this time are not to go anywhere unchaperoned.

Kent: Kent is also briefly mentioned, with Ramsgate being the sea-side resort that Georgiana Darcy stayed for a summer.

London: London of course plays a huge role in many of the novels, as it should since it is so prominent. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth’s (or Eliza, which also happens to be the name of Jane Austen’s cousin) aunt and uncle lived there.

Mansfield Park:

Northamptonshire: Mansfield Park is a fictional location located in Northamptonshire (now more commonly known as Northampton), England.

Brighton, Portsmouth, and London are also mentioned in this novel.

Emma:

Highbury, Surry: Emma takes place in the vaguely named “large and populous village” in Highbury.

Box Hill: This is the location in the novel where Emma has an argument with Miss Bates. This is a real location in North Downs that is now owned by the National Trust.

Persuasion:

Somerset: Kellynch Hall, where Anne Elliot and her family lives, is located in Somerset. Even though the actual estate is fictional, the town it is located in, is not.

Lyme Regis: This is the Dorset town where Louisa Musgrove is injured. Louisa also falls into the Lyme Regis harbor.

Bath: Bath is also mentioned in this novel and is the location where Anne and Captain Wentworth renew their engagement.

Northanger Abbey:

Fullerton: Fullerton is a real village located in Hampshire. In the novel, this is where Catherine grew up. Catherine compares her village of Fullerton to Henry’s home, Woodston.

Woodston: Henry’s home and where Catherine and Henry ultimately move to.

Bath: Bath is actually the main location of Northanger Abbey. Bath is the place that Catherine finds herself being able to socialize in a way she wasn’t able to do in Fullerton. She does normal city things like going to plays, shopping, meeting eligible men, etc. Bath is also the place where she gets her invitation to visit Northanger Abby through her socialization.

Northanger Abbey: This is Henry Tinley’s father, General Tinley’s, home.