Jane Austen Electric Road Trip. Discover The Landmark Locations Of Jane Austen

Anthea And David Gerrie Tour Jane Austen’s Landmark Locations From Hampshire To Bath In The 21st Century Equivalent Of A Horse-Drawn Carriage

There’s so much going on in southwest England this 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, a road trip to Bath seems in order to include essential stops in Hampshire, where she spent the best years of her life. Not to mention Lacock, scene of Pride and Prejudice filming locations, and Wells, where like her heroine Emma, Austen’s family made their own trips to England’s most visit-worthy cathedral.

And what better way to do it than in today’s equivalent of the stress-inducing horse-drawn carriage Austen travelled in when she could afford it – the electric car, which comes with its own anxieties? First World problems like whether it can travel the distance without en route charging, and whether it can be easily charged if it can’t.

Our steed of choice was a gleaming white Lexus RX300 SUV, which, for the genre, is a rather attractive, beautifully-equipped ride with a shark-like snout. Its touchscreen is one of the easiest to operate we’ve come across, while they’ve been smart enough to mix it up with conventional rotary dials for certain functions.

The first hurdle was the need for some juice at Tylney Hall Hotel in Hampshire, a huge old pile which is the closest Austen fans are likely to get to experiencing Mr. Darcy’s Pemberley.

Our delivery driver had warned us the world of charging stations is “like the Wild West,” with many different companies operating sites, meaning you could face scanning a different QR code and uploading your payment details every time you stop to top up your kilowatts.

If you don’t have a mobile phone, you won’t get very far, and in an area of poor reception, you could be screwed. WIth the current state of the UK’s charging infrastructure, advance research is strongly advised.

A top tip is to download the ZapMap app’, which shows every charging station in the country and whether or not they’re currently in use. We worked out the price for an overnight boost from having 20% “in the tank” to full-up was just north of £30, but as the app would not finish downloading in the hotel car park, the top-up did not start until we went inside for our excellent Tynley Hall dinner

It was worth the overnight stay to admire the highly decorated ceilings, spot deer in the grounds (in summer there’s also the chance of spotting a wet-shirted modern-day Darcy around the pool) and investigate the croquet lawn. Those who book the Regency package including afternoon tea with the author’s favourite cheese toasties and tickets to the Jane Austen House should take their cuppa early to have enough room for dinner.

Blink and you could miss the author’s home in nearby Chawton – it’s a simple affair reflecting the family’s reduced circumstances after Jane’s father died. His widow and two unmarried daughters had to leave Bath and fall on the charity of the son adopted by a rich family who provided them with a small house on his estate.

But there’s much charm in the dining room, with cupboards where Jane was responsible for keeping stocks of tea, wine and loaf sugar topped up, her writing alcove, her sunny bedroom with four-poster overlooking the small gardens and the modern memorabilia arising from Austen’s high-profile explosion on to the large and small screen in 1995.

A visit not to be missed by any true Austen fan, who might also want to include Steventon, the hamlet where she was born, and Winchester, in whose beautiful cathedral she lies buried and where charging stations abound.

The Lexus offered a much smoother ride along the M4 to Bath than the horse drawn carriages which would have transported the Austens from Hampshire along rutted roads. It was 1795 when the young writer first arrived in the social hub of Regency Britain and thrilled to the social whirl of what had become England’s most fashionable 18th century city.

As for the journey, we’d read all about the jet-like acceleration of EVs, with no gear changes to slow things down, but weren’t quite ready for the actual effect. It’s as if the shadow of your foot approaching the go-pedal makes the horizon approach very quickly indeed, which, if you’re somewhere like Bath where speed limits can go down to 10mph, means exercising a very delicate touch. Otherwise, it’s much like driving an automatic.

Once in Bath, we did the 21st century equivalent of handing over the horses for watering to Mark, concierge at the best address in town, the Royal Crescent Hotel. On a street closed like most of its elegant golden-stone neighbours to non-resident traffic, it has some mysterious parking spaces we never even saw where our car was charged with no need of downloading any apps(and free to those who book a suite like our delightful accommodation with sunken living room named for Bath 18th century architectural supremos John Wood the Elder and Younger).

It was time to stretch our legs with history buff Jules Mittra of In And Beyond Bath, who somehow sneaked into Royal Crescent and drove us across town to Sydney Place. Here we started our tour on the street where Jane Austen’s father rented a grand house far above his means for himself, his wife, and the two girls for whom he moved the family there in 1801 to improve their marriage prospects.

She loved walking in Sydney Gardens, still a delightful park, but hated the cattle market atmosphere pervading the Assembly Rooms and Pump Room, the latter as fashionable today for taking afternoon tea to wash down the healing waters and people-watch as it was in 1775.

Sydney Place sits across from the delightful Holbourne Museum, which doubled for Lady Danbury’s house in Bridgerton, and equally impressive Great Pulteney Street; if not taking a walking tour or staying in the city, you can park in the museum and stroll this magnificent boulevard. It’s rather like a movie set, as Pulteney ran out of money to build side streets and create a complete residential neighbourhood to rival Royal Crescent and the Circus.

At the end sits beautiful Pulteney bridge spanning the Avon and overlooking a magnificent weir; ahead are the famous Roman Baths, the aforesaid Pump Room and Sally Lunn’s, where Jane Austen’s other favourite snack, the Bath bun, was created by a brioche baker fleeing religious persecution in France. Thousands are still baked daily in the oldest house in Bath, and yet more served next door for breakfast, lunch, tea and even dinner(this bun is big enough to serve as a base on which to heap stews).

The Pump Room will be the scene of a September ball at the height of the annual Jane Austen festival, when 3,000 aficionados are expected to parade the city streets in Regency costume. Three others, including a Yuletide special, will be held in the nearby Guildhall, where a daytime diversion is to dive into Bath Markets at street level – local cheeses are sold here as well as up the hill at the Fine Cheese Company, worth a trip to the city in its own right.

As it happened, the Lexus made it all the way home without running out of charge, which was as well because there are no electric chargers in Lacock, the beautiful and historic village where many scenes from Pride and Prejudice have been filmed, and where our lodgings, Sign of the Angel, has served as a Harry Potter backdrop. This 15th century inn, which serves a fine Cornish crab salad, is strictly for history buffs with its crooked floors, beamed ceilings and absolutely no televisions, a feature Jane Austen herself would have revelled in. The star turn, Lacock Abbey, is where photography was invented – don’t miss the mediaeval cloisters.

In another direction from Bath, Wells, where the Rev. Austen would have taken his family for a busman’s holiday, thanks to its magnificent cathedral, is worth a side trip for those happy to take their chance at one of the dozens of electric fast-charge stations now installed in service stations and supermarkets across England.

Wells Cathedral is remarkable for its music – visitors can take in an evensong rehearsal and get a guided tour of the magnificent building – but also for the beautiful street behind where the choristers, officially known as the Vicars Choral, have lived for 1,000 years; it’s the best-preserved continuously lived-in mediaeval thoroughfare in Europe. Jane Austen herself have found something wispily witty to say about these nightingales having private indoor bathrooms before anyone else in Britain, so advanced in plumbing were the houses’ architects.

A final stop worth making for those heading east is Winchester, in whose own glorious cathedral Austen is buried. This lovely market town will also be home to a summer exhibition, Beyond The Bonnets, revealing the untold stories of the working women Jane Austen, the original feminist, championed in her novels – in the Gallery at the Arc, Winchester’s lively culture hub.

Guildhall image (C) 360 degree image photography.