All The Filming Locations We Will See In Miss Austen

While Regency author Jane Austen is best known for her realism, wit, social commentary and depictions of breathtaking romance, details on her real life are far more scant and subdued. We know she never married – rejected a proposal, in fact – and entertained her family with her witty writings, but little else is known about her personality off the page, thanks in part to her older sister Cassandra. More than 3,000 letters are known to have been written by Austen during her life, but almost all were burned and destroyed by Cassandra after her sister’s death in an effort to preserve (and perhaps polish) her reputation.

This was the starting point for Austen enthusiast and author Gill Hornby, who after moving to the small Berkshire village of Kintbury – once home to the Austen family’s friends, the Fowles – became enraptured not by Austen’s published stories, but by the stories of her real life, including the fateful letter burning. The result? Her 2020 novel Miss Austen, which ‘[pulls] together all of the historical facts that we have about Jane and her family set-up, and [fashions] it into this amazing story of the bond between those two sisters and their importance to each other,’ says Keeley Hawes, leading star of the brand new TV adaptation of Gill’s novel.

‘The main thrust of the story takes place after Jane has died, when Cassandra goes back to a place that was very important in their lives – Kintbury – the home of the Fowle family.’ Keeley says. ‘Cassandra returns to retrieve some letters of Jane’s before the house is turned over. When Cassandra finds these letters, she feels the need to protect her sister due to the outpouring of honesty and rawness within them. This takes us back in time into all these episodes in Jane and Cassandra’s past where we see their romances, Jane becoming a novelist and their lovely family.’

Flashing backwards and forwards through time, Miss Austen is a love letter to Jane Austen’s England – and to sisterhood – set to air on BBC One this weekend. But where was Miss Austen filmed? Here we delve into the real, ‘more modest’ filming locations we can expect to see in the four-part drama.

Jane Austen (Patsy Ferran), Eliza Fowle (Madeleine Walker), Cassy Austen (Synnøve Karlsen) & Young Mary (Liv Hill) in Miss Austen. (Robert Viglasky/Bonnie Productions/MASTERPIECE)

Where Was Miss Austen Filmed?

Miss Austen was filmed in the UK from November 2023, specifically in London and the Home Counties in southeast England, where author Jane Austen lived for most of her life. Crucially, the series wasn’t filmed in Bath, despite Austen’s well-known relationship with the Roman city (her parents were married here, she visited as a child, she lived here from 1801–06, and both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion drew inspiration from Bath’s architecture).

Instead: ‘We shot in West London near Kew Gardens, and all around London in different different old stately homes,’ star Synnøve Karlsen, who plays young Cassie, tells Country & Town House. Beautiful, big homes that are almost untouched and served as real places like Kintbury and Godmersham Park.’

While Miss Austen is firmly a Regency drama, don’t expect any of the filming locations to be quite on the same scale as those we’re used to seeing in Jane Austen’s adaptations – like Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, or Lyme Park in Cheshire. The real author’s life was much more modest than the lives of her beloved characters.

‘A lot of Jane Austen adaptations are in these big, grand houses – but that’s too big a scale for the reality of the story that we are telling,’ series producer Stella Merz explains. ‘Jane and her family had much more of a middle-class life, so a lot of effort has been put into finding locations that are on the right scale.’

Cassandra Austen (Keeley Hawes) in Miss Austen. (Robert Viglasky/Bonnie Productions/MASTERPIECE)

Miss Austen Filming Locations

Chawton, Hampshire

Chawton is a small village in Hampshire nestled within the South Downs – and was home to Austen for the last eight years of her life from 1809 onwards, after the sudden death of her father in 1805 triggered an almost nomadic flitting between lodgings. ‘There was a time in their lives where the Austen sisters didn’t really have a home – the dwellings we’ve pictured for them and brought to life are quite humble, impersonal and a little dog eared,’ says Miss Austen executive producer Christine Langan. ‘There’s a feeling that this period was very insecure and unhappy for Jane. Houses feature largely in Jane’s novels with their roots and meaning and air and atmosphere. It seems that this period of being unmoored was detrimental to her health and work. Cassandra’s efforts in securing their home were a vital part of getting Jane writing again.’

Living in Chawton Cottage with her mother and sister Cassandra, this period of Jane’s life is distinguished by her work finally being published and the author experiencing somewhat of a writing frenzy; Emma, Persuasion and Sanditon were all penned here. ‘It’s true that Jane Austen didn’t, that we know of, work hugely on any of her novels whilst they were moving around in lodgings,’ Stella adds. ‘It was only when she moved to Chawton – where the Jane Austen Museum is – with Cassandra and her mother that she had a room of her own to write in and was incredibly productive.’

Today, Chawton Cottage survives as the Jane Austen’s House museum, and some Miss Austen scenes were filmed here.

Visit: Jane Austen’s House can be found on Winchester Rd, Chawton, Alton GU34 1SD. janeaustens.house

Cassy Austen (Synnøve Karlsen), Mrs. Austen (Phyllis Logan), Jane Austen (Patsy Ferran) in Miss Austen. (Robert Viglasky/Bonnie Productions/MASTERPIECE)

Rye, Sussex

Miss Austen’s sunny beach scenes take place at Sidmouth, but they were actually filmed in Rye in East Sussex. ‘We had a week in Rye in East Sussex which was absolutely stunning,’ shares Synnøve. ‘Rye doubled as our Sidmouth; we filmed on the Sand Dunes around Camber Sands.’

According to Rye News, other locations in Rye include Watchbell Street – where one shop was transformed into ‘E. R. Cripps Mantua Maker’; a dressmaker, milliner and glover – and the Church of Saint Mary, which was redubbed St Margaret’s Church on a plaque outside for the series.

The sunshine we see on screen is deceiving: ‘It was absolutely freezing!’ Synnøve says. ‘I think on one of the days we were filming it was around -5°C, and we were trying to look as comfortable as we could sitting on the beach having a “summer” picnic.’

Mrs Austen (Phyllis Logan) adds shooting in Rye was ‘a lovely trip’. ‘We used some of the cobbled streets, which were very hard to walk on in the shoes my character wore!’ she tells the BBC, adding the ‘summer’ beach scenes were ‘awfully nippy’.

Shottesbrooke Park, Berkshire

At the end of the trailer, we see young Jane and Cassy playfully running towards a grand redbrick stately home. This is Shottesbrooke Park, a Tudor mansion surrounded by parkland thought to have been built in the late 16th century before being remodelled in the late 18th century. This remains a private home so sadly isn’t open to visitors.

Watch the trailer below.

WATCH

Miss Austen begins at 9pm on Sunday 2 February on BBC One. The series will be made up of four episodes, all of which will be available on BBC iPlayer from 6am on 2 February.