A campaign has been launched to buy the birthplace of the Brontës and restore it to its former glory.

Thornton

The issue of the Brontë birthplace is reaching the newspapers. The Yorkshire Post reports that,

A campaign has been launched to buy the birthplace of the Brontës and restore it to its former glory.
The house in Market Street in the village of Thornton, Bradford, was the birthplace of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell before the family moved to Haworth.
Once run as a museum, the house is now unoccupied and thought to have suffered from flooding – but villagers are keen to see its place in the lives of the famous literary family secured for future generations.
Thornton and Allerton councillor, Valerie Binney, who is among those spearheading the campaign, said: “It’s our heritage. Patrick Brontë and his wife lived in that house – he was the vicar of Thornton. We think if we can bring it back to how it was it will regenerate Market Street. If we could get someone to back us and buy it we could then find someone to be the curator and maybe live there – you could get someone who is really interested in the Brontës.”
In the late 1990s the house was bought and restored by the novelist Barbara Whitehead who opened it up as a museum before having to sell the property in 2007.
Councillor Binney said: “When Barbara Whitehead had it we had volunteer guides and opened it up two or three times a week and we had lots of tourists coming to see the Brontës’ birthplace. We want to bring it back to how it was because it is very good for the village.
“I would say it would not cost more than £150,000 to buy. It’s not a fortune by today’s standards.”
The newly-formed Brontë Birthplace Trust (2012) hopes to attract enough funding to buy the property.
Christine Went, heritage and conservation officer for the Brontë Society, said: “We are very much in support of any viable attempt to buy and restore the building.
“As a charity, we cannot involve ourselves with other charities other than moral support but we certainly wish the group well.” bronte blog

Following the birth of their first two children, Maria and Elizabeth, Patrick was transferred o Thornton, and the family moved into the parsonage there in May 1815. It was in this building where their last (and most famous) four children were born: Charlotte on 21 April 1816, Patrick Branwell on 26 June 1817, Emily Jane on 30 July 1818, and Anne on 17 January 1820. mick-armitage

REFERRING to his five years' residence at Thornton, Patrick Bronte wrote in 1835, " My happiest days were spent there." From an old diary, published by Prof. Moore Smith in the 
Bookman, October, 1904, and written by his grandmother, who, as Miss Firth, lived near theBrontes at Thornton in her early days, it is evident that both Mr. and Mrs. Bronte enjoyed 
themselves in a quiet way, visiting and receiving visits from the Firth family, who lived at Kipping, and from Mr. and Mrs. Morgan and uncle Fennell. 

There were very few houses in Thornton at that time, so that Patrick Bronte would be able to get round to his parishioners fairly often; he was always a faithful pastoral visitor. 
Miss Elizabeth Branwell, Mrs. Bronte's sister, spent several months at the Thornton parsonage in 1815 and 1816, and as she is constantly referred to in the diary, it is probable that 
she was responsible for some of the social intercourse between the Brontes and prominent families in the neighbourhood, and was able to render help to Mrs. Bronte in the management 
of her young family. 

Thornton, as the birthplace of Patrick Bronte's famous children Charlotte, born 21st April, 1816 ; Patrick Bran well, 26th June, 1817 ; Emily Jane, 30th July, 1818 ; and Anne, 
17th January, 1820 had not received the recognition which it deserved, until 

Sr. William Scruton published a booklet on the birthplace of Charlotte Bronte in 1884, and fourteen years afterwards an interesting work on Thornton and the 
Brontes. in footsteps of bro chadrich