The Interior Elizabeth Gaskell's House

Beautiful photographs of Haworth in Decembre.

 What a beautiful photograph

Paul Marley  (click) is the photographer

He posted so much really great photo's

Look on his Facebookpage!

Isn't it fun, this one?

And this.....

Last night's Harvest moon over Haworth!!

Bronte, Anne, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. 1848. Peter Harrington Rare B...

Winter In Haworth.

 Photograph from facebook/ Dave Zdanowicz (click)

Comfort and Joy with Nick Holland.

Christmas day itself would have been a joyous one for the Brontës; beginning with a Christmas service at their father’s church, they would then settle down to a festive meal and doubtless the Haworth Brass Band would have called at the parsonage too. 

The Brontë sisters loved fun and laughter, and they especially loved music, so we can easily imagine them gathered round the parsonage piano. We know that Emily was a brilliant pianist, indeed she briefly gave piano lessons in Brussels, and that Anne Brontë liked to sing along in a voice described as ‘soft, yet sweet’.

This year has been a strange one and this Christmas will find many of us separated from those we love and want to be with, but better times are rapidly approaching and until then we can find solace and escape in great books such as Wuthering Heights.

 Nick Holland -  felixstowebookfestival 

Haworth's Christmas tree.

 This beautiful photograph is taken by Andy Sheppard

Friday evening with a chill in the air and a foggy night ahead on the moors

Haworth was still and quiet

The village tree this year looks splendid

Anne Brontë’s writing desk.

 Anne Brontë’s writing desk

@BronteParsonage

Haworth residents spruce up village in bid to make it "more beautiful than ever" following cancellation of Christmas events.

Residents in Haworth have committed to sprucing up the village’s famed Main Street with as much cheer as possible this year to keep up spirits, and businesses have urged people to continue to shop local and support independent businesses in an extremely difficult period.

Read all the article: yorkshirepost/haworth-residents-spruce-village-bid-make-it-more-beautiful-ever-following-cancellation-christmas-events

bronteadventures/haworth-shops

Anne Lister and Elizabeth Wadsworth.

This picture I took from Google Earth

It is always fun to search on Google Earth and then suddenly, yes, there it is

The Law Hill estate [outside Halifax, where Emily Brontë was teaching in 1838] had a contemporary neighbour of equal notoriety and interest: the heiress, Anne Lister, who lived at Shibden Hall with her lover, Ann Walker, in a lesbian relationship, the nature and ardour of which were only made widely known in the 20th century when Lister’s remarkable diaries were decoded and published. Local gossips would not have needed the evidence of a diary to confirm what was going on at Shibden Hall, though. Lister’s masculine style was so pronounced that one of her lovers, Marianna Lawton, used to be ashamed to be seen in public with her, and her nickname in Halifax was ‘Gentleman Jack.’ “You do not know what is said of your friend!” a tipsy well-wisher once warned Marianna. But she did, and Elizabeth Patchett [Emily Brontë’s boss] surely did too. It would have been strange if Emily Brontë had not met Anne Lister sometime in her seven-month sojourn next door, and it is interesting that Emily’s time at Law Hill, high on the moors, gave her both stories of bitter past rivalries prosecuted over generations, and an understanding of a wild, passionate and very unconventional erotic force [which Emily would later use as inspiration for writing 'Wuthering Heights’]

~ Charlotte Brontë: A Life // Claire Harman beau--brummell

losthouses/in-search-of-high-sunderland-and-wuthering-height

During the time Anne Lister lived at Shibden Hall

Elizabeth Wadsworth 

lived at Holdsworth House, just three miles away

Holdsworthhouse

holdsworthhouse/bronte-era

Wadsworth was older than Lister (closer in age to Lister’s aunt Anne and uncle James with whom Lister lived). Wadsworth was a descended from a wealthy Halifax family and educated at the same school as Lister, The Manor in York. Wadsworth kept diaries covering the same period as Lister and it’s these diaries (held on deposit at West Yorkshire Archive Services) that have recently unearthed Wadsworth’s connections to the Lister family, as well as the Brontes of nearby.Through her connections in the church and her charity work, Wadsworth’s diaries disclose connections with ‘Mr Brunty’ (Reverend Patrick Bronte) and Dorothy Wordsworth (sister of poet William). yorkshire/anne-lister

The early 1800s was a time of great army captains like Wellington and Lord Nelson (and of course a Duke of Wellington’s Regiment was based in Halifax). Elizabeth Wadsworth makes references to these great names in her daily observations of the news. Other names interwoven in Miss Wadsworth’s life include Dorothy Wordsworth who lived in Halifax (the sister of poet William Wordsworth) with whom she drank tea on occasions. Through her links with the churches in Bradford and Haworth, Miss Wadsworth was acquainted with Patrick Bronte and his wife Maria, parents of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Bramwell. holdsworthhouse

Anne Lister of Shibden Hall

 was a wealthy landowner of similar social standing to Miss Wadsworth. 

Lister was a more prolific diarist and became posthumously famous because parts of her lengthy diaries were in secret code. The code, once deciphered, revealed a number of Anne Lister’s lesbian love interests, which were considered shocking at the time. Anne Lister has since been the subject of a number of TV dramas, the latest BBC One/HBO costume drama Gentleman Jack airs spring 2019.

Have a tour of Elizabeth Gaskell's House

National Poetry Day And The Brontës. Nick Holland visited Haworth.

I love the blog from Nick Holland Anne Bronte 

He visited Haworth this week

And made beautiful photographs, more on his blog.

His text:

Today’s new Brontë blog post is light on my words but heavy on those all important Brontë words, apologies in advance, although that may well be a good thing! The reason for this somewhat truncated post is that I’m back in my beloved Haworth for the weekend, sans laptop, but the good news is that I’m finally about to visit the Anne Brontë 200 exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, and I’ll bring you a full report on that next week.

Normal service will be resumed in next week’s blog, so until then stay healthy and happy and don’t forget to stock up on good books before the next lockdown arrives.

The Bronte Parsonage has received a £20,000 donation from the estate of TS Eliot.

The Bronte Parsonage has received a £20,000 donation from the estate of TS Eliot after the coronavirus pandemic put the museum's future at risk.

A trustee of the poet's estate said the donation had been made possible due to the success of the musical Cats.

The Bronte Society, which runs the museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, said it had a little known link to the poet.

This week, the museum announced a consultation on redundancies as Covid-19 has limited visitor numbers.

Rebecca Yorke, a spokesperson for the Bronte Society said: "The very generous donation from the TS Eliot estate was totally unexpected and has given our fundraising a huge boost, we are extremely grateful and touched by their support."

"It is thought that the 'Bradford millionaire' that Eliot refers to in The Waste Land may have been Sir James Roberts, who was a customer of the bank where Eliot worked.

"Sir James was a Yorkshire industrialist and philanthropist who bought Haworth Parsonage and gifted it to The Bronte Society in 1928.

"It's wonderful that there is still a connection between Eliot and the Brontes all these years later."

The parsonage, which was the family home of authors Charlotte, Anne and Emily Bronte, usually attracts more than 70,000 visitors per year.

However, it was forced to close during lockdown and only reopened to the public over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

The parsonage is unable to welcome the usual number of visitors due to the "intimate nature of the house," Ms Yorke said.

The Bronte Society has now notified staff of its intention to enter a period of consultation with them, which may lead to redundancies.

A crowdfunding appeal has been launched to try and raise £100,000.

An online festival, called #Bronte2020, took place on Friday, contributing more than £6,500 to the cause.

bbc/news/uk-england-leeds

A Trip to Elizabeth Gaskell’s House.

Nicola, from Brontebabe Blog visited last week

 Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in Plymouth Grove, Manchester

She is showing us around the house and did make beautiful photographes

See all on: 

brontebabeblog/a-trip-to-elizabeth-gaskells-house

Elizabeth Gaskell was an English novelist, short story writer, and biographer. Her most famous biography is probably The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857), which was the first biography of Charlotte to be published. Elizabeth Gaskell, or Mrs. Gaskell, as she is often called, was a friend of Charlotte’s and was approached by her father, Patrick Brontë, after her death to write the biography. 

September in the writing of the Brontes.

Nick Holland is posting a beautiful blog about autumn and the Brontes:

He writes:

 Is it just me, or is this year, for all its strangeness and unpredictability, racing by with wicked speed? In the blink of an eye we are now in September, the start of meteorological autumn and a month when we see nature change around us. Leaves start to turn golden, then brown, and then fall; nights grow darker and longer, even sunny days, suddenly scared to walk alone as they had done throughout summer, are accompanied by a growing chill. It can also, however, be a month filled with beauty, so which aspects did the Brontës of Haworth feel most vividly? In today’s post we’re going to look at September in the writing of the Brontës. 

Read more on annebronte/september-in-the-writing-of-the-brontes

The Mad Woman of Norton Conyers.

J W Hartley sent me an email with this story: The Mad Woman of Norton Conyers.

Norton Conyers is a medieval manor house at Wath near Ripon in North Yorkshire. The building has had later additions and has recently been restored winning the Historic Houses Association & Sotheby’s Restoration Award in 2014. The house has belonged to the Graham family since 1624 who had strong connections to the royals. Sir Richard Graham fought for King Charles I at the Battle of Marston Moor where over four thousand Royalists were killed. Sir Richard who fought until the battle was over was badly wounded and chased on horseback by Oliver Cromwell and a troop of cavalry back to Norton Conyers. On arrival Sir Richard was carried to bed where he soon died after which Oliver Cromwell arrived to find the dead body of Sir Richard Graham and ordered his men to ransack the house. Charles I stayed at Norton Conyers in 1633 and James II stayed at the house in 1679. 

It is perhaps most famous for being an inspiration for Thornfield Hall in Charlotte Brontë’s celebrated novel Jane Eyre. The novelist is believed to have visited Norton Conyers in 1839 and the family legend of a “madwoman” secretly confined to an attic room might have given her the idea for the crazed Mrs Rochester.

Charlotte was very interested in the Graham family legend of a mad woman who was held in an attic room during the 1700s. the woman was said to be imprisoned in an upstairs attic room at Norton Conyers which was only accessible from a hidden door and staircase on the first floor. The discovery of a blocked staircase at Norton Conyers in 2004 from the first floor to the attic confirmed that the house was the inspiration for Jane Eyre. It is believed that the character Bertha Antoinetta Mason in the novel Jane Eyre is based on the mad woman of Norton Conyers. 

It is possible the insane woman held at Norton Conyers was one of the Graham family or maybe somebody they gave pity as insane asylums were basically prisons. People suffering from mental illness were often treated unfairly as it was not recognised as a condition however progress was being made as people now generally believed it was a medical matter and not a supernatural event as in previous years. Family members would confine mentally ill people to, prevent them from being humiliated in public by others, protect them from harm, protect others from harm and keep them out of the prison like insane asylums where they would be treated harshly. Under these circumstances we can sympathise with the Graham family and Mr Rochester as this may have been the most humane option available at the time. 

Norton Conyers is open to the public 28 days a year, other nearby places to visit on a day out around Ripon could include Ripon Cathedral, Marmion tower, the Victorian Workhouse Museum, the Prison And Police Museum, the Courthouse Museum, Thornborough Henge, and even Lightwater Valley Theme Park. 

Read more and see a lot of pictures on: nortonconyers-RESTORATION AWARD

The-Banagher-Bronte-legacy-project.

The Irish Legacy of the Brontë Family in Banagher
Maebh O'Regan
Banagher Crafting Group
Co. Offaly

This project looks at the Irish Legacy of the Brontë family as Charlotte Brontë married Banagher-man Arthur Bell Nicholls. In 1861 when Patrick Brontë died, Arthur Bell Nicholls returned to Banagher bringing with him manuscripts, paintings, his wife's wedding chest and all of Brontë memorabilia, including his father-in-law's dogs, Cato and Plato. He cherished these items and his new home became almost a museum to the Brontës. In this community project the Crafting Group in Banagher and the project's co-ordinator, Maebh O'Regan are going to make images of 15 of the key items of the Irish Brontë legacy in needlework. The plan is to use these objects as tools to raise awareness of the importance of the Brontë Legacy in Banagher.
Read all about this project: bronteblog/the-banagher-bronte-legacy-project

Elizabeth Gaskell House with summer flowers.

facebook/ElizabethGaskellsHouse

Hathersage on the Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre trail.

Nick Holland: I'm in beautiful Hathersage on the Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre trail. Here's a short video:

twitter/Nick_Holland

The reason for Charlotte’s visit to Hathersage was that Ellen Nussey’s brother had been made vicar of the parish. Whilst Charlotte was there, Henry was on honeymoon with his new bride Emily Prescott (he had previously had a proposal rejected by Charlotte of course). Charlotte and Ellen were overseeing some renovations that Henry had ordered, and the beautiful parsonage building they stayed in was recreated as the home of the Rivers family in Morton:

‘I could not bear to return to the sordid village, where, besides, no prospect of aid was visible. I should have longed rather to deviate to a wood I saw not far off, which appeared in its thick shade to offer inviting shelter; but I was so sick, so weak, so gnawed with nature’s cravings, instinct kept me roaming round abodes where there was a chance of food. Solitude would be no solitude—rest no rest—while the vulture, hunger, thus sank beak and talons in my side.

Read more: annebronte/hathersage-morton-in-words-and-pictures

Cobblesstones of Haworth,

facebook/Harryhartley

Haworth's Titanic Disaster.

SS London

                                                                      Foundered in the Bay of Biscay with about 230 souls, 11 January 1866.
                                                            Image from the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

This interesting story I received of J W Hartley who is living in Haworth

Next to the parsonage garden wall there is a tabletop gravestone that can only provide a memorial to one of the family members inscribed who remains missing but not forgotten. William Hartley was Haworth’s postmaster who sat on the committee of the Haworth Operative Conservative Society with Branwell Bronte and John Brown the church sexton. They were also friends and enjoyed a drink together, in fact William Hartley and his family are buried next to John Brown and his family. Reading the inscription on Willian Hartley’s gravestone gives an insight into a harrowing story of the time. 

His daughter Elizabeth Hartley worked as a maid for the Thomas family from Huddersfield. Her job as a maid offered up new and exciting opportunities as her employers the Thomas family were going to Australia and Elizabeth was invited to join them to continue her duties as maid or possibly for a holiday. She accepted the offer and on the 13^th of December 1865 they boarded the Steam Ship London at the Gravesend Thames Estuary in Kent destined for Melbourne Australia and a new life. 

The Steam Ship London was a vessel of its time when technology moved in nautical engineering from wind power to engine power. This is evident in the ships design as it was a hybrid of both steam power and wind power combining three masts rigged with sails and a two hundred horsepower steam engine that alone could propel the ship at 9 knots. This made the ship fuel efficient as well as more reliable. The ship delayed by bad weather left England late on the 5^th of January 1866 with 345 tons of iron for the railways, 263 passengers and crew onboard including six stowaways, with the experienced Australian navigator Captain Martin at the helm.

For the next two days the SS London encountered heavy seas and bad weather, so bad that on the 7^th of January divine service was cancelled. For the next couple of days, the SS London ploughed into a gale under the power of steam at two knots in the Bay Of Biscay. On January the 9th the ship taking crashing seas over the bows and had a lifeboat washed away forcing the captain to turn around and return to England. 

Captain Martin was now unknowingly heading into the eye of a storm and on January the 10^th still in the Bay of Biscay the sea carried away another lifeboat, the jib-boom, the fore topmast, all the rigs and gear leaving the SS London with steam power only. On January the 11^th an immense wave crashed on deck leaving water pouring down the hatches and extinguishing the fires. The ship was now rolling badly and wallowing helplessly, and the captain made the decision to abandon ship. The remaining lifeboats launched were immediately swamped bar one saved for crew members. Their efforts to cover up the engine room hatches with anything they could and bail the water with pumps failed and as the water level in the engine compartment was still rising. Captain Martin told his men “boys, you may say your prayers”. Soon the SS London was sinking rapidly, and Captain Martin ordered Mr Greenhill the ships engineer and eighteen others into the last lifeboat telling him “your duty is done, mine is to remain here”. The captain was asked again to board the lifeboat, but he replied “NO! I will go down with the passengers, but I wish you God speed” he then threw a compass into the boat and shouted their course “North North East To Brest!”. 

The lifeboat drew away from the SS London as the passengers stood on deck singing the hymn Rock Of Ages and when the lifeboat got about 70 metres away the stern (back) of the SS London went under and the bows (front) rose high until the ships keel was visible throwing the passengers on deck into the water to be dragged down with the ship by the vortex. Greenhill and the eighteen others onboard the lifeboat were finally rescued by an Italian vessel, the Marianopole and taken to back to England.

There were just 19 survivors from the 263 passengers onboard with a death toll of 244 including Mr James Thomas, Mrs Sarah Anne Thomas, their two children Annie Mary Thomas and William Bradbury Thomas and their maid Elizabeth Hartley of Haworth. Other passengers onboard included Gustavus Vaughan Brooke a famous Irish Actor, John Debenham the son of the founder of Debenham department stores, the wife and three children of Henry Brewer Chapman an attorney general who introduced the secret ballot and John Woolley the first principal of the University of Sydney Australia. Frederick Chapman whose mother, brother and sisters were onboard the SS London when it sank to the depths in the Bay of Biscay wrote of his mother having just inherited “a mass of diamonds” from his Great Aunt Fanny that were with her on that fateful day.

An inquest found that the SS London was overloaded and with heavy cargo that blocked the scupper holes preventing drainage of seawater and made the ship too low in the water. The disaster received global publicity in its time with numerous accounts, survivor testaments, newspaper articles, a poem by William Mcgonagll and some artistic interpretations. The case drew the attention of Samuel Plimsoll who campaigned for compulsory standards in marine safety and in 1876 had the Plimsoll Line (a marking on the ships side specifying the maximum load) made compulsory for British ships. Samuel Plimsoll’s campaigning for the compulsory provision of lifeboats however was not introduced until the Titanic catastrophe of 1912 after Samuel Plimsoll’s death in 1898.

The newspaper Liverpool Mercury printed the following obituary on Tuesday the 25^th of January 1866

THOMAS, HARTLEY, Jan 11^th, lost at sea on board the steam ship London, James Thomas Esq, late of London, formally of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, together with Sarah Anne his wife and two children Annie Mary and William Bradbury, also Elizabeth Hartley, for many years a most faithful and devoted servant of the above.

Elizabeth Hartley’s memorial inscription on her family’s gravestone next to the Parsonage garden wall in St Michael And All Angels graveyard Haworth reads

Also the memory of Elizabeth their daughter who was lost in the Steamship London which was bound from London to Australia and foundered in the Bay of Biscay January 11^th 1866 aged 37 years.

Beautiful video of the Parsonage and Haworth

facebook/vesna.armstrong

A TOUR OF THE BRONTË PARSONAGE | #Bronte200

Brussels square to be named after the Brontë sisters

Since 1979 Charlotte and Emily Brontë have had a plaque on Bozar, the central Brussels arts centre, commemorating their stay there in 1842-43. The building is on the site of the Pensionnat Heger where the sisters perfected their French. Since the creation of our Group in 2006 we have dreamed of a street, statue or museum in Brussels in honour of the Brontës; some of these schemes have even been discussed with the authorities, but until now none of them has materialised.

That is about to change. The municipal council of Koekelberg in the north-west of the city has decided to name a square after the Brontë sisters.

Why Koekelberg? This municipal district is known for its massive twentieth-century Basilica dominating the city’s skyline rather than for any Brontë associations.

However, Brontë fans will know that it was at a finishing school called Château de Koekelberg that Charlotte’s close Yorkshire friends Mary and Martha Taylor were studying during the Brontës’ time at the Pensionnat Heger. The school, more expensive than the Pensionnat Heger and beyond the means of the cash-strapped Brontës, was on a site near today’s Place Eugène Simonis/Eugène Simonisplein (both schools were demolished long ago.The Brontës made the two-and-a-half-mile walk to Koekelberg to visit their friends. Read more: Brusselsbronte 

The garden of the parsonage.

facebook/BronteParsonageMuseum/videos

Let's walk together. though Bronte County.

BBC Radio- Haworth Ramblings Walking through Time 

Hi people

How are you doing?

Everyone safe at home?

I found something very nice and interesting

Beside the walk above

There are much more walks to follow, sitting in our chair

Are you walking with me? 

Happy Valentine´s day.

Fair Ellen, Fair Ellen

Men call you fair, Ellen, and you deserve it,
For that yourself you daily do see:
But the greater fair of a gentle wit,
And virtuous mind’s more praised by me.
For all the rest, how ever fair it be,
Shall turn to nothing and lose its hue:
But your soul is permanent and free
From failures which with time ensue.
That is true beauty: that does show you,
To be divine, and born of heavenly seed:
Born of that fair Spirit, from whom all true,
And perfect beauty did at first proceed.
He only is fair, and fair Ellen He has made,
All other fair, like flowers, untimely fade.

William Weightman to Ellen Nussey, friend of Charlotte Bronte

Soul Divine

Oh soul divine, now learn to wield,
The weight of your immortal shield.
Place on your head thy helmet bright.
Ready your sword against the fight.
For see – an army, strong as fair,
With silken banners breaks the air.
Now, if you beat that thing divine,
In this day’s combat let it shine:
And show that you have all the art,
To conquer this resolvèd heart.

Away Fond Love

Away fond love, would I were steadfast as you are –
Not in lone splendour hung awake the night,
And watching, with eternal lids afar,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless hermite,
The moving waters at their silent task,
Washing these all too human shores,
Or gazing anew on a soft-fallen mask,
Of snow upon those oft trod moors.
No, stay – my steadfast unchangeable guest,
Could I but gaze upon my love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever by thy side and well,
Still, still to hear so near her tender breath,
And by a word live on – or swoon to death.

brontesisters/on-this-day-in-1840-fair-ellen

Charlotte Brontë’s bedroom in Elizabeth Gaskell's house.

The Bronte room is situated within the first floor of the original House at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, and is available for a large range of functions – e.g. board meetings, away-days, training sessions and presentations.

We know from the plans of the House that the guest room, and the room Charlotte Brontë slept in, is the one now used as a meeting room.

This is confirmed in a letter to Eliza Fox Elizabeth wrote in 1850: ‘ Your room will be over the drawing room, ours over the dining room…’ In Charlotte’s honour, this room has been re-named the Brontë Room – a fitting tribute we hope.

Elizabeth Gaskell met Charlotte Brontë on 20 August 1850 at Briery Close in the Lake District, introduced by Sir James Kay-Shuttlewoth and his wife. Charlotte stayed at Plymouth Grove with the Gaskell family on three occasions. The first was in June 1851 when she visited from the 27th to the 30th when according to Charlotte:

‘the weather was so intensely hot, and she herself so much fatigued with her London sight-seeing, that we did little but sit in-doors with open windows, and talk.’

She stayed again in April 1853, arriving for a week’s visit on Friday 22 April. With Elizabeth, she went to a performance of Twelfth Night staged by the Manchester Shakespeare Society at the Theatre Royal on 25 April which she mentions in a letter to Elizabeth written from Haworth on 9 July 1853.

Charlotte last visited Plymouth Grove in early May 1854 just before her wedding to Arthur Bell Nicholls on 29 June, and in a letter to John Forster written after Charlotte had left, Elizabeth expresses her concerns about the marriage. 

Read the letters on: elizabethgaskellhouse/charlotte-brontes-bedroom