The rolling fields of east Hampshire are said to have helped the author pen some of her most famous novels, including Pride and Prejudice – but locals now fear they will soon be “concreted over”
Villagers are at war with their local council – over plans to bulldoze countryside that inspired Jane Austen.
The rolling fields of east Hampshire are said to have helped the author pen some of her most famous novels, including Pride and Prejudice. But locals now fear they will soon be “concreted over” to meet the Government’s housing targets, after a council earmarked them as potential development sites for some 15,000 new homes.
Local Alex Perry, 55, said the proposals, which are yet to reach a formal stage, would “ruin” the area’s rolling chalk downs, adding: “They are going to destroy some of the most beautiful countryside in southern England. There has been no attempt to do any of the accompanying infrastructure. We have already got sewage spills and month long waits just to get an appointment at doctors’ surgeries.
“It is the land that informed Jane Austen who she was. If you read her books, it is full of descriptions of this landscape. This land is our identity. It is the essence of who we are, and they are planning to concrete it. That is why people are so upset.”
Austen, who was born in Steventon and spent much of her life in Chawton, is said to have been inspired by the Hampshire countryside when writing her novels. The land availability assessment shows 1,124 new homes could be built every year for the next 18 years.
Perry, who also founded of the Save Austen Country campaign group, said the council originally put forward plans to develop the land last year, but the new plans are more than double what was suggested then.
He continued: “They are hoping to push this through without anyone noticing, which is pretty outrageous. It is a scandalously secret initiative to build 20,000 houses on pristine countryside. Everybody understands the need for new housing but that doesn’t mean you build it in the wrong places. We are trying to fight it. I have been contacted by Jane Austen societies from around the world, they are all outraged. This is their pilgrimage site.”
Sir Charles Cockburn, 74, who lives in the nearby village of Beech, is leading a group known as the A31 Alliance against the plans. He said: “The infrastructure is just not in place, and it is mad to urbanise the countryside which is what the government is trying to do.
“These are the fields over which Jane Austen would haunt. They are going to be built all over. We are looking at a catastrophe. The council said that not all the land marked out would “end up being used” and “at this stage no decisions have been made.”
A spokesperson for East Hampshire District Council said: “At this stage no decisions have been made on site allocations. The Local Plan is not complete and will not be adopted until the summer of 2027. The next stage of formal consultation on the East Hampshire Local Plan is scheduled for Summer 2026.”
