2025 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of the most famous writers in English literature: Jane Austen.
Known for proudly reminding people that she was “a Hampshire born Austen”, Jane was born in the village of Steventon in the north of Hampshire, a county where she spent most of her life. Hampshire was not only her birthplace, but its people and the society in which she moved provided inspiration for many of her novels, classics such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility.
Visit our collections website for more about Jane Austen and her life in Hampshire.
Celebrating Jane Austen 250
In 2025, Hampshire Cultural Trust is celebrating this landmark anniversary with exhibitions, events and activities around the county.
At The Gallery in The Arc in Winchester and the Willis Museum in Basingstoke, our exhibition Beyond the Bonnets gives a voice to those who were overlooked by many but not neglected in Austen’s novels: working women.
Jane herself was a working woman, and this unique exhibition, which has been specially created for her landmark anniversary year, explores the untold stories not only of working women in her novels, but those of real-life women from Regency Hampshire, whose lives mirrored her fictional characters.
Through Austen’s works and her letters, historic objects and an absorbing, immersive soundscape, encounter women in domestic service – so frequently footnotes in the narrative - or those who owned and ran their own business. Compelling, heartwarming and emotive, Beyond the Bonnets reveals the unexpected and often precarious lives of working women at the time of Jane Austen.
The Gallery at The Arc, Winchester, 26 July – 2 November
The Willis Museum, Basingstoke, December 2025 – March 2026
Image: Head of a Woman, Study for The Bible Lesson, circa 1743, attributed to Paul Sandby RA, 1731 – 1809 after Philippe Mercier, 1689 or 1691-1760
Also in Winchester, the city’s Great Hall, one of the finest medieval halls in England, will provide a majestic backdrop for a Regency ball and a Regency fashion show in summer 2025. City Museum is just a short walk from Jane’s final resting place in Winchester Cathedral, and it will be hosting a summer of Austen themed events and activities. There are only a handful of items that survive today that actually belonged to Jane, and at City Museum visitors will also be able to see three of her personal possessions – two purses and her personalised ivory spool case.
Working with our partners throughout the county and beyond, more information and events for 2025 will be revealed as we approach this landmark celebratory year.
