Past Tours
JASNA has offered exclusive members-only tours of Jane Austen's England since 1997.
2023
Pride and Prejudice Celebration Tours
Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
JASNA sponsored two exclusive tours to England in 2023 with a special focus on Pride and Prejudice: one in the spring and one in the summer. Members visited the houses, towns, and cities that shaped Jane Austen’s life and fiction (Chawton, Winchester, Bath, and Lyme Regis) and journeyed into Derbyshire to see “the celebrated beauties” of Chatsworth and the Peak district. Tours of the villages and estates used to bring Meryton, Lambton, and Pemberley to life in film and television adaptations of Pride and Prejudice rounded out the experience.
2022
Welcome Back: Jane Austen Celebration Tours
Jane Austen's House, Chawton
After being postponed for two years due to the pandemic, the JASNA Tour to England resumed in 2022 as two smaller-sized tour groups in July. The itinerary included the towns and sites most associated with Jane Austen, including Steventon, Chawton, Bath, Winchester, Lyme Regis, Oxford, and London. While in Winchester, participants attended a special program at the Hampshire Cultural Trust on costumes, accessories, and textiles in Jane Austen’s time. In Oxford, they viewed the manuscript of The Watsons and visited St John’s College, where Jane Austen’s father and two brothers studied. And in London, they viewed some of Austen's letters and her writing desk at the British Library.
2019
Seeking Adventures Abroad: 200 Years of Northanger Abbey
Blaise Castle, by Henry Repton
To celebrate the recent bicentennial of Northanger Abbey, members visited locations featured in the novel, such as the Assembly Rooms and Pump Room in Bath, the hamlet of Petty France, where the Tilneys rested en route to Northanger Abbey, and Blaise Castle, the 18th century folly that John Thorpe planned to visit with Catherine Morland and her brother. Participants also toured towns and sites closely associated with Jane Austen's life and works, including Steventon, Chawton, Bath, Winchester, Lyme Regis, and Adlestrop.
2018
"You Pierce My Soul." Persuasion and the South Coast
The Cobb, Lyme Regis
JASNA's 2018 Tour commemorated the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's last completed novel, Persuasion. Participants spent ten days with fellow JASNA members immersed in Jane Austen's England, visiting the towns and countryside most associated with her life—Steventon, Chawton, Bath and Winchester. The itinerary also included Lyme Regis and Portsmouth, locations that figured prominently in Persuasion and in Jane Austen’s life, as well as film locations used in the 1995 adaptation of the novel.
2017
Commemorating Jane Austen–200 Years
Winchester Cathedral (photo © Carol Moss)
To meet the demand from members who wished to mark the bicentenary of Jane Austen's death in England, JASNA offered two back-to-back tours in 2017. The itinerary included the houses, towns, and cities that shaped Jane Austen’s life and fiction: Steventon, Chawton, Bath, and Winchester, as well as locations related to Jane Austen’s family and areas associated with Pride and Prejudice: Derbyshire, the Midlands, and the Peak District. A major highlight of both tours was the Evensong ceremony conducted at Winchester Cathedral to mark the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death on July 18, 1817. Tour participants also met with the Midlands Branch of the Jane Austen Society and attended special events and museum exhibits celebrating Austen's life.
2016
Emma at 200: "Surrey has many beauties"
A View of Box-Hill, Surrey - George Lambert, 1733
The 2016 tour celebrated the 200th anniversary of the publication of Emma. Members visited iconic Austen sites—Chawton, Winchester, Bath, and Lyme Regis—as well as places mentioned in Emma and period estates used in film adaptations, such as Loseley Park (Donwell Abbey in the film Emma, 2009) and Mapperton (Randalls in Emma, 1996 with Gwyneth Paltrow). The itinerary also included visits to villages and towns such as Great Bookham and Leatherhead (considered possible inspirations for Highbury), and a picnic on Box Hill. Other special events included the Annual General Meeting of the Jane Austen Society of the UK and a gala dinner with Regency entertainment in an 18th-century Bath townhouse.
And More. . .
- 2015: Jane Austen: Town and Country
- 2014: Celebrating 200 Years of Mansfield Park
- 2013: Celebrating 200 Years of Pride and Prejudice
- 2012: The England of Jane Austen and Her Family
- 2011: Jane Austen: Celebrating 200 Years of Sense and Sensibility
- 2010: Jane Austen: Seascapes and Landscapes
- 2009: Houses of Jane Austen
- 2008: Jane Austen’s Great Houses in Fact and Fiction
- 2007: Life and Learning in Jane Austen’s Era
- 2001: Jane Austen: Beside the Sea
- 1999: Jane Austen: Pastimes & Pleasures
- 1998: Jane Austen: Great Houses & Gardens
- 1997: Jane Austen: Interpretations and Interactions
