Who we are

A bit of History

The origins of the Jane Austen Regency Week started as a single event in 2005 - a theatrical performance of Persuasion by the Phoenix Theatre. The following year we held a Regency Supper, and in 2007 this became a weekend, including a craft market and another Regency Supper. The Regency Suppers were proving successful, but the planning and management were basically down to one person - (Mrs) Pat Lerew - with a bit of help from Stephen Lewis for the publicity materials.

It became clear that we needed to make the Jane Austen celebration bigger and, at the same time, increase the number of people involved in managing and running it. Thus, on a cold grey January day in 2008, we settled upon the idea of the 'Jane Austen Regency Week'. In order to spread the workload, we decided to ask the various attractions, such as Jane Austen's House (Museum), Chawton House (Library), Allen Gallery and St Lawrence Church, to organise their own events. This idea worked, although for a number of years the attendees were required to buy tickets from multiple venues and we were conscious that this was an inconvenience. We have now resolved this, making Alton Community Centre the Box Office for all events.

In January 2024 we launched the Jane Austen Birthday Ball and along with the other partner organisations in our wider group, offered a weekend of events. The weekend of events was a great success, so we have now established this as a new string to our bow to carry forwards.

The Jane Austen Regency Week and the Jane Austen Birthday Ball weekend are managed by a small group of volunteers. Our task is to manage the finances, secure funding, plan the week of events, create the publicity materials, run this website and Facebook, liaise with the event managers and, in some cases, run the events. This is a lot of work for a few volunteers, so if you live in the locality, we are always looking for extra people. We also have a wider group of people who are drawn from the people who run the events.

From 2008 up until 2019 the Jane Austen Regency Week was run under the auspices of the Alton Chamber of Commerce & Industry, proving to be one of its greatest achievements. Regrettably the Chamber ceased to operate, so when we restarted after the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022, the Regency Week management group took the decision to take it under the wing of of Alton Community Association CIO (ACA). For 2025 we have decided to form our own association called 'Alton Jane Austen Group' and use 'Ticket Source' as our box office. We continue with the same group of organisers, so apart from the new ticketing arrangements, it will be business as usual.

After more than fifteen years of running the Jane Austen Regency Week, we have established a regular following of people who attend each year. Also, it is pleasing that so many people now attend in their own costumes, so there is a real atmosphere to the events that take place throughout the week. Thank you to all those people who have supported our events in the past and we look forward to running the Regency Week for many years to come.