Yorkshire Evening Post reminds their readers of the upcoming Ellen Nussey bicentenary:
The name of Ellen Nussey may not be too familiar to many readers but she was a lifelong friend of the author Charlotte Brontë whom she met at Roe Head School, Mirfield in 1831. Ellen was the 12th child of John Nussey a clothing merchant of Birstall Smithies, near Gomersal in West Yorkshire.
In the 1840s Ellen and Charlotte were regular visitors to Oakwell Hall, a young ladies boarding school. Ellen Nussey’s early home was the Rydings at Birstall which partly inspired ‘Thornfield Hall’ in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The Rydings property is still partly visible on the Leeds road(A62), near the crossroads with A652 Bradford road.
The Nusseys last rented home, where she died aged 80 years old in 1897 was Moor Lane House, which is now the Gomersal Park Hotel.
After Charlotte Brontë’s death in 1855 Ellen defended her memory and reputation in a number of letters, some of which can still be seen in the University of Leeds. April 20 is the 200th anniversary of Ellen’s birth, she is buried in the graveyard at St Peter’s Church in Birstall.
