The setting of my upcoming novel, A Season of Atonement, the working title, is set in Hampshire County in England during the Regency period in 1811. In order to write this novel with as much authenticity as possible, I needed to do significant research on the area of Hampshire during that time.
For those who may be unfamiliar with the area, it’s a little over an hour southwest of London and includes the cities of Southampton, Portsmouth near the coast and Winchester, the county seat. For the geography of my story, my heroine, Regina Westfall lives in Westfall Manor which is five miles south of Winchester and three miles from Hanover Terrace where the hero, Marcus Silverstone lives. Westfall Manor is about eight miles north of Southampton, a beautiful port city at the coast.
Other historical landmarks include the Winchester Cathedral. Jane Austen died in Winchester in 1817 and was buried at the cathedral. Winchester College is the oldest public school in the United Kingdom with many original buildings still in use today.
Both Southampton and Portsmouth are port cities at the southern coast of England. The main image above in this blog post is an area of coastal Southampton. The characters in my novels would have not only been familiar with these two locations, but most likely they would have visited these areas and may have even had friends and/or family there.
About Wolvesey Castle
Wolvesey Castle, also known as Old Bishop’s Palace is a castle in ruins that still has parts of it that exist today. It was already in ruins during Jane Austen’s time and during the setting of my novel in 1811. The first building was built as early as 970 and served as the residence of the Bishop of Winchester. It came under siege in 1141 and was later enlarged and fortified. It came under siege again in 1216 by France. It wasn’t destroyed until 1646 by the Roundheads during the English Civil War. They succeeded in establishing the Commonwealth of England, which ultimately set up Parliament and abolished the monarchy’s complete administrative control of the country.
About Winchester Castle
Built in 1067, the castle served as the government seat for the Norman kings for over 100 years. Henry II added a stone keep to store the royal treasury and the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of England and Wales that was recorded at the request of William the Conqueror. The castle was besieged in 1141 during the same war when Wolvesey Castle was besieged. In 1235, Henry III added the Great Hall.
The Winchester Round Table hangs in The Great Hall as a round tabletop bearing the names of legendary King Arthur’s court and dates back to King Edward I, but the more recent painting was ordered by King Henry VIII. The castle remained a royal residence until 1558 when Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne and it was handed over to the city. The Great Hall continued to be used for criminal trials over the next few centuries until 1974. It is now an historical museum.
Jane Austen’s Life in Hampshire
When most people think of a Regency romance novel, they typically think of Jane Austen. She is not only associated with her written work set during the Regency era (officially 1811-1820, but often expanded to include 1795-1837), but is often considered the epitome of the period since she lived in this time. While we are writing historical novels that we can only experience through research and stories, she was writing contemporary novels about life as she knew it.
With the exception of the time Jane lived in Bath, she lived the majority of her life in Hampshire where she wrote most of her now famous novels and formed her ideas and perspective on life. She was born in 1775 at the Steventon Rectory in Hampshire. Her father was the reverend of the parish with a very modest income. They were considered a poor family. The rectory in which they lived is now gone, but the church shown below is still standing and where she attended and worshipped with her family.
Later in 1809 she moved to a cottage with her mom and sister in Chawton, Hampshire near where her brother Edward lived at Chowtan House. She often visited him at the great house. By 1816, her health began to decline and a few weeks before her death, her family brought her to Winchester for care, but it was too late. She died on July 18, 1817 at the young age of 41. She was buried at Winchester Cathedral.
Seasons of Hampshire
With it’s rich and colorful history, Hampshire seems like the perfect place to set an historical novel. So much of the history continues to thrive in today’s culture. It’s both a visual representation of what life was like back then, as well as how it continues to be today. Originally, I planned to write a trilogy called the Seasons of Hampshire with this setting, but it was for a different genre. I may still write the full trilogy, but I have decided to start the first book, A Season of Atonement, as a new historical romance novel. While the title and number of books may change, one thing is certain, it will be full of Hampshire history.
