I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.
Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights

zaterdag 13 oktober 2012



Top Withens, the reputed inspiration for Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, is the focus of a new exhibition at Haworth’s Parsonage Museum. Ways to the Stonehouse uses photographs and drawings to document the gradual deterioration of the former farmhouse. It includes a sketch by poet Sylvia Plath, who visited Top Withens with her husband, fellow poet Ted Hughes, in 1956. The exhibition has been created by photographer and filmmaker Simon Warner, whose own pictures are also featured.And there is photographic work produced by two community groups from Keighley while on a series of moorland walks.A Bronte Parsonage spokesman said the exhibition was part of the Haworth museum’s contemporary arts programme. And there is photographic work produced by two community groups from Keighley while on a series of moorland walks. A Bronte Parsonage spokesman said the exhibition was part of the Haworth museum’s contemporary arts programme. Keighley news

donderdag 11 oktober 2012

' Haworth Through The Lens of History' - DVD

I received this message. 

Hi 
Discovered your website and thought both yourself and your readers may be interested in the following two items on sale at the The Parsonage - 
'Eternally Free' - CD of Bronte poems / works set to newly composed music.
Haworth Through The Lens of History' - DVD explores the literary, social and industrial history of the area, through photographs old and new. Beautifully shot it's a must for any Bronte fan, or lover of social history.

 For me this is new information. Thank you for sending this. I tried to find some more information. But I could only find a Linkedin profile from the Writer/ Presenter  of the DVD,  Geraldine Bell. 
2012 – 2012

woensdag 10 oktober 2012

On this day in 1848

One of the largest property sales in Haworth's history took place at the Devonshire Arms Inn, Keighley. Bridgehouse mills, Woodlands mansion house, half a dozen farms and about 150 acres of land in the Bridgehouse valley were sold following the failure of James Greenwood's business. haworth-village

The Greenwoods of Bridgehouse, the oldest mill in Haworth, were the foremost manufacturing family in the village until the mill’s failure in 1848, when they were superseded by the Merralls. The older generation consisted of James Greenwood (1763–1824) and his wife Martha (1766–1833). Even before his father’s death the middle son of the family, Joseph, had taken over another mill owned by the Greenwoods, Springhead (see next entry). That left the eldest and youngest sons John (1784–1833) and James Jr (1793–1857) operating Bridgehouse mill, James continuing on his own after John’s death. James Jr built himself a substantial residenc
e, Woodlands in Stubbing Lane. This branch of the family were Particular Baptists, worshiping at the Hall Green Chapel, and they were prominent in the rows in the late 1830s over the obligation on Nonconformists to pay Church rates. The Brontë children seem to have visited the older generation of Greenwoods, first with their mother, then with their aunt. There was a story in the Greenwood family of Charlotte being rebuked by Martha Greenwood for cheekiness to her aunt, and being told not to come visiting again until she had apologized to her. Relations with the younger generation do not seem to have been close, perhaps because the Brontës took the side of the Springhead branch of what seems to have been a divided family. blackwellreference
  •  The+Greenwoods+of+Bridgehouse/source/Greenwoods/Bridgehouse
  •  families
  •  haworth-village/baptist_church
  • Haworth/beautiful pictures
  • dinsdag 9 oktober 2012

    Wuthering Heights (2011) - Official Trailer

    Anne

    I received this nice reaction from Anne. 
    She is an artist and keeps an interesting weblog.
    I post it here because her reaction is interesting and I love when people share with me their love of the Bronte Sisters!


    "" I love the story of Charlotte's and Mr. Nicholls courtship. It's good to see this fine man finally get his due in these last years. 

    It's no small thing to have won the hand of a Brontë, make her very happy and then protect her legacy for 50 years. Mr. Nicholls created the first Brontë museum in his home after leaving Haworth.

    I also love reading about the 3 times Mr. Nicholls is so overwhelmed by his love for Charlotte, he simply breaks down.
    Of course when he purposed,then the last church service, at Whitsum, ( when the congregation saw his struggle and cried )and when he left the school deeds at the parsonage before leaving Haworth, believing he would not see CB again. As we know, she came out and found him sobbing at the gate. 

    Nicholls was too in love to give up just because those at the parsonage told him to. He persisted and won his prize

    It must of been amazing for Charlotte to see in another a love that was so like the love she felt for Constantin Heger. To relive that huge event in her life, but from another perspective entirely.... this time she walked in Heger's shoes. 

    This had to help Nicholls's cause. Because Charlotte knew so well the pain of unanswered letters, she could not afflict it on another forever...and indeed that was how Arthur started to win her, when she finally answered his letters. 
    Few people were as keen an obverser of human nature than Charlotte Bronte. So it says a great deal about Arthur that the more she got to know him, the better she liked him, until esteem turned to love.

    Her awful loneliness now that the London years were winding down and also the pressing need to somehow replace her father's work while he retained his position also helped Nicolls's cause as he was the answer. But how lovely real happiness came to Charlotte as well. 

    Charlotte's need for such happiness was such, that if even she knew what was ahead, I can't say she would not have gone forward with the marriage anyway.

    We know Nicholls never fully recovered from her loss and his grief remained raw. And I think he too would have said that the few months of his happiness with Charlotte as his wife was worth the subsequent 50 years of grief. This is a great love story and deserves its place in Brontë history""

    Haworth History Pictures

    Breathing life into the birthplace

    Now a group of concerned individuals have got together and formed the Bronte Birthplace Trust (2012) to try to retrieve the house and restore it to its former glory when, in the ownership of the writer Barbara Whitehead, it was a museum and a tourist attraction. In one year people from 17 different countries visited the house.
    “If we can get the house up and running it could have a positive effect on the rest of Market Street. We could start a Bronte trail through Thornton from the house, going on to the Bell Chapel and the church.

    Read all: Breathing life into the birthplace

    maandag 8 oktober 2012

    the Black Bull.



     I, myself, don't believe in ghosts 
    For me this video is interesting 
    because I can look inside
     the Black Bull
    There are more video's on You tube about this subject
    so, if you are interested, you can look on You tube

    zondag 7 oktober 2012

    Welcome to ‘The Old Bell Chapel Action Group’ Homepage



    This year we are celebrating 400 years of St. James Church in Thornton. In the grounds (and graveyard) opposite the modern day St. James Church on Thornton Road in Thornton, you will discover the remains of a building with interesting architecture and a very interesting history.

    Before 1612 the building was known as ‘Saint Leonards’.  For those who enjoy their historical facts, this was at the time when King James was on the throne and a year earlier, in 1611, the King James bible was first published.

    After this date the name changed to ‘Saint James’.  No one knows the reason for the name change.  All we do know, is that a group of local people, including Precilla Bannister and the local freemasons, with the Lord of the Manor, rebuilt the existing chapel and changed the name to St James.  


    In more recent times we have come to affectionately know the building as ‘Bell Chapel’ or ‘Brontë Bell Chapel’.  ‘Brontë Bell Chapel’ is a reference to one of the most recognised times in the Chapel’s history. The Brontë’s were the most famous people baptised in the chapel and Patrick Brontë preached there from 1815 -1820. Thornton village is also the birthplace of the these famous literary figures. brontebellchapel

    The Parlour

    The Parlour

    Parsonage

    Parsonage

    Charlotte Bronte

    Presently the door opened, and in came a superannuated mastiff, followed by an old gentleman very like Miss Bronte, who shook hands with us, and then went to call his daughter. A long interval, during which we coaxed the old dog, and looked at a picture of Miss Bronte, by Richmond, the solitary ornament of the room, looking strangely out of place on the bare walls, and at the books on the little shelves, most of them evidently the gift of the authors since Miss Bronte's celebrity. Presently she came in, and welcomed us very kindly, and took me upstairs to take off my bonnet, and herself brought me water and towels. The uncarpeted stone stairs and floors, the old drawers propped on wood, were all scrupulously clean and neat. When we went into the parlour again, we began talking very comfortably, when the door opened and Mr. Bronte looked in; seeing his daughter there, I suppose he thought it was all right, and he retreated to his study on the opposite side of the passage; presently emerging again to bring W---- a country newspaper. This was his last appearance till we went. Miss Bronte spoke with the greatest warmth of Miss Martineau, and of the good she had gained from her. Well! we talked about various things; the character of the people, - about her solitude, etc., till she left the room to help about dinner, I suppose, for she did not return for an age. The old dog had vanished; a fat curly-haired dog honoured us with his company for some time, but finally manifested a wish to get out, so we were left alone. At last she returned, followed by the maid and dinner, which made us all more comfortable; and we had some very pleasant conversation, in the midst of which time passed quicker than we supposed, for at last W---- found that it was half-past three, and we had fourteen or fifteen miles before us. So we hurried off, having obtained from her a promise to pay us a visit in the spring... ------------------- "She cannot see well, and does little beside knitting. The way she weakened her eyesight was this: When she was sixteen or seventeen, she wanted much to draw; and she copied nimini-pimini copper-plate engravings out of annuals, ('stippling,' don't the artists call it?) every little point put in, till at the end of six months she had produced an exquisitely faithful copy of the engraving. She wanted to learn to express her ideas by drawing. After she had tried to draw stories, and not succeeded, she took the better mode of writing; but in so small a hand, that it is almost impossible to decipher what she wrote at this time.

    I asked her whether she had ever taken opium, as the description given of its effects in Villette was so exactly like what I had experienced, - vivid and exaggerated presence of objects, of which the outlines were indistinct, or lost in golden mist, etc. She replied, that she had never, to her knowledge, taken a grain of it in any shape, but that she had followed the process she always adopted when she had to describe anything which had not fallen within her own experience; she had thought intently on it for many and many a night before falling to sleep, - wondering what it was like, or how it would be, - till at length, sometimes after the progress of her story had been arrested at this one point for weeks, she wakened up in the morning with all clear before her, as if she had in reality gone through the experience, and then could describe it, word for word, as it had happened. I cannot account for this psychologically; I only am sure that it was so, because she said it. ----------------------She thought much of her duty, and had loftier and clearer notions of it than most people, and held fast to them with more success. It was done, it seems to me, with much more difficulty than people have of stronger nerves, and better fortunes. All her life was but labour and pain; and she never threw down the burden for the sake of present pleasure. I don't know what use you can make of all I have said. I have written it with the strong desire to obtain appreciation for her. Yet, what does it matter? She herself appealed to the world's judgement for her use of some of the faculties she had, - not the best, - but still the only ones she could turn to strangers' benefit. They heartily, greedily enjoyed the fruits of her labours, and then found out she was much to be blamed for possessing such faculties. Why ask for a judgement on her from such a world?" elizabeth gaskell/charlotte bronte



    Poem: No coward soul is mine

    No coward soul is mine,
    No trembler in the worlds storm-troubled sphere:
    I see Heavens glories shine,
    And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.


    O God within my breast.
    Almighty, ever-present Deity!
    Life -- that in me has rest,
    As I -- Undying Life -- have power in Thee!


    Vain are the thousand creeds
    That move mens hearts: unutterably vain;
    Worthless as withered weeds,
    Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,


    To waken doubt in one
    Holding so fast by Thine infinity;
    So surely anchored on
    The steadfast Rock of immortality.


    With wide-embracing love
    Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
    Pervades and broods above,
    Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.


    Though earth and man were gone,
    And suns and universes ceased to be,
    And Thou wert left alone,
    Every existence would exist in Thee.


    There is not room for Death,
    Nor atom that his might could render void:
    Thou -- Thou art Being and Breath,
    And what Thou art may never be destroyed.


    --
    Emily Bronte

    Family tree

    The Bronte Family

    Grandparents - paternal
    Hugh Brunty was born 1755 and died circa 1808. He married Eleanor McClory, known as Alice in 1776.

    Grandparents - maternal
    Thomas Branwell (born 1746 died 5th April 1808) was married in 1768 to Anne Carne (baptised 27th April 1744 and died 19th December 1809).

    Parents
    Father was Patrick Bronte, the eldest of 10 children born to Hugh Brunty and Eleanor (Alice) McClory. He was born 17th March 1777 and died on 7th June 1861. Mother was Maria Branwell, who was born on 15th April 1783 and died on 15th September 1821.

    Maria had a sister, Elizabeth who was known as Aunt Branwell. She was born in 1776 and died on 29th October 1842.

    Patrick Bronte married Maria Branwell on 29th December 1812.

    The Bronte Children
    Patrick and Maria Bronte had six children.
    The first child was Maria, who was born in 1814 and died on 6th June 1825.
    The second daughter, Elizabeth was born on 8th February 1815 and died shortly after Maria on 15th June 1825. Charlotte was the third daughter, born on 21st April 1816.

    Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls (born 1818) on 29th June 1854. Charlotte died on 31st March 1855. Arthur lived until 2nd December 1906.

    The first and only son born to Patrick and Maria was Patrick Branwell, who was born on 26th June 1817 and died on 24th September 1848.

    Emily Jane, the fourth daughter was born on 30th July 1818 and died on 19th December 1848.

    The sixth and last child was Anne, born on 17th January 1820 who died on 28th May 1849.

    Top Withens in the snow.

    Top Withens in the snow.

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