House, Gardens & Cafe Open Tuesday - Sunday 10.30 - 17.00

Regency House Tour

Join us for a tour of the house with a historical guide.

11:30-12:30: Discover more about Jane Austen’s local literary predecessor Gilbert White. Learn about the similarities in their lives and the people and places they both knew. You will be led around the house by Collections Manager Kimberley James in Regency Costume. Tour lasts around an hour. Tickets are £10 per person.

Morning House Tour Tickets!

The Jubilee Tap room will be open from 1pm onwards, for an extra chance to try Gilbert White’s Brewery beers. The beers are inspired by White’s own recipes!

    Gilbert Whites House

    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