Chawton House opened February 1943 as an evacuation centre for Dr. Barnardo's Girls. Like many large houses of this time they opened as evacuation The girls stayed until June 1947 when the house was closed-up. The house laid empty until 1951.

Did you know? Chawton House was the former home of Edward Austen Knight, the brother of Jane Austen. One wonders if any of the girls who were housed here were moved to put pen to paper?

Chawton House Library become part of the history of the 'Great House,' of Hampshire, and of England. Chawton's recorded history begins in the Doomsday Survey of 1086. A royal manor house flourished here in the thirteenth century, when the owner, John St John, served as deputy to Edward I in Scotland. Henry III visited the manor on over forty occasions. The descendants of John Knight, who built the present Chawton House at the time of the Armada (1588), added to it and modified the landscape in ways that reflect changes in politics, religion and taste. One of those descendants was Elizabeth Knight, whose progresses were marked by the ringing of church bells and whose two husbands both had to adopt her surname (shades of Burney's Cecilia). Later in the eighteenth century, Jane Austen's brother Edward (who had been adopted by the Knights) succeeded, and in 1809 was able to move his mother and sisters to a cottage in the village, now "Jane Austen's House" is visited by tens of thousands each year. Although the Knight family vacated the house in 1987, they remain very actively involved in the project.

In 1996 to 2003, extensive restoration work was carried out on the house and estate, prior to the opening of Chawton House Library. Chawton House itself is over four hundred years old, and the recorded history of the land on which it stands stretches even further back. The house is an ideal place to visit, and has much to offer to special interest groups as well as parties of friends looking for an interesting day out.