In 2025, Hampshire Cultural Trust is celebrating this landmark anniversary with exhibitions, events and activities around the county.
The Gallery at The Arc, Winchester, and the Willis Museum in Basingstoke
At the Gallery in The Arc, Winchester (26 July – 2 November) and the Willis Museum in Basingstoke (12 November 2025 - 22 February 2026), 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 Great Hall, Winchester
Also in Winchester, the city’s Great Hall, one of the finest medieval halls in England, will provide a majestic backdrop for a season of Jane Austen themed events in summer 2025, including a Regency ball, a Regency fashion show and an audience with popular historian, best-selling author, former curator and broadcaster Lucy Worsley on Jane Austen.
City Museum, Winchester
City Museum is just a short walk from Jane’s final resting place in Winchester Cathedral, which will also host a summer of Austen-themed events and activities. The museum is home to three of Jane’s personal possessions – two purses embroidered by her own hand and a personalised ivory spool case – and in May 2025, a permanent addition to these poignant objects will be a new display exploring Jane’s final days spent at 8 College Street in Winchester.
Forest Arts Centre, New Milton
Critically acclaimed touring theatre company the Pantaloons will be performing a funny, fast-paced and faithful new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, while the award-winning creators of Austen’s Women, Dyad Productions, will present a brand new solo comedy show Austen’s Women: Lady Susan, a new take on Austen’s magnificently crafted tale of manipulation and manners. With an original 1826 Broadwood square piano and authentic replica clothing, pianist and historical interpreter Lisa Timbs and soprano Verity Joy will take the audience back in time to the Regency era with Jane Austen 250: A celebration in music and words.
Jane Austen's pelisse coat on tour
Donated by a descendant of Jane Austen and now in the collections cared for by Hampshire Cultural Trust, the author’s silk pelisse coat is one of a handful of items that survive today that belonged to Jane and can be traced directly back to her. It will be on display at Winchester’s City Museum for a short period from 22 May – 16 June, before travelling to the Allen Gallery in Alton for the town’s annual Regency Week (20-29 June). It will return to City Museum from 27 July until 20 October and will be on display at the Willis Museum in Basingstoke for the duration of Beyond the Bonnets (12 November 2025 - 22 February 2026).
