I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.
Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights

zaterdag 22 november 2014

The Yorkshire Dales - When are you coming?


Moughton Scars, Yorkshire Dales by John Wood, Lancashire - Photos - Yorkshire Life

Haworth Steampunk Weekend

Haworth Victorian Christmas heeft een evenement van Michael Young gedeeld.
 
This weekend! It's the second Haworth Steampunk Weekend. Lots going on in the Methodist Chapel on West Lane and the Community Centre on Butt Lane. Steampunk Market, Exhibition, Tea Duelling and book readings. Map and program of events is only 50p - proceeds to Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice (available from Firth's Boutique Rose & Co. Haworth Visitor Information Centre and Volunteers throughout the village. Come and see what it's all about!

Oxenhope men team up to discover the real locations behind the Bronte sisters' novels

An Oxenhope man is on a mission to track down some of the real life locations which inspired the works of the Bronte sisters. Ian Howard, who began his research in earnest 12 months ago, received a major boost when his friend Josh Chapman provided him with the memoirs of his grandmother, Joanna Hutton, who was the first female curator of the Bronte Parsonage Museum in the 1960s.
Also included amongst the memoirs was an unpublished manuscript by a woman called Dorothy Van Ghent, who died in 1968.

Mr Howard, who works as a landscape gardener, said Dorothy had been trying to locate the same locations he is hunting for. "It was really nice to find out that there was someone else who wasn't sticking to the better known story of which locations the Brontes had used," he said. "It showed that my own ideas weren't just a wild goose chase! "She is very specific about the places she thought the Brontes were referring to, and she was definitely onto something."

He said Josh Chapman's brother Oliver, who like Josh and Ian also lives in Oxenhope, would be making a documentary about the project. Mr Howard said: "Josh has been looking at Google images to spot likely locations on the moors. One of the interesting things about the Brontes was how they were inspired by local legends. "Their books are very cleverly written with a lot of layers of meaning."

Oliver Chapman said his grandmother, who was the last person to actually live in the parsonage, had a fascinating story to tell. "She talks about rich Americans turning up at nine or ten o'clock at night wanting a tour of the parsonage," he said. "The Brontes were her vocation, and it was a subject she spoke very passionately about." He said his grandmother had talked about souvenir hunters damaging items in the parsonage, because they were so keen to grab and make off with fragments of this historic site.

He said it had been revealing to find out how much opposition there had been in his grandmother's time to the idea of a female curator of the parsonage. He noted that some of this opposition had even come from other women.

"The documentary is only in its initial phases so far," he said. "We'll start with a five-minute film and see how that goes. "It'll be very interesting, not least because this is about someone whose ideas about the Brontes are so different from the official version." keighley news

"I don't do snooty" - Bonnie Greer

Bonnie Greer, president of the Brontë Society, responding to a comment in the Yorkshire Post from a member that she might in some way be stand-offish or even 'snooty' - ironically a word often employed by Americans when describing a certain kind of English person, made the following statement to the newspaper:

“One of the reasons that I accepted the Presidency is not only because I love the work of the Brontës, but because both the members and the Council have been welcoming and supportive. And because of Yorkshire - the people and the region. I’ve been London-centered for all of my almost thirty years in this country. So to get away from the south east bubble to somewhere “real” - to me that’s great!
One of the reasons I love Yorkshire is because I, too, don’t do “snooty” and “snobby”. I never have, don’t now, and never will. And believe me, if I felt that there was an atmosphere like that around me, I’d be out of there.
 
I’m not the executive. I don’t manage the day to day running of the museum, but I am the President. I chair the AGM and in between spread the good news of these great literary sisters...especially to young people and diverse communities who may feel that the Brontës hold nothing for them. My first Brontë encounter at an event at the Museum was with a Bradford official, a Muslim man with daughters. We talked about Patrick Brontë and how he allowed his daughters to write. And the man I was talking to was also a father of daughters and was very moved by Patrick’s story - as I am. Next to Emily, he’s the Bronte I connect with the most. He promised to bring his daughters to the Museum.
It is these kind of synergies and interfaces which are crucial for all literary societies going forward in the twenty-first century, not just ours.
 

dinsdag 18 november 2014

The Parsonage of the Brontes and of the Wades

View taken around 1900 showing Wades extension. Also visible is The Barn (to the right of the Parsonage) which was a stonemasons workshop in the Brontes day (and just out of shot of the earliest image). It was demolished in 1903. The top of church lane is visible and part of the sunday school.
 
 
This is such a beautiful, special photo
But...... it is not the way the Brontes knew the Parsonage
The gable wing was added 100 years later by the Rev. John Wade
 
This is the Parsonage as the Brontes knew
 

 

maandag 17 november 2014

Haworth. Winter and allready a little Christmas time.

Thank you:  Haworth Brontescapes
 
 
  


 
 

St. Michael & All Angels Parish Church

 
 
 
Patrick Bronte had first been asked to come to Haworth in 1819 by the Bishop of Bradford. However, the Bishop had gone over the church trustee’s heads in appointing Bronte, so they were against the idea. Feeling he could not become incumbent of Haworth without the trustee’s support, Bronte declined the position and Samuel Redhead was appointed in his place. As Redhead had also been appointed without consulting the trustees, the parishioners of Haworth were understandably riled, and their unruly behaviour lead to Redhead becoming the shortest serving incumbent in the church’s history, lasting only 6 weeks.

 
In 1820, with the trustee’s agreement, Patrick began the 41 years he would spend as Vicar of Haworth Parish Church. Patrick was a conscientious priest, carrying out his duties as well as directing the National and Sunday Schools. Patrick’s Sunday School is still standing today, you can find out more information about it here. He was a talented preacher and this combined with the high birthrate meant he baptised around 290 children a year. Unfortunately due to the fact that at that time, the life expectancy in Haworth was only around 22 years of age, and 40% of children dying before their 6th birthday, Bronte also held many funerals.

 
Patrick Bronte’s memory is sometimes overshadowed by that of his famous and talented children. Yet in Haworth, then a small, busy, over-crowded mill town, he made a lasting difference to the population with his improvements in education and sanitation as well as performing the role of a popular rural vicar. Text: haworthchurch/the-brontes
 
 

Scroggling the Holly 2012


 
Published on Dec 24, 2012
Scroggling the Holly marks the start of the festive season in Haworth, and is a modern ceremony involving gathering holly to decorate the town. Expect lots of Victorian-style fancy dress (Haworth is of course the hometown of the famous Bronte sisters who dwelt at the Parsonage in the nineteenth century) in a procession with morris men,chimney sweeps, a holly cart, brass bands and other musicians and entertainers. The parade goes up the cobbles from the Christmas Tree to the church, where the Holly Queen is crowned on the steps before the gates are opened with a special key to admit the spirit of Christmas and Santa.

To find out more about British calendar customs and traditions, visit http://calendarcustoms.com/
 

Portraits of publicity-shy Brontë sister examined — University of Leicester

Portraits of publicity-shy Brontë sister examined — University of Leicester

Dr North said: “Charlotte Brontë has always been seen as a writer who was shy of publicity and wanted to "walk invisible".  “But the evidence suggests that she thought carefully about how her reputation might be shaped through portraits – and that she was less modest in her self-image than has previously been recognised.

The Parlour

The Parlour

Parsonage

Parsonage

Charlotte Bronte

Presently the door opened, and in came a superannuated mastiff, followed by an old gentleman very like Miss Bronte, who shook hands with us, and then went to call his daughter. A long interval, during which we coaxed the old dog, and looked at a picture of Miss Bronte, by Richmond, the solitary ornament of the room, looking strangely out of place on the bare walls, and at the books on the little shelves, most of them evidently the gift of the authors since Miss Bronte's celebrity. Presently she came in, and welcomed us very kindly, and took me upstairs to take off my bonnet, and herself brought me water and towels. The uncarpeted stone stairs and floors, the old drawers propped on wood, were all scrupulously clean and neat. When we went into the parlour again, we began talking very comfortably, when the door opened and Mr. Bronte looked in; seeing his daughter there, I suppose he thought it was all right, and he retreated to his study on the opposite side of the passage; presently emerging again to bring W---- a country newspaper. This was his last appearance till we went. Miss Bronte spoke with the greatest warmth of Miss Martineau, and of the good she had gained from her. Well! we talked about various things; the character of the people, - about her solitude, etc., till she left the room to help about dinner, I suppose, for she did not return for an age. The old dog had vanished; a fat curly-haired dog honoured us with his company for some time, but finally manifested a wish to get out, so we were left alone. At last she returned, followed by the maid and dinner, which made us all more comfortable; and we had some very pleasant conversation, in the midst of which time passed quicker than we supposed, for at last W---- found that it was half-past three, and we had fourteen or fifteen miles before us. So we hurried off, having obtained from her a promise to pay us a visit in the spring... ------------------- "She cannot see well, and does little beside knitting. The way she weakened her eyesight was this: When she was sixteen or seventeen, she wanted much to draw; and she copied nimini-pimini copper-plate engravings out of annuals, ('stippling,' don't the artists call it?) every little point put in, till at the end of six months she had produced an exquisitely faithful copy of the engraving. She wanted to learn to express her ideas by drawing. After she had tried to draw stories, and not succeeded, she took the better mode of writing; but in so small a hand, that it is almost impossible to decipher what she wrote at this time.

I asked her whether she had ever taken opium, as the description given of its effects in Villette was so exactly like what I had experienced, - vivid and exaggerated presence of objects, of which the outlines were indistinct, or lost in golden mist, etc. She replied, that she had never, to her knowledge, taken a grain of it in any shape, but that she had followed the process she always adopted when she had to describe anything which had not fallen within her own experience; she had thought intently on it for many and many a night before falling to sleep, - wondering what it was like, or how it would be, - till at length, sometimes after the progress of her story had been arrested at this one point for weeks, she wakened up in the morning with all clear before her, as if she had in reality gone through the experience, and then could describe it, word for word, as it had happened. I cannot account for this psychologically; I only am sure that it was so, because she said it. ----------------------She thought much of her duty, and had loftier and clearer notions of it than most people, and held fast to them with more success. It was done, it seems to me, with much more difficulty than people have of stronger nerves, and better fortunes. All her life was but labour and pain; and she never threw down the burden for the sake of present pleasure. I don't know what use you can make of all I have said. I have written it with the strong desire to obtain appreciation for her. Yet, what does it matter? She herself appealed to the world's judgement for her use of some of the faculties she had, - not the best, - but still the only ones she could turn to strangers' benefit. They heartily, greedily enjoyed the fruits of her labours, and then found out she was much to be blamed for possessing such faculties. Why ask for a judgement on her from such a world?" elizabeth gaskell/charlotte bronte



Poem: No coward soul is mine

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the worlds storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heavens glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.


O God within my breast.
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life -- that in me has rest,
As I -- Undying Life -- have power in Thee!


Vain are the thousand creeds
That move mens hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,


To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by Thine infinity;
So surely anchored on
The steadfast Rock of immortality.


With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.


Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.


There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou -- Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.


--
Emily Bronte

Family tree

The Bronte Family

Grandparents - paternal
Hugh Brunty was born 1755 and died circa 1808. He married Eleanor McClory, known as Alice in 1776.

Grandparents - maternal
Thomas Branwell (born 1746 died 5th April 1808) was married in 1768 to Anne Carne (baptised 27th April 1744 and died 19th December 1809).

Parents
Father was Patrick Bronte, the eldest of 10 children born to Hugh Brunty and Eleanor (Alice) McClory. He was born 17th March 1777 and died on 7th June 1861. Mother was Maria Branwell, who was born on 15th April 1783 and died on 15th September 1821.

Maria had a sister, Elizabeth who was known as Aunt Branwell. She was born in 1776 and died on 29th October 1842.

Patrick Bronte married Maria Branwell on 29th December 1812.

The Bronte Children
Patrick and Maria Bronte had six children.
The first child was Maria, who was born in 1814 and died on 6th June 1825.
The second daughter, Elizabeth was born on 8th February 1815 and died shortly after Maria on 15th June 1825. Charlotte was the third daughter, born on 21st April 1816.

Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls (born 1818) on 29th June 1854. Charlotte died on 31st March 1855. Arthur lived until 2nd December 1906.

The first and only son born to Patrick and Maria was Patrick Branwell, who was born on 26th June 1817 and died on 24th September 1848.

Emily Jane, the fourth daughter was born on 30th July 1818 and died on 19th December 1848.

The sixth and last child was Anne, born on 17th January 1820 who died on 28th May 1849.

Top Withens in the snow.

Top Withens in the snow.

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