Caversham Heights Society

ON Wednesday, October 15, we were delighted to welcome Joy Pibworth, a dedicated “Janeite”.

She explained to us that a Janeite is a member of the Jane Austen Society so 2025 has been a very busy time since it is the 250th anniversary of the birth of the great lady herself, Jane Austen.

The subject of her talk was “Jane’s Story” in which she outlined the writer’s connection with the local area from her childhood.

Joy, a confident and knowledgeable speaker, informed us that Jane Austen was born in the Rectory in Steventon, a village in north-east Hampshire on December 16, 1775 to her father George, the rector, and mother, Cassandra of the Leigh family. Jane was the seventh child of eight, who had all been born within 10 years.

Two of her brothers became clergymen and the others became very successful in their own fields.

Jane and her sister Cassandra lived with her parents at the rectory for 25 years until her father retired and then they moved to Bath where he died in 1805.

As was the custom at this time, ladies did not go to school so initially she was taught by her father who had a wealth of books within the rectory.

However, a cousin, Jane Cooper wanted to attend school and persuaded Cassandra to go with her which displeased Jane because she wanted to go too.

Consequently, Jane joined them as the three ladies moved to Southampton to be taught by an aunt, Mrs Cawley. In time. Mrs Cawley decided that they should move to Southampton but, sadly, this city, was full of soldiers returning from the war and bringing with them typhus which cousin Jane contracted and sadly died.

Meanwhile, it was decided that Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra should attend Reading Ladies’ Boarding School, now known as The Abbey, since it was affordable, in a healthy part of town and close to the residences of several family members.

The two sisters were receiving a good education in Reading for 18 months but then had to leave when their brother could no longer support them.

Regretfully, Jane fell ill in 1816 so her family took her to Winchester for medical treatment but sadly she could not be cured, and she died peacefully on July 18.

Members were fascinated by the story of this great author whose works have stood the test of time which was clearly presented by Joy along with an excellent collection of illustrations.

The next meeting of the Caversham Heights Society will continue our series, started last season, about AI. This talk starting at 8pm, by Dr Dominic Lees on November 5 at Caversham Heights Methodist Church hall, is called “Deep fakes and AI in film and media: seeing is not believing”.

Christine Bradbury