As part of our Jane Austen Regency Week and Gilbert White 300 celebrations we are opening late!
Our cafe will be open until 7pm for supper, and there will be house tours at 5pm and 6pm to enable to get to know Jane Austen’s famous neighbour.
Free event with a valid ticket to a Gilbert White Regency Week event or house admission ticket
A minibus service will be running between Alton, Chawton and Selborne this day!
Please note: tickets purchased from us are non refundable.
Gilbert White was aged 7 or 8 when the White family moved from the Vicarage on Selborne’s Plestor, to this house, called ‘The Wakes’ (named after the Wake family who had lived here previously). At that time the property would have been no more than a ‘two up, two down’ but over the subsequent years lots of extensions and additions have been made, creating the long sizeable house you see today.
The rooms have been restored following descriptions in White’s own correspondence and include a chair he used at Oriel College, Oxford (loaned from the College), items of contemporary furniture, family portraits and bed hangings embroidered for him by his aunts.
On display is the original manuscript of his book, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, which was purchased with generous help from English Heritage and others.
Learn more