Haworth and the Black Bull

Black Bull in winter

De stoel van Branwell Bronte in the Black Bull

Haworth, the home of the Bronte family, is almost as famous as Stratford-upon-Avon as a place for literary pilgrimage. The Revd Patrick Bronte brought his family to live in the parsonage at Haworth in 1820 and it is now kept as a museum. At the top of the steep and cobbled main street is the Black Bull, with its gritstone walls blackened by years of smoke pollution from the former tall chimneys of the local woollen mills. Branwell Bronte, the artistically frustrated brother of Charlotte, Emily and Anne spent many hours drinking at the Black Bull and eventually, in 1845, his consumption of alcohol and opium killed him. Emily caught a chill at his funeral and died just 10 days later, not living to receive the acclaim to her novel 'Wuthering Heights'.

Today the Black Bull inside is a touristy open-plan pub with the focus on good value food but in Branwell's day it would have been divided into a series of small dark rooms. According to Mrs Gaskell, Branwell's great conversational talents: "procured him the undesirable distinction of having his company recommended by the landlord of the Black Bull to any chance traveller who might happen to feel solitary or dull over his liquor". Across the Main street is the Apothecary. It was the house of the pharmacist at the time of the Brontes, where Branwell Bronte bought laudanum, an opium derived drug

rose apothecary from Haworth

Uitzicht vanuit de voortuin van The Parsonage in Haworth