April is Charlotte’s month and we will be celebrating her 199th birthday at the museum on Tuesday. (April 21

SPRING has truly sprung in Haworth and the museum has welcomed lots of visitors over the Easter holiday. Our events and activities continue to be popular with families, and people of all ages enjoyed encountering Tabby - the Brontë family’s servant - and Charlotte’s friend Ellen Nussey during their visit. April is Charlotte’s month and we will be celebrating her 199th birthday at the museum on Tuesday. (April 21) Visitors to the museum on that day will have the opportunity to meet our collections manager, Ann Dinsdale, in the library and get a close-up view of some of Charlotte’s personal possessions. Sessions will be held at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm and will be free with admission to the museum. Places will be limited and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, so be sure not to time your visit too late!

We have a busy weekend in the run up to Charlotte’s birthday.
Tomorrow at 7.30pm, William Atkins, author of The Moor: Life, Landscape, Literature will be giving a talk at West Lane Baptist Centre in Haworth. The book is described as a mixture of history, literary criticism and nature writing, and Haworth Moor has a starring role! The event is part of our Contemporary Arts Programme and tickets cost £6.

On Saturday one of our museum assistants, Charissa Hutchins, is staging an opera concert at the Old School Rooms in Haworth. Charissa and other young professional opera singers will perform some light opera classics before giving a rare presentation of the final act of Bernard Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights. Half of the proceeds will be donated to the Bronte Society and tickets costing £7 (£5 concessions) can be ordered via charissa_bronte@outlook.com. On Sunday you can join Ann Dinsdale for cream tea at historic Ponden Hall, thought by many to be the inspiration for Thrushcross Grange in Wuthering Heights. Ann will be sharing the latest news from the museum in what is sure to be a real treat of an event. More information can be found at ponden-hall.co.uk. And finally, back to Charlotte’s birthday.

This year will mark 199 years since her birth in Thornton, which means that 2016 will be a very significant year for the Brontë Society.

Next year will see the commencement of a five-year programme celebrating the bicentenaries of all the Brontë siblings: Charlotte in 2016; Branwell in 2017; Emily in 2018 and Anne in 2020.
During 2019, the Brontë Society will be celebrating Patrick Brontë and his role in the parish of Haworth. It’s a very busy and exciting time for everyone at the museum and we will be working with some very interesting partners over the next five years, so if you aren’t already on our mailing list, be sure to sign up soon! To launch the countdown to the Charlotte’s bicentenary, we are hosting a celebration at 6pm on Tuesday at her Thornton birthplace, now Emily’s by De Luca Boutique.
This will be a very special occasion and we will be unveiling some of our plans for 2016 and beyond. Visit our website bronte.org.uk for full details and booking information. keighleynews

Happy birthday Maria Bronte

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Maria Branwell, mother to the six Bronte children. We're sure she would have been very proud of this quilt sewn by Charlotte, Emily and Anne. It's too fragile to be displayed but staff have been fortunate enough to have a rare glimpse of it in the Library this morning. facebook./photos Facebook page of the parsonage.

 

Maria Branwell (15 April 1783 – 15 September 1821) was the mother of British writers Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë and Charlotte Brontë, and of their brother, Branwell Brontë, who was a poet and painter.^[1]

 

Maria was the eighth of eleven children of Thomas Branwell and Anne Carne of Penzance, Cornwall, born April 15, 1783. Her father was a prosperous merchant with extensive property holdings in the town, and the family was involved in local politics as well as trade, Maria's brother Benjamin serving as the town's Mayor in 1809. The Branwells and Carnes were leading members of the Wesleyan Methodist community in Penzance cornwall-calling/methodism, and the Branwells were instrumental in building the town's first purpose-built Wesleyan chapel in 1814...

 

Maria was petite, plain, pious, intelligent and well-read with a ready wit. She made friends easily, and the friends she had made from Thornton remained life-long friends to Patrick and his children. Her only extant written work, apart from letters, is the unpublished tract The Advantages of Poverty In Religious Concerns. bronte.//family-and-friends/mrs-bronte

 

cornwalls/Penzance/chapel_street

 

 

Maria, let us walk, and breathe, the morning air,

And hear the cuckoo sing,-

And every tuneful bird, that woos the gentle spring.

Troughout the budding grove,

Softly coos the turtle-dove,

The primrose pale,

perfumes the gale

The modest daisy, and the violet blue,

Inviting, spread their charms for you.

15 april 1813

 Patrick Bronte for Maria Branwell

 

 

Parsonage needs to pack a “harder punch”

The Yorkshire Post resumes the story of the Brontë Society's inner debate.

A film-maker and a retired deputy headteacher are planning to help “modernise” a Yorkshire literary society by taking on unpaid leadership roles - just six months after they were branded “agitators”.
John Thirlwell, a film producer/director, and Janice Lee, a former deputy head, are seeking election to the ruling council of the Brontë Society.The pair, who both live in Yorkshire, hit the headlines last year when they and 50 disgruntled members forced an extraordinary general meeting of the Society after claiming it had “lost its way” In September they called on the ruling council to step aside “to bring greater levels of professionalism and experience to the Society.""They said the Society needed fresh, modernising leadership to replace those who were “micro-managing” the Brontë Parsonage Museum, owned by the Society. In October they were criticised by outgoing chairman Christine Went as “agitators” who were “behaving irresponsibly” in seeking power for themselves.
Six months later Mr Thirlwell and Mrs Lee are seeking election to the ruling council. It is understood that at least five of the 12 council members are due to stand down at the annual meeting in June.
And it now emerged that the Brontë Society was so worried about a lack of Council nominees that it took legal advice on relaxing the rules to allow people to stand after being members for less than two years. A message to members on April 2 said “exceptional circumstances” had arisen as “an insufficient number of nominations have been received and a skills gap has been identified.”
The message added: “If this situation is left unaddressed and further nominations are not received, this would mean that the minimum number of trustees would not be reached which would lead to a breach of the charity’s articles which must be avoided if at all possible.” Mr Thirlwell said that, if elected, he wanted to “support innovation” in telling the Brontë story. “We have a fantastic story but maybe we are missing out some of the newer ways of telling it.” Also standing is Peter Mayo-Smith, priest in charge at Haworth Parish Church, who has a background in business and believes Haworth is failing to make the most of its tourism potential. “The more tourists we have, the greater the income it generates for the area. An awful lot of my parishioners get their income through tourism.”
He said Parsonage needed to pack a “harder punch”. Opening up nominations to newer members would “throw up a lot more talent,” he believes. A spokeswoman for the Brontë Society said a sufficient number of members had put their names forward by Saturday April 11, the deadline for nominations. “Relaxing the two year membership rule allows the Society to ensure Council has the best possible skill set,” she added. “It has been done before, even as recently as 2012 and this was the reason for the extension in this instance.” The spokeswoman said membership numbers had risen since the beginning of the year “and we expect this trend to continue as we move towards the bicentenaries next year.” Bonnie Greer, President of the Brontë Society: “It’s great that new members are coming forward to join Council and we hope that any new members on the Brontë Society Council will continue the work and dedication of the present one.”m She said the Council “saw the need to refresh its skill base.” Ms Greer added: “I’m working to help diversify membership and bring on younger members
. bronteblog