Bronte Society expresses disappointment at Ovenden Moor windfarm decision

The Brontë Society wishes to express its disappointment with the decision by Calderdale Council to grant planning permission to Yorkshire Wind Power for the repowering of the windfarm at Ovenden Moor.

We feel that this decision demonstrates a lack of consideration for a unique heritage landscape which has internationally renowned cultural associations. It shows, also, an insensitive disregard for the negative impact upon the environment and upon the local economy of Haworth and the area known as Brontë Country.

The Society has received a huge level of interest and support from all over the world. We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude and to give an assurance of our continued commitment to Haworth’s cultural and historical significance.

13 November 2012

For further information please contact the Bronte Parsonage Museum on 01535 642323 / bronte@bronte.org.uk

The Brontes in Brussels

 

A new book about the Brontës in Brussels has just been published. The author is Helen MacEwan, member of the Brussels Brontë Group:

Originally published on the Brussels Brontë Blog:

Down the Belliard Steps: Discovering the Brontës in Brussels
Helen MacEwan
ISBN No 978-0-9573772-0-2
Publisher: Brussels Brontë Editions
Paperback
146 pp

Charlotte and Emily Brontë’s stay in Brussels in 1842-43 to improve their French was to prove a momentous one for Charlotte in particular. She fell in love with her French teacher, Constantin Heger, and her experiences in the Belgian capital inspired two of her four novels, Villette and The Professor. Yet the Brontës’ Brussels episode remains the least-known of their lives.

When Helen MacEwan moved to Brussels in 2004 she discovered that not many people there seemed to know much about the Brontës’ time in the city. She herself had a lot to find out about their life in the Pensionnat Heger at the bottom of the Belliard steps. In the process of doing so she met other people who were similarly fascinated by the story, and with them formed the Brussels branch of the Brontë Society.

For all these people, following in Charlotte and Emily's tracks in modern-day Brussels, and setting up a literary group, was a voyage of discovery. In the course of telling their story, Helen finds some odd parallels between the Brussels of their day and ours, and reflects on why the Brontës' time there is so fascinating.

You can buy it in the English bookstores Waterstones and Sterling Books in Brussels, or from the Brontë Parsonage Museum shop.

We Wove A Web In Childhood

 

I received an email about a new e-book about the Brontes.
You can read all about it on:  bronte-fiction

We Wove A Web In Childhood is a fictional work concerning the Bronte family. Much of the existing literature tends to focus exclusively on the sisters, but in undertaking a dramatic reconstruction of their lives Ruth Thomas has succeeded in bringing each family member to life, including their brilliant and volatile brother Branwell, and their scholarly and compassionate father, the Reverend Patrick Bronte. The individual lives of the Brontes are as full of interest and drama as any of the novels they produced, and the family continues to exert a fascination right across the spectrum from dedicated Bronte fans to more casual readers. The novel has been written with an attention to detail and historical veracity, and should appeal to anyone with a love of literature and an interest in the peculiar and tortuous mental processes by which it is shaped.

The opening chapters are set in the period 1828 – 1836 when the children are growing up, and trace their formative years - their precocious interest in politics and literature, and absorption in the vivid inner world they have created - whilst their father Patrick campaigns tirelessly to improve living standards for his parishioners. Superficial life at Haworth parsonage - with its routine of instruction, mundane household chores, and sedate vicarage tea-parties - is brought into sharp collision with the wider world outside. Actual events are frequently mirrored in the “infernal” world of Angria - as the boisterous childhood games in which they enact imaginary battle scenes are set against a backdrop of agitation for political and social reform, of violent electioneering and local riots.

The George Hotel. Coaches for Scarborough left from here, and this would be a familiar location to Anne from her Scarborough visits with the Robinsons. It was probably the place she and Emily stayed on their two day visit in 1845, and was certainly where she stayed with Charlotte and Ellen en-route to Scarborough on that fateful, final journey.

 

The picture shows, situated on Coney Street (once known as 'Whip-ma-Whop-ma-Gate) in York wiki/Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate: just right of picture-centre is the main entrance. The photograph under shows the same location ina much modern time. Only the first floor bay-window, and the pillar located centrally beneath it (to the right-of-centre in the old picture - central in the new) remain.  

 

 mick-armitage  open plaques

The George Inn was situated at 19 Coney Street. This pub has now been demolished and replaced by a Next store.

According to a plaque on the wall: 'In Elizabethan times, Ralph Rokeby Esq (d.1575) Secretary of the Council of the North lived in a house on this site. Subsequently for about two and a half centuries there existed here a Hostelry known since 1614 as the George Inn, from which horsedrawn coaches departed to Hull, Manchester and Newcastle. The sisters Charlotte and Anne Bronte stayed here in 1849. Leak & Thorp moved to this site in 1869. 'closedpubs

 

yorkscenes

yorkdailypicture/10/whip-ma-whop-ma-gate

Whip-ma-Whop-ma-Gate

 

In February, Anne seemed somewhat better. In March, Ellen Nussey invited her to Brookroyd, to be nursed by Ellen and her sisters. Anne made a counter-proposal. Through Charlotte, she asked if Ellen would accompany her to Scarborough. Anne had always loved the sea there, and there was some slight hope that the climate might be beneficial. Charlotte chose to ignore Anne's own wishes, and argue against the plan, suggesting that it would be better to wait. Anne feared that she had little time to waste, and wrote to Ellen herself, asking her help and painstakingly refuting counter-arguments. She speaks clearly and calmly of her illness and of death.

"I have a more serious reason than this for my impatience of delay: the doctors say that change of air or removal to a better climate would hardly ever fail of success in consumptive cases if taken in time, but the reason why there are so many disappointments is, that it is generally deferred till it is too late. Now I would not commit this error; and to say the truth, thouhg I suffer much less from pain and fever than I did when you were with us, I am decidedly weaker and very much thinner my cough still troubles me a good deal, especially in the night, and, what seems worse than all, I am subject to great shortness of breath on going up stairs or any slight exertion. Under these circumstances I think there is no time to be lost... I have no horror of death: if I thought it inevitable I think I could quietly resign myself to the prospect... But I wish it would please God to spare me not only for Papa's and Charlotte's sakes, but because I long to do some good in the world before I leave it. I have many schemes in my head for future practise–humble and limited indeed–but still I should not like them all to come to nothing, and myself to have lived to so little purpose. But God's will be done. " (Barker, p 589)

Though ill, Anne's strength of will was the equal of Charlotte's. In the end Patrick intervened, removing Charlotte's last defense against the plan by stating his willingness to be left with the servants in Haworth, and requesting that Charlotte accompany Anne. On May 24, 1849, Anne said her good-byes to her father and the servants at Haworth, and set off for Scarborough with Charlotte and Ellen. They stayed overnight in York, gratifying Anne's desire to see her beloved York Minster. Anne found great joy in returning to York and Scarborough, and showing well-loved places to Charlotte and Ellen. However, it was clear that Anne had little strength left. edu/women/bronte/bronte-anne

 

cathedral-fire-at-york
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Weblogs and the Brontes

 

From worldnews.nbcnews:

 

Proposed wind turbines that would go up in moorlands that inspired “Wuthering Heights” are generating controversy with the Brontë Society and nearby villagers, according to reports in United Kingdom media.
Thornton Moor near Haworth, in West Yorkshire, would be home to four 328-foot-high wind turbines flanking the Brontë Way tourist trail, The Telegraph of London said.

---

The moor in what is termed “Brontë Country” was an inspiration for all three Brontë sisters, who lived less than five miles away, the newspaper said.

 

From Arnside Silverdale:

 

 

On way to dropping my daughter off at work, I noticed the plaque shown above at Cowan Bridge

 

 

From Blast magazine

 

 

HAWORTH, England — For anyone wanting to immerse him or herself in emerald beauty of the English countryside, the quaint Yorkshire town of Haworth is a perfect destination, but for literary fans of authors Emily and Charlotte Brontë, it is a must.

 

From Bookysh

 

 

A friend, who knew my admiration for the Brontës, just came home from the U. S. and gave me this box of note cards.

Char March - Writer, performer and tutor

From charmarch.weebly:
 

I regularly work at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth - helping visitors and also school groups capture their visit through creative writing. I recently worked with visitors and staff at the Parsonage to create a series of mini-books - like the ones the Brontë sisters produced when they were young. Another favourite activity for Primary children is visiting the graveyard in front of the Parsonage were there are - allegedly - 22,000 bodies buried in just that very small area! The kids love writing poems about being worms in the graveyard - munching through all the bodies, and imagining all the tastes, smells and textures of those terrible times when Haworth's infant mortality was one of the highest in Britain because water from the moors flowed through the graveyard to feed the village's main pump.....yuk!

The Bronte Weather Project is coming to an end.

Bronte weather: It's been just over a year that i've been collecting weather data from the Bronte Parsonage Museum garden: the exact place on the planet where the Bronte sisters lived, worked and died. Researching the subject around the weather has been fascinating: looking at the way it has shaped the moors of the surrounding area; how it effected the Bronte's everyday lives and their health; how it influenced their fictional writing in novels and poems and also in their letters to others. It's obvious that in a year i could only cover so much and this subject is vast - so i know i'll continue this line of enquiry beyond the end of the project.

After Aunt Branwell died in 1842 Emily took on the role of housekeeper helping out in the kitchen.

The Kitchen is to the rear of the house. The Bronte children would often listen to their servant Tabby tell of stories about Haworth and the moors. After Aunt Branwell died in 1842 Emily took on the role of housekeeper helping out in the kitchen.fatal secret

Aunt Branwell wore pattens. What are pattens?

From: Rowenadunn

I particularly liked the pattens used by Aunt Branwell to raise her feet out of the muck in the street, and tried to imagine how much mud and mess would have covered these cobbles at the time, and how difficult it would have been to walk anywhere in the town; the moors would have been a much more attractive option by comparison.

 

From: Echostains

These are not the pattens of Aunt Branwell.

I put the photographe here

to give an idea

These pattens are from te 19 th century

google

Pattens were made of wood or leather and sometimes very high 8 to 10 inches.  The idea was to elevate the dainty or flimsily made shoe or slipper from the wet, muddy or damp ground. The Bronte’s Aunt Branwell wore pattens. Coming from the warm climate of Penzance Cornwall, she hated the dark rainy windy climate of Haworth Yorkshire.  She never ever got used to it. It was not considered  polite to wear pattens indoors so Aunt Branwell was considered eccentric for doing so: -

…she disliked many of the customs of the place, and particularly dreaded the cold damp arising from the flag floors in the passages and parlours of Haworth Parsonage. The stairs, too, I believe, are made of stone; and no wonder, when stone quarries are near, and trees are far to seek. I have heard that Miss Branwell always went about the house in pattens, clicking up and down the stairs, from her dread of catching cold.’ (From ‘The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell)

On this day in 1842 Elizabeth Branwell died. Branwell wrote" I have now lost the guide and director of all the happy days connected with my childhood."

Elizabeth Branwell, Aunt to the Bronte children who brought them up, was buried at Haworth. She had died aged 66 on 29th October.

Aunt Branwell had always enjoyed robust good health, but on the 25th October 1842, she suffered a constriction of the bowel, and died four days later. Charlotte and Emily were still in Brussels, and returned home too late for the funeral. But Aunt Branwell's two favourites' the 'baby' Anne, and the only boy, Branwell Brontë , were both there, and it is Branwell who has left us the warmest testimonial to his aunt. Writing to his friend Grundy on the day his aunt died

Branwell concludes " I have now lost the guide and director of all the happy days connected with my childhood." Elizabeth Branwell left most of her money to Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. They used some of it to finance their Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846), the beginning of their careers as published writers. www.bronte.org.uk


When Maria Brontë was terminally ill with cancer in 1821; her sister, Elizabeth Branwell, moved into the Parsonage to help run the household. She subsequently spent the rest of her life there raising the Brontë children - to whom she was known as 'Aunt Branwell'. She provided much of the children's education, including needlework and embroidery for the girls. This rarely seen portrait was sketched in 1799, when Elizabeth was 23 years old - and many years before Maria had even met Patrick Brontë. Ellen Nussey declared that Anne was her aunt's favourite. Elizabeth Branwell died at the age of 66, on 29 October 1842, after a short, but agonising illness (believed to be a blockage of the bowel). The whole Brontë family were devastated; in particular Branwell, who, later that day, wrote to his friend Grundy:

'I am incoherent, I fear, but I have been waking two nights witnessing such agonising suffering as I would not wish my worst enemy to endure; and I have now lost the guide and director of all the happy days connected with my childhood.'mick-armitage

Edith Wharton's copy of ‘Jane Eyre' returns to The Mount in Lenox

Thanks to the generosity of a resident of Lincolnshire, England, and a friend with access to the internet, Edith Wharton's copy of "Jane Eyre" has come back safely to rest among the books in Wharton's library at The Mount.

Charlotte Bronte's masterpiece -- her story of suspense and madness and wild nights on the moors -- traveled on a still-unknown route from a trove of works Wharton had collected in The Mount, the home she built in 1902, to the far side of the Atlantic. Wharton lived in Lenox for 10 years before she left for France, where she died in 1937.   

Read more of this interesting story: 

Berkshire eagle

Miss Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785-1861), one of the first female book collectors in Europe, scholar, acquaintance of Charlotte Bronte (and possibly the inspiration for Charlotte Bronte's pen name).

The name Bell may have been chosen by the arrival that summer of their father's new curate, Arthur Bell Nichols. While a governess at the Sidgwicks, Charlotte had certainly heard much of their neighbour, Miss Frances Mary Richardson Currer, of Eshton Hall, Skipton, whose property touched Stonegappe, and whose library was famous throughout the north. She was one of the founder patrons of the Clergy Daughters' School, so that her name must have been doubly familiar to Charlotte. The poetess Eliza Acton (1777-1859) [theDictionary of National Biography gives Acton's birth year as 1799], who had considerable success in her day and was patronized [246/247] by royalty, may have suggested Anne's pseudonym to her. There appears to be no clue to the origin of Emily's choice of name, Ellis. 
It is not impossible that Charlotte herself had access to Miss Currer's books at some point. An avid reader from childhood, the latter had inherited a fine library, kept adding to it, and ensured that her books were expertly catalogued. (See Dictionary of National Biography, XIII, 340). The second catalogue, compiled by C.J. Stewart, was privately printed (100 copies) in 1833 and is a treasure-trove for anyone interested in the reading habits of the educated pre- and early-Victorian upper class. While Miss Currer's collection featured many respectable works of natural science, she was sufficiently interested in the pseudo-scientific fashions of her day to acquire a copy of the Physiognomical System of Drs Gall and Spurzheim. The doctors were pioneers of phrenology, a school of thought whose influence on Charlotte [247/248] and Anne is patent in their novels.³ Another of the interests that Miss Currer shared with the Brontës was mental improvement, and she owned educational works by like-minded women such as Mrs Hester Chapone and Maria Edgeworth.

The fact that F.M.R. Currer supported the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge suggests that she was one of those 'wealthy and benevolent individuals in the county' (Jane Eyre's description of the subscribers to a new and improved Lowood Institute (opening of Chapter 10). Charlotte is not likely to have blamed a founder patron for subsequent misfortunes at the institution.) whose munificence ensured the survival of charitable institutions. Her character (she was 'extremely accomplished and amiable', according to the DNB biographer) seems to have been as irreproachable as her scholarship; in 1836, the Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibdin placed her 'at THE HEAD of all female Collectors in Europe', calling her 'a sort of modern CHRISTINA of the North' (p. 949). Read more:Victorianweb

Mechanics institut at Keighley

The movement to found mechanics’ institutes was an early nineteenth-century phenomenon that quite soon became predominantly middle-class. Keighley’s was founded in 1825, and Patrick joined in 1833. The library was strong on theology and science, but the young Brontës could also find there history, biography, and poetry, which would be more to their taste, as well as fiction, including the novels of Walter Scott and the eighteenth-century novelists for whom Charlotte conceived such an aversion. Lectures were also part of the education program of the institutes: an early speaker at Keighley was Edward Baines Jr, whose 1830 lecture on “The Moral Effects of Unrestricted Commerce” was listened to by 700 people “with almost breathless silence” ( Leeds Intelligencer , 4 Mar 1830). Later lectures included William Weightman defending the study of the classics and Patrick Brontë on “The Influence of Circumstances,” which must have given him plenty of scope.
Keighley/mechanics
 

James Bancroft, was born on 27th November 1835, and baptised by the famous Patrick Bronte at Haworth Parish Church

From Bancrofts from Yorkshire

James Bancroft, was born on 27^th November 1835, and baptised by the famous Patrick Bronte at Haworth Parish Church on 2^nd June 1836. He was always known as “Jim o’ Abes”, which was the local way of saying James, son of Abraham. It was quite a common practice in those times to give people a nickname such as this, particularly where there were several people with the same name in a village....and there were several 'James Bancrofts', both related and unrelated, in the area around this time.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Read more on: bancrofts from yorkshire

Branwell Bronte, Freemasonry and the Knights Templar

From  Ferndean Manor

Branwell Bronte, Freemasonry and the Knights Templar 

The origins and evolution of Freemasonry are a matter of some debate and conjecture which has been reinforced by the esoteric nature of the society and it's apparent secrecy. One particular Masonic oath reads "To all of which I do most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, without the least equivocation, mental reservation, or self evasion of mind in me whatever; binding myself under no less penalty than to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the roots, and my body buried in the rough sands of the sea at low-water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours" This oath is sworn by the initiate whilst kneeling, blindfolded at the alter, with his hands placed on a sacred text. 
Times have changed however and many of the roots of freemasonry have now become public, it's aims, beliefs and symbols. The following explores some of the connections between the Haworth branch of freemasonry, the Knights Templar and the Brontë family. An intriguing and sometimes surprising story that will expanded on in the future including the connection with the Cavendish family and their title of Duke of Devonshire and alchemy!
Read more on Ferndean Manor