Great-great Grandad knew the Brontes

Read the article: here
Giggleswick historian WR Mitchell ponders on the strange but compelling story of Dr. William Cartman, his great-great grandfather on his mother’s side. He was headmaster of Ermysted’s Grammar School, Skipton, for over three decades and included the Bronte family among his friends. Cartman often took services at Haworth Church and dined with the Brontes at the Parsonage. He officiated at the funeral services for both Charlotte Bronte and her father.
William Cartman, the former head-master at Ermysted's Grammar School, Skipton, who was a friend of the Brontes
The friendship between Patrick Bronte and William Cartman dated from the time when Patrick was curate at Haworth and William had become curate at Bingley. A Lambeth Doctor of Divinity was awarded to him by the Archbishop of Canterbury in recognition of his powers as a preacher.
Cartman cherished his continuing Haworth connection. He often preached from the three-decker pulpit of Haworth Old Church after which he would join Patrick, a widower, and daughter Charlotte for a meal at the Parsonage.
A generous man, in January 1854 Cartman presented Bronte with “an ice apparatus” (a pair of heel spikes). In thanking Cartman for his gift, the pastor wrote that he valued the gift “as much for the sake of the donor as its own intrinsic worth. It will serve as another prop to Old Age”. Charlotte, in a missive to “Dear Papa”, expressed pleasure that “you continue in pretty good health” and that “Mr Cartman came to help you on Sunday.”
Tales about Cartman were relayed to me by Grannie Cartman, a dumpy, black-clad figure, by appearance not unlike Queen Victoria. My paternal grandfather, a devout Methodist who lived at Bradley, wrote sentimental articles about the Brontes, interspersing his observations with verses from hymns.
As a lad, I visited Haworth with my father at least once a year, usually in winter when the graveyard twixt church and parsonage was damp and mossy, the silence broken only by husky-voiced rooks.
Old Haworth had a sense of mystery that vanished with the clearance, from the bottom of the street, of what someone called “a hotch-potch of snickets and allotments”. It was part of a scheme to improve the traffic flow. A descendant of Jack Toothill, the village barber, told me he charged three farthings for a shave. Patrick Bronte was among his customers.

Photo: William Cartman, the former head-master at Ermysted's Grammar School, Skipton, who was a friend of the Bronte

Biography of Charlotte Brontë

Read: Poetry foundation Charlotte BronteBrontë's poems after her return to Roe Head reflect her longing for home and for Angria as well as her anxious need to reconcile her desire to write with the necessity of continuing to teach to earn a living. The most famous of these poems, sometimes anthologized as "Retrospection," begins poignantly:      We wove a web in childhood

A web of sunny air

We dug a spring in infancy

Of water pure and fair

We sowed in youth a mustard seed

We cut an almond rod

We are now grown up to riper age

Are they withered in the sod. . . .
The poem continues for 177 more lines, developing into vividly realized scenes featuring the Duke of Zamorna. The poem then breaks into a retrospective prose narrative that is rudely interrupted by "a voice that dissipated all the charm" as a student "thrust her little rough black head into [her teacher's] face" to demand, "Miss Brontë what are you thinking about?"--a striking example of the incompatibility of Brontë's inner, imaginative life with her actual experience while at Roe Head. 

More ideas for reading:
BIBLIOGRAPHIES:

• Thomas J. Wise, A Bibliography of the Writings in Prose and Verse of the Members of the Brontë Family(London: Clay, 1917).
• Jami Parkison, "Charlotte Brontë: A Bibliography of 19th Century Criticism," Bulletin of Bibliography, 35 (1978): 73-83.
• G. Anthony Yablon and John R. Turner, A Brontë Bibliography(London: Hodgkins, 1978; Westport, Conn.: Meckler, 1978).
• Anne Passel, Charlotte and Emily Brontë: An Annotated Bibliography(New York: Garland, 1979).
• Christine Alexander, A Bibliography of the Manuscripts of Charlotte Brontë(Westport, Conn.: Meckler, for The Brontë Society, 1982).
• Rebecca W. Crump, Charlotte and Emily Brontë: A Reference Guide, (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982-1986).

BIOGRAPHIES:

• Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, third edition, revised, 2 volumes (London: Smith, Elder, 1857).
• Clement Shorter, The Brontës: Life and Letters, 2 volumes (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908).
• Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington, eds., The Brontës: Their Lives, Friendships, and Correspondence, The Shakespeare Head Brontë, 4 volumes (Oxford: Blackwell, 1932).
• Winifred Gérin, Charlotte Brontë: The Evolution of Genius(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967).
• Margot Peters, Unquiet Soul: A Biography of Charlotte Brontë(New York: Doubleday, 1975).
• Rebecca Fraser, Charlotte Brontë(London: Methuen, 1988).
• Lyndall Gordon, Charlotte Brontë: A Passionate Life(London: Chatto & Windus, 1994; New York: Norton, 1995).
• Juliet Barker, The Brontës (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994).

REFERENCES:

• Christine Alexander, The Early Writings of Charlotte Brontë(Oxford: Blackwell, 1983).
• Miriam Allott, The Brontës: The Critical Heritage(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974).
• Carol Bock, "Gender and Poetic Tradition: The Shaping of Charlotte Brontë's Literary Career," Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, 7 (1988): 49-67.
• Sue Lonoff, "Charlotte Brontë's Belgian Essays: The Discourse of Empowerment," Victorian Studies, 32 (1989): 387-409.
• Virginia Woolf, "'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights,'" in her The Common Reader, first series (London: Hogarth Press, 1925), pp. 196-204.

2-12- 1906 Death of Arthur Bell Nicholls.

 

Arthur made his way to Hill House where he joined his aunt and cousin, Mary Anna. He became a small farmer, giving up the Church altogether. Martha Brown, one of the faithful Brontë servants came over from time to time and took over the housekeeping. She had nursed Charlotte and was one of Arthur's last links with the old days. When he was forty three and Mary Anna thirty two they decided to get married. She had always loved her cousin and he was fond of her. They married in 1864 and the ceremony was performed by Rev. Joseph Bell, Mary Anna's brother, and Arthur's cousin. It seemed to be more of a marriage of convenience, a friendship than anything else. There were no children of the marriage. Arthur died in 1906 at the age of eighty eight and Mary Ann in 1915 aged eighty five. They are both buried across the road from Hill House in the Churchyard of St. Paul's. Arthur's aunt, Mary Anna's mother, lived to the great age of 101, dying in 1902, a wonderful old lady. Arthur never recovered from Charlotte's death. He loved her to the end of his long life. He and Patrick Brontë were very different personalities, but it is curious to see how much they had in common, and of course Charlotte will always link them together.

From: lisburn.com/books/historical_society 

A lot of Photographs of Banagher, including the grave of Arthur Bell Nicolls:  http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/banagher

Hand Loom Weaving in Yorkshire

From:  Bancrofts from Yorkshire

There are many examples of 18th and 19th Century Bancroft families earning a living from hand loom weaving in their homes, before the invention of machinery, which made production on a large scale possible in the mills, and spelt the demise of this cottage industry.

My G/G/G Grandfather Joseph Bancroft [1755-1838] was a hand loom weaver all his life. He had 4 children with his first wife, Judith Smith, who died at the early age of only 34 years, and then went on to have a further 11 children with his second wife Ellen [Nelly] Bradley. Even at the time of his death at the grand old age of 82 years was still listed as a weaver. [An interesting fact on his burial record at Haworth, is the signature of Patrick Bronte, the famous vicar at Haworth at the time.] You will notice his cause of death on the death certificate was given as 'Old Age' which I guess is understandable, bearing in mind that there cannot have been many people who reached the age of eighty-two and three-quarters in 1838 !
Many Bancroft families, who were involved with farming, also had a hand loom in the house to supplement their income, particularly in the winter months, when there was a large family to feed and cloth. I wrote an article some time ago called ‘Auction at Fairplace Farm’ which  describes the contents of an Isaac Bancroft’s farm, called Fairplace near Cowling. When the contents of his farm was auctioned off in 1841, as well as all the usual farming implements he also had three looms!....which shows how the family all helped out to bring a bit more money into the household.
Read more:bancroftsfromyorkshire

Haworth Local Board of Health 1851 - 1860

The first recorded meeting of The Haworth Local Board of Health was on 1st December 1851.

Local Boards of Health were set up in England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. There were many diseases prevalent at the time caused by epidemics such as cholera. Boards of Health were given power to supply clean water, improving sewers and streets, and regulating premises such as slaughterhouses.

It is due to the hard work by Patrick Bronte who petitioned for a Local Board of Health in the area that was granted in 1851. Haworth Local Board of Health held its last meeting on 28th December 1894.
haworth-village/history/urban-council

Christmas Events in Yorkshire

http://www.yorkshire.com/

The clocks have gone back and it's starting to feel more festive in Yorkshire. So we thought we'd share a selection of Christmas themed Yorkshire activities and events to get you in the spirit!

Make sure you check out our Yorkshire Christmas Advent Calendar for loads of great prizes!

English Heritage This Christmas

English Heritage have 14 historic properties in Yorkshire, here's a selection of what's happening this Christmas.

• An Audience with Victorian Father Christmas at Clifford's Tower, York 26th - 27th November.
• Find all about a Victorian Christmas at Helmsley Castle, North Yorkshire, 3rd - 4th December.
• Enjoy Christmas Choirs at Brodsworth Hall & Gardens, South Yorkshire, 4th, 11th and 18th December.
• Learn new skills and try your hand at Christmas cake decorating at Brodsworth Hall & Gardens, South Yorkshire on 9th December.
• What would it of been like at a Victorian Christmas with a Butler find out at Mount Grace Priory, Northallerton, 10th - 11th December.
• Listen to Christmas Carols at Rievaulx Abbey, Helmsley on 18th December.

State of The Heart - I Believe In Father Christmas (Haworth - Bronte Country)

White Christmas Haworth Main Street

Its Christmas all the way

From: Abigails ateliers/hello-christmas

Tomorrow is the last of my historical talks from now on its Christmas all the way, Christmas talks, carols in church, time to hunt for our Christmas tree. Last year we went to buy one the second week in Dec and couldnt find one anywhere, we ended up having to use our old fake one. New Christmas hats for the talks but also time to say hi to an old friend as its back to wearing my lovely deep red tartan Christmas dress. 

Bronte Bears

Ferndean Manor is home of the Bronte  Bears, 

A delightful family of highly collectable teddy bears based on the Bronte family and their books. Made in-house in our own workshops and with individually hand crafted clothing. Buying a Bronte Bear is a wonderful occasion in itself. Join our designer over a  coffee by our roaring fire to discuss our range of designs and costumes. A Beary, beary special  experience.
Ferndean manor

London

London, St Paul's Cathedral, West Front in the 1890' soldukphotoslondon

Again

 I am searching

 for weblogs

 with information 

about the Brontes.

From the Sleepless reader: 

I think I mentioned before that I’m a member of the Brussels Brontë Group. (Brussels bronte) Charlotte and Emily lived here for a while and their experiences inspired Charlotte to write The Professor and Villette. The Group has about 50 members of 20 nationalities. We organize talks, Brontë city walks, visits to museums and last weekend 25 of us went on a Literary Weekend to London.

We lunched at the Stand Hotel with the London Brontë Society. According to them the Hotel is exactly on the spot where Charlotte and her editor George Smith came to visit aphrenologist. The “report” is still available at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.

The group next to St. Paul’s cathedral. Charlotte visited it during a trip to London in 1842: Above my head, above the house-tops, co-elevate almost with the clouds, I saw a solemn, orbed mass, dark-blue and dim – THE DOME. While I looked, my inner self moved; my spirit shook its always-fetted wings half loose; I had a sudden feeling as if I, who had never truly lived, were at last about to taste life. (Villete) 

The group admiring the wooden door of 32 Cornhill. The bottom right-hand panel was carved to commemorate the first visit of Charlotte and Anne to their publisher in 1848 

the Sleepless reader/the-Brussels-Bronte-group-literary-weekend-in-london/, 

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Phrenology was popular in the 1800s and the early 1900s. Phrenologists claimed that by feeling the lumps and bumps of the skull (and thus the underlying brain) they could determine someone’s character and personality. Although phrenology became popular with large numbers of people in the 1800s, it soon became controversial within medical circles, and was eventually dismissed by the medical profession as quackery. The subject was always controversial in medical circles.sciencemuseum

Branwell Brontë and his friends. Enoch Thomas, the Innkeeper of the King's Arms

It sits squarely at the entrance to Church Street, which winds up to the Brontë Parsonage, past the church, graveyard and schoolrooms, where Charlotte taught.

In 1841 the Innkeeper of the King's Arms, Enoch Thomas, also ran The Black Bull and was a good friend and confident of Branwell Brontë. He suffered terrible bouts of depression, which Patrick Brontë referred to as "a very severe and great affliction". Branwell nicknamed him 'Devil's Thumb'.

A later Landlord, Joseph Fox, was a confectioner by profession and provided the fare for Emily Brontë's funeral feast.

jacksons.familytreeguide.com/

The Talbot Hotel, Kirkgate.

The Talbot Hotel, Kirkgate.The hotel stood on the corner of Kirkgate and Darley Street; the site is occupied in 2006 by Superdrug and Orange. It dated back to 1677 and was once a famous coaching inn. The dimensions were considerable - the building stretched down to the beck and contained the old Piece Hall within its gardens. It was rebuilt in 1879 with the creation of Bank Street. The New Talbot closed in March 1974. The talbot is a type of bloodhound and stone replicas of the dog went missing from the pub upon its sale in 1974. These were later put on sale at Sotheby's in Chester. The original hound above the entrance was made of wood and bought by Mr Edward Hailstone of Wakefield who died in 1891. Branwell Bronte is said to have frequented the hotel whist lodging in Fountain Street.

bradlibs.com/localstudies/vtc/lostbradford/talbothotel