Lectures

Afternoon Tea & Lecture | The Rise and Fall of Jane Austen’s Chawton and the English Great Estates with Caroline Jane Knight

Saturday 29 Nov 2025, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Join Caroline Jane Knight, Jane Austen's fifth great-niece and the last of Jane's nieces to grow up at Chawton House, for an exploration of how England's great estates rose to power—and why they ultimately fell.

Through the remarkable story of Chawton, documented from the Norman Conquest to today, Caroline reveals the intricate systems that created and sustained these magnificent estates for centuries. Discover how heraldry, primogeniture, and entails shaped not just land ownership, but the very fabric of English society.

Chawton's history mirrors that of estates across England: from medieval manor to Renaissance grandeur under the Knight family from 1578, reaching its zenith when Edward Austen Knight (Jane's brother) inherited vast holdings spanning Kent and Hampshire. Yet by the 20th century, death duties, social upheaval, and economic pressures had dismantled most of these once-mighty estates.

Caroline witnessed firsthand Chawton's final chapter as a family home while growing up in the heart of Jane Austen’s literary legacy. Her insider's perspective illuminates both the grand historical forces and intimate family decisions that determined these estates' fates.

From the traditions that built them to the challenges that broke them, this is the story of how England's great estates shaped a nation and how a changing world ultimately transformed them forever.

Caroline Jane Knight shares more than Jane Austen’s name and DNA. As the last of Jane’s nieces to grow up at Chawton House on the ancestral estate where Jane herself lived and wrote, Caroline explored the same rooms and grounds as Jane did, dined in the same dining room, read in the same library and shared the same dream of independence. With Jane Austen’s House and the Chawton estate drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year, Caroline’s summers were spent talking to Jane Austen lovers from around the world.

A former marketing agency CEO, Caroline is now founder and director of The Austen Pathway, helping authors create sustainable careers. Caroline is also founder & chair of the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation, Patron of Jane Austen Regency Week and author of Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage. Caroline shares her Austen heritage at events around the world and online as ‘Jane Austen’s Niece’.

Join The Friends for another interesting and stimulating presentation. Afternoon tea, to include an array of delicious petit fours and biscuits, will be served on arrival.

NOTE: Tickets for this event do not include access to our exhibition-house, Fairhall. Guided tours of the current exhibition can be booked separately.

This event is supported by The Colin Holden Charitable Trust.

Image: Chawton House, Chawton, Hampshire, England. 16th century, Grade II listed. Photo: Simon Burchell.