""At home with the Brontes"" from Ann Dinsdale

With a lot of interest I am reading

""At home with the Brontes"" from Ann Dinsdale

I never realized that other families were living in the Parsonage

I knew about Rev. Wade, but

that children were born and people died in the Parsonage

is what I realise while reading this book

It is nice to read the history of these people

 and to read how they experienced the Parsonage

 

 John Wade 1861-1898

Thomas William Story 1898-1919

George Alfred Elson 1919-1925

John Crosland Hirst 1925-1928

 

 

 There was no official parsonage at Haworth until the arrival of Grimshaw’s successor, the Reverend John Richardson. The Parsonage, or Glebe House as it was known, was built of millstone grit, quarried from nearby moors.

 

After Richardson came Reverend James Charnock, and following his death, Henry Heap, Vicar of Bradford, nominated Patrick Bronte, Perpetual Curate of Thornton, as his successor.

Patrick moved in with his family in April, 1820, and the following year, his wife Maria died of cancer. In later years, Charlotte remembers her mother “in the evening light, playing with her young son Branwell in the Parsonage dining room”. Ann describes in detail the layout of the Brontes’ home, drawing on Charlotte and Patrick’s accounts of domestic life.

 

Patrick was succeeded by rectors John Wade, Thomas Story, George Elson – who was there when the first film of Wuthering Heights was shot in Haworth, drawing great crowds – and John Crosland Hirst. When the Bronte Society acquired the Parsonage in 1927, the Hirst family reluctantly left their home for a new rectory.

 

 

Harold Mitchell

 

Harold Mitchell, a 32-year-old ex-serviceman, was appointed first custodian for the museum, which was drawing around 4,000 annual visitors. Harold sold postcards and souvenirs in the old kitchen and his younger sons Trevor and Eric were born in the Mitchells’ living accommodation, separated by a glass-panelled door.

“Bringing up three boys in a literary shrine must have been difficult,” writes Ann. “Noisy games had to be curtailed and, from an early age, the boys were very conscious of what they called ‘the family next door’.” The family kept a pet owl in the kitchen, and Eric recalls meeting famous visitors at the museum, including Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and Daphne du Maurier. One of his earliest memories was being photographed on the Parsonage steps with James Roosevelt, son of the American president. During the war, the Parsonage remained open – films such as the 1939 Wuthering Heights adaptation starring Laurence Olivier fuelled Brontemania – and troops stationed at Haworth Sunday school would use the Parsonage bathroom. In 1961, Harold Mitchell retired and new curator Geoffrey Beard moved into a flat behind the Parsonage with his young family. They lasted just 18 months, leaving the Bronte Society facing a security crisis.

Enter 30-year-old Joanna Hutton, who first visited the Parsonage as a child. Born into an acting family – her father, Arthur Brough, was Mr Grainger in Are You Being Served?
Living on the premises, Joanna was never off duty and visitors regularly turned up out of hours.
In 1968, Joanna left the Parsonage and set up the museum bookshop on Main Street. Her successor was Norman Raistrick whose appointment coincided with the busiest period in the museum’s history, thanks partly to 1970s TV programmes, including Blue Peter, filmed there. The house also appeared in 1970 film The Railway Children. thetelegraphandargus

news.google.com/dispute Johanna Hutton

 

Bronte Society Members outside the Parsonage in 1899

 

 

Raymond Mitchell pictured with animals at the back of the parsonage

examiner./family-history-family-life-bronts

 

------------------ 



In 1874 Wade added a new gabled North and West wing to the Parsonage including new fireplaces and removal of the old kitchen range. The back kitchen was demolished to make was for a large kitchen extension. The ground floor level was raised by several inches by laying a wooden floor over the existing flags in the study and dining room in an effort to make the house warmer. Wade put in new fireplaces and mantle pieces. The wainscot was removed and replaced by skirting boards. The whole staircase has probably been replaced at some point and the banisters have certainly been replaced.  brontesremembered