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