Jane Austen plaque installed at former school

A plaque commemorating Jane Austen has been installed at her former school 250 years on from her birth.

The Pride and Prejudice author, who was born in Steventon, Hampshire, spent 18 months being educated at the Reading Ladies Boarding School in the Reading Abbey Gateway in 1785.

To mark the anniversary, the former schoolroom at the medieval Abbey Gateway has opened open for a series of special events and tours.

The new plaque installed at the site will be officially unveiled by Reading's mayor, Alice Mpofu-Coles, later this month.

Austen arrived at boarding school in Reading aged nine, and was educated there alongside her sister Cassandra until December 1786.

While little is known about Jane's time in Reading, the schoolroom at Abbey Gateway is regularly cited as the inspiration for Mrs Goddard's School in Austen's novel Emma.

Adele Barnett-Ward, Reading Borough Council's culture chief, said: "Jane Austen's legacy continues to inspire readers and writers around the world, and we are proud to honour her connection to Reading with this new commemorative plaque.

"The Abbey Gateway, where she once studied, is a treasured part of our town's heritage, and we are proud to celebrate that rich history with residents and visitors alike."

The new commemorative plaque replaces a brass one installed in a small locked garden behind the Abbey Gateway in 2006.

Reading Museum, which now runs the site, is running tours on most Saturdays until October.

The tours are part of events being held across the south of England to mark a quarter of a millennium since the author's birth.

Last week it was announced that the house in Winchester where the author spent the final weeks of her life would open to the public for the first time.

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