Nature and wildlife October

Nature and wildlife October

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

Haworth homes plan comes under attack by Bronte guardians

One of the world’s most famous literary societies has warned that plans for up to 320 homes on Green Belt land in Bronte country could undermine the area’s heritage tourism.

It is next to a lane to Oxenhope known as “Charlotte’s Path” after Jane Eyre author Charlotte Bronte, where she and her future husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls, held clandestine meetings before they were  married. thetelegraphandargus

 I have walked the route many times, and it has the happiest connections to the courtship and wedding of Charlotte Brontë and Arthur Bell Nicholls.  bronte parsonage
--------------------

Arthur Bell Nicholls, the curate who assisted Patrick Brontë in the parish, had proposed to Charlotte without consulting him. Charlotte's father knew Nicholls was penniless, without even the incumbency of a parish, which is what had enabled Patrick Brontë to provide for a family—and in no grand style, either. Patrick Brontë believed that Nicholls was after Charlotte's money, as her books were selling well, and he was furious that Nicholls should seek to win his daughter without the courtesy of a man-to-man discussion first. Losing his hot Irish temper, he criticized his future son-in-law in the harshest language every time the poor man's name came up.

Nor was Patrick Brontë the only person who opposed Nicholls' marriage proposal. The Brontë family servants (who were like family since they had served there for decades) also roundly criticized him, and so did Charlotte's old friend Ellen Nussey. (Brontës, 726, 735) Charlotte Brontë—who had never particularly noticed Arthur Bell Nicholls before the proposal—found herself in the unlikely position of his champion, defending Nicholls' character against the irate critics who surrounded her since she seemed to be the only person who was keeping a cool head about the whole affair. In this way, she began to see and appreciate her suitor's fine qualities. If those around Charlotte had been calmer about the proposal, it is very possible that Charlotte wouldn't have given him a second thought. (Brontës, 732)

Into the middle of this quarrel came Mrs. Gaskell on her first visit to Haworth. (Brontës, 738-741) She had learned about the proposal and its obstacles from Charlotte's letters, and her romantic heart found it tragic and disgraceful that this Romeo and Juliet should be kept apart. What she failed to take into account was Charlotte's own ambivalence about the love affair. Charlotte wasn't sure whether she was even interested in Nicholls, so her father's opposition to the match gave her the perfect excuse. She could act passive and resigned, and no one would be offended: not her father, who felt guilty for upsetting her; not Arthur Bell Nicholls, who was managing to carry on a quiet correspondence with her behind her father's back; and certainly not the romantic Mrs. Gaskell, who concluded that her poor friend was a persecuted saint. All negative attention could direct itself to the obstinate Patrick Brontë—and while his future son-in-law never blamed him, Mrs. Gaskell certainly did. (Brontës, 741)

But Charlotte was not generally passive and resigned, and she did not stay so now. As soon as she made up her mind, she went straight to her father and her suitor and told them how things were to be. She was going to marry Arthur Bell Nicholls, and she was not going to leave either her father or her home. Nicholls would return to Haworth to live in the parsonage with them, and he would resume his old occupation as curate, carrying out her father's duties so that the elderly Patrick Brontë could retire. (Brontës, 748)

One wonders how Patrick Brontë felt when she laid down the law like that, but he had not opposed any of his children when their minds were made up, and he did not do so now. "Papa's mind seems wholly changed about this matter," Charlotte writes. "And he has said both to me and when I was not there – how much happier he feels since he allowed all to be settled." (Brontës, 750) Charlotte and Nicholls married on June 29, 1854, and were very happy together, but that happiness was not to be long-lived; she died before they reached their first anniversary. Arthur Bell Nicholls then went on to take care of his aged father-in-law until Patrick Brontë's death six years later. A very close friendship sprang up between these formerly bitter rivals for Charlotte's affection, and when Patrick Brontë died, his son-in-law was so devastated by the loss that he could barely manage to walk in the funeral procession, physically supported by a friend. (Brontës, 821) clare dunkle br myths

----------------
‘Haworth, April 11th, 1854

‘Dear Ellen,
‘Mr. Nicholls came on Monday, and was here all last week.  Matters have progressed thus since July.  He renewed his visit in September, but then matters so fell out that I saw little of him.  He continued to write.  The correspondence pressed on my mind.  I grew very miserable in keeping it from papa.  At last sheer pain made me gather courage to break it.  I told all.  It was very hard and rough work at the time, but the issue after a few days was that I obtained leave to continue the communication.  Mr. Nicholls came in January; he was ten days in the neighbourhood.  I saw much of him.  I had stipulated with papa for opportunity to become better acquainted.  I had it, and all I learnt inclined me to esteem and affection.  Still papa was very, very hostile, bitterly unjust.

‘I told Mr. Nicholls the great obstacle that lay in his way.  He has persevered.  The result of this, his last visit, is, that papa’s consent is gained, that his respect, I believe, is won, for Mr. Nicholls has in all things proved himself disinterested and forbearing.  Certainly, I must respect him, nor can I withhold from him more than mere cool respect.  In fact, dear Ellen, I am engaged.

p. 486‘Mr. Nicholls, in the course of a few months, will return to the curacy of Haworth.  I stipulated that I would not leave papa; and to papa himself I proposed a plan of residence which should maintain his seclusion and convenience uninvaded, and in a pecuniary sense bring him gain instead of loss.  What seemed at one time impossible is now arranged, and papa begins really to take a pleasure in the prospect. gutenberg

On this day in 1856 Elizabeth Gaskell wrote of Charlotte Bronte: "leaving all authorship on one side, her character as a woman was unusual to the point of being unique. I never heard or read of anyone who was for an instant, or in any respect, to be compared to her. And everything she did and every word she said and wrote bore the impress of this remarkable character."

The Bronte Parsonage Museum is to be redecorated

The Telegraph and Argus looks at what will happen there during this year's closed period:
The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth is to be redecorated so that it looks more like the famous sisters' home than ever before. Decorators will draw on the research of specialists into what the building's interiors looked like in the mid-19th century. The “decorative archaeology” was carried out last winter while the museum underwent its annual two-month closure. After the museum closes at the end of autumn, the restoration work will begin, ready for its reopening in February.
The museum, which is run by the Brontë Society, said it wanted to offer visitors a "more authentic Brontë experience". The refurbishment will be followed in March by an exhibition titled Heaven Is a Home: the Story of the Brontës' Parsonage.

DIFFERENT STYLES OF DECORATIONS THROUGH THE YEARS

I am very curious what it will be after the coming restoration

In Search of the Brontës in Brussels

From: 

bronteparsonage/in-search-of-brontes-in-brussels

As I began planning for my day in Brussels, I was astounded by how little information is available about the Brontë sights in modern-day Brussels, but, through the magic of the internet, I found a little book entitled Brussels for Pleasure that details thirteen walks around the city and included one called “Charlotte Brontë and the royal quarter.”  Many of the sights that I had wanted to visit from The Professor, Villette and from the letters Charlotte wrote during her time in Brussels were included in the walk. Read more on Bronte Parsonage blog