Winchester Weekend

The walking route

Winchester is one of my favourites cities and it just so happens that I was there with hubby this past weekend. This was my fifth visit. It is the place in which most of my first ever novel is set, where I took my first ever writing conference and the place of the Winchester Poetry Festival, which is why I was there this time. To read about the festival you will have to skip to my poetry blog.

Here I want to share all things not poetry. Winchester is steeped in history and offers much for everyone. Each time I go there is something to do I've not done before. I'd also promised myself an excursion out of the city to Chawton and the home of Jane Austen. I had already seen the house she moved to for health reasons in Winchester itself and where she is buried, but I wanted to see where she wrote and edited some of her books.

The journey by bus takes just over half an hour and passes through the village of Alresford, which in itself is worth visiting (next time maybe). Chawton is close to the town of Alton where Jane took a trap regularly from her home in Chawton. Our friendly bus driver gave us a shout when we reached the bus stop. He told us where to pick up the bus going back to Winchester and warned us to be careful of the busy road we had to cross. He wasn't kidding. The road is by a huge roundabout and the cars come belting down. There are two sections to cross but there is a path.

Once off the busy road I felt I was being transported back in time. There is still much countryside and more houses than there would have been but much of what you see fits in to the surroundings so well. There is a pub, a church, a small primary school, farms and a wonderful tea shop opposite the house itself.

The house is set in a lovely garden (a writer's dream) and contains lots of original furniture including the small table Jane was said to use to write at. On the walls are timelines and a family tree and a table with quills and ink for you to try your hand at writing. Of course I had to try that!

In one of the rooms were two ladies practicing the art of lace making. Anything which involves a needle, bobbins etc., is a complete nightmare to me. Lace making is so intricate - how the hell do they know in which order those lace making tools go? I could never do it.

After visiting the house we walked up to St Nicholas Church where Jane's sister and mother are buried. The church itself was really cold inside! Next to the church is Chawton Library which was owned by Jane's brother Edward, though it was shut the day we were there.

We walked back and decided to have a pot of tea in Cassandra's Tea Shop. What a lovely place. Bright and airy with dainty cups hanging from hooks on the ceiling. My kind of place. There is no cafe in Jane Austen's house, though there is a shop and toilets. I think Cassandra's do a pretty good trade!

Our second outing at the weekend was on Sunday. While the Poetry Festival had it's own literary walk (which we did last time) we set off to visit St Catherine's Hill via St Cross, a circular tour of around four miles (not sure if that includes the slog to the top of the hill, but it is steep!). The day was beautifully sunny and we walked along by the river Itchin, through water meadows, over stiles, through gates and over bridges. We'd previously walked to St Cross but had never ventured further. I'd bought a book of walks from the Tourist Information Officer so I am now armed with several walks for the future.

The view from the top of St Catherine's Hill is fantastic, especially one view looking back down on the river. It was worth the slog up just for this. It was also good to see so m any people out walking, whole families and everyone is so friendly. Walking seems to bring the best out in people as they say hello. It must be a walker's code or something!

I do like variety in my weekends and we did have that. I'm sure I will back in Winchester again soon. I have a list of other excursions to do and one museum which never seems to be open when we are there. I'm determined I'm going to get in there sometime!

One other thing we did was to spend Friday morning in the Local History Office. My father's family came from Basingstoke and Fordingbridge and someone with his family name had written a book about descendants. We went to look it up and tried to find a connection with this branch. We were unable to find a link, but I haven't given up hope yet. It's just a case of trying to find the right family member. Well, maybe!