Lots of houses around the UK have slightly dubious links to famous writers: places where they drank a cup of tea or that are referenced fleetingly in a line of a novel. One such residence is Ashe Park House near Basingstoke, which Jane Austen wrote about in several letters to her sister. Now, nearly 250 years after Austen committed it to paper, the house has been granted permission to be knocked down.
Smallwood Architects have been given permission by Basingstoke and Deane borough council to destroy the house, which was bought for £17 million in 2022. A group of around 20 local residents have objected to the plans to rebuild the home as a two-storey country house in the Queen Anne-style, complete with a swimming pool and orchard. Campaign group SAVE Britain’s Heritage said the destruction of the original house would lead to ‘the erosion of the area’s historic richness and distinctiveness’.
But is the building really significant to the writer’s history? Austen referenced Ashe Park House in a number of letters to her sister, Cassandra, when she lived in nearby Steventon where her father was a rector. She attended balls and social events on the estate, and wrote of its ‘well-proportioned’ rooms.
It’s unlikely that any of those rooms are still there, though, as the home has been remodelled frequently since Austen wrote about it over 200 years ago.
Historic England refused to give the building immunity from being listed last year, as they say the estate has been ‘heavily and repeatedly altered, diminishing any potential claim to architectural interest’. In the certificate of immunity, which lasts until 2029, they cite the fact that the house has changed a great deal since Austen visited, stating: ‘There is no evidence that this earlier building is embedded in the current house of 1865, built nearly 50 years after her death nor that it had any direct influence on her literary output.’
The house was remodelled again in the 19th and 20th centuries, and house fires in the 1930s and 1960s required extensive repair work. It’s currently unknown when the house will be rebuilt.
If you want to visit somewhere with more links to the late great author, here are the five top spots to celebrate her 250th birthday.
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