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Bronte Parsonage Museum

On this day in 1826, Patrick Brontë returned from a visit to Leeds with a box of twelve wooden soldiers for Branwell. Each child picked a soldier for their own, and named it, and they began to record the games they played and the battles they fought with their toys. The world of Angria (and, later, Gondal) was born from these soldiers.

 

 

Emily’s coffee shop

A historic Thornton building, famous for being the birthplace of the Bronte sisters, re-opens its doors later this month, and one of its first visitors will be someone who is no stranger to history. Last year the future of the Bronte birthplace on Market Street seemed uncertain after it was put up for auction, with no guarantee it would not be bought for use as a private house. But it was purchased by Mark and Michelle De Luca, who own De Luca’s hair salon in the village, and in a few weeks it will open as Emily’s coffee shop. But before its official opening it will receive a visit from Sir Tony Robinson, star of Blackadder and Time Team, who is filming for a show on the Bronte sisters later this week. He will be delving into the history of Thornton and the house where the writers came into the world. The Rev Patrick Bronte occupied the home during his tenure at Thornton Chapel in 1815, known as the Bronte Bell Chapel.

The cafe will retain many of the grade II-listed house’s features, including the fireplace that Emily, Charlotte and Anne were born in front of. However, Mr De Luca said the building was not a museum and, although they would cultivate the building’s heritage with walls adorned with Bronte artwork by local artists, he hopes it will become a successful business in its own right. When the building was sold last year there had been disappointment that Bradford Council could not take it on to turn it into a museum. But Mr De Luca believes that such a venture would constantly be in the shadow of Haworth – where the family moved and grew up and home of the Bronte Parsonage Museum.
He said: “We are going to work with the parsonage to try and make this a Bronte trail, but the main aim is to make a place that locals want to come and use as well as people who love the Brontes.
“We can’t be solely reliant on tourism.”

The cafe will open in late June. thetelegraphandargus

Elizabeth Gaskells’ House at 84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester

Elizabeth Gaskells’ House at 84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester, was the home of the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, one of the nineteenth century’s most important women writers, from 1850 until her death in 1865. During this time she wrote most of her famous novels including ‘Cranford’ (1853), ‘Ruth’ (1853), ‘North and South’ (1855) and the unfinished ‘Wives and Daughters’. Visitors to the House during this time included Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, Harriet Beecher Stowe and conductor Charles Hallé. Charlotte Brontë described it as “a large, cheerful, airy house, quite out of Manchester smoke”. Her husband Reverend William Gaskell was a Unitarian minister and a pioneer in the education of the working class who was also notable for his many charitable works. The House itself was built between 1835 and 1841 and is a rare surviving example of a suburban villa and is listed Grade II*. elizabethgaskellhouse

Sandlebridge and Elizabeth Gaskell

 

Sandlebridge Farm, also known as Colthurst House, was owned by the Holland family, one of whom, Samuel Holland, was the grandfather of the novelist, Elizabeth Gaskell.
She spent some of her childhood at Sandlebridge and the farm features in her novels, Cranford and Cousin Phillis.

A letter written by Gaskell to a family member in 1836, whilst staying at Sandlebridge, also paints an incredibly vivid picture, as she invites the recipient to imagine the place she is sitting as she composes the note:
 

 “My dearest Lizzy,
 I wish I could paint my present situation to you. Fancy me sitting in an old fashioned parlour, ‘doors & windows opened wide’, with casement window opening into a sunny court all filled with flowers which scent the air with their fragrance – in the very depth of the country – 5 miles from the least approach to a town – the song of birds, the hum of insects the lowing of cattle the only sounds – and such pretty fields & woods all round. .. I do so wish you were here to revel in flowers, & such through country We are up with the birds, and sitting out on the old flag steps in the very middle of fragrance, far from the busy hum of men, but not far from the busy hum of bees…
There are chickens, and little childish pigs, and cows and calves and horses, and baby horses and fish in the pond and ducks in the lane, and the mill and the smithy, and sheep and baby sheep and flowers …
I sat in a shady corner of a field gay with bright spring flowers -daisies, primroses, wild anenomes and the lesser celandine, and with lambs all around me, and the air so full of sweet sounds…”  

Taken from The Letters of Mrs Gaskell, Manchester University Press, 1997, Letter 4, 12 May 1836 More on: warfordhistory

The Brontës in Brussels

A new book by Helen MacEwan, founder and active member of the Brussels Brontë Group, about the Brussels experience by the Brontë sisters. Helen MacEwan is also the author of Down the Belliard Steps.

The Brontës in Brussels
Helen MacEwan
Peter Owen Publishers
ISBN 978 0 7206 1588 3

In 1842 Charlotte Brontë (1816–55) and her sister Emily (1818–48) arrived in Brussels to improve their languages, five years before becoming best-selling authors. Emily stayed for a year, Charlotte for two. Although this is a little-known episode of their lives, it is a fascinating one. Two of Charlotte’s four novels – Villette and The Professor – were based on her time in Belgium, which was pivotal for her both as a writer and personally, since she fell in love with her married teacher Constantin Heger. This book describes the sisters’ life in Brussels and provides information on places with Brontë connections. Although the Pensionnat Heger school where they stayed has gone, there is still much to be seen of the city they knew.
In 1913 Charlotte’s highly emotional letters to her teacher were donated by his descendants to the British Museum and on publication caused something of a scandal. Since then those with an interest in the Brontës’ literary achievements have been intrigued by this influential period in their lives.
The book includes a wealth of illustrations and maps, extracts from Villette demonstrating how the novel reflects Charlotte’s experiences in Brussels, translations of four of the sisters’ French essays and of Charlotte’s moving letters to her teacher and a Brontë walk around the city with maps and historical information on places and people especially associated with the sisters’ stay. For anyone who takes an interest in the life and work of the Brontës or who appreciates the literary associations of places, this is a compelling read. 

HELEN MACEWAN is a translator and former teacher who lives in Brussels. Her experiences as the founder of the Brussels Brontë Group, the Belgian branch of the Brontë Society, which organizes guided literary walks and conferences in the city, are related in her previous book Down the Belliard Steps.The book will be presented by the author next June 26 at the Waterstones Brussels store. Here you can find the author herself talking about her book.  

bronteblog 

His mother was listed as ‘spinster’ by the hand of Rev'd Patrick Bronte

 This rather grainy picture is of a William Bancroft [1821-1914], a well known resident of the village of Oxenhope near Keighley,showing him in old age.He was born on the 12^th December 1821, the illegitimate son of Mary Bancroft.

The Haworth parish records confirm William’s status as illegitimate, because at his baptism at Haworth Parish Church on 19^th February 1822, his mother was listed as ‘spinster’ by the hand of Rev'd Patrick Bronte.

Read more on: bancrofts from yorkshire

 William's Baptism Record from Haworth

George Renaux

I am very sad to hear that Georges Renaux passed away

George was one of the great Bronte lovers of our time

I knew him because he was sending me

 sweet messages about the Brontes, about Emily

through this weblog and Facebook

 

As a friend of him is writing on his Facebook page:

 

Dear Georges, you will remain alive forever in our thoughts and hearts.

Rest in peace dear friend

 

facebook/georges.renaux

This picture is taken by George when he was visiting the Parsonage in 1971

 

Anne Bronte died on this day in 1849

Bronte Parsonage Museum

This image shows the pebbles Anne Brontë collected on the beach during her final days in Scarborough, a place she loved. Anne died on this day in 1849, and was buried in St Mary's churchyard.

 

 

 the-george-hotel

anne-bronte-and-scarborough

taken-from-main-balcony-of-grand-hotel

 

 

 

Number 93 where Elizabeth Gaskell was born

Moving on down from Crosby Hall is number 93 where Elizabeth Gaskell was born on the 29^th September 1810. She wrote Cranford and North and South and was famous for her biography of  Charlotte Bronte. general-southerner

 

Charlotte produced this pencil drawing, known as the 'Revenante Castle'

Bronte Parsonage Museum

On this day in 1829, Charlotte produced this pencil drawing, known as the 'Revenante Castle'. The actual sketch is only 54mm by 93mm.

 

 

The most haunting characters in literature revealed

Top ten most haunting female characters from dramatised literature	Top ten most haunting male characters from dramatised literature
Miss Havisham – Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (21%)	Heathcliff – Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (21%)
2. The ghost – Woman in Black, Susan Hill (14%)	2. Count Dracula – Dracula, Bram Stoker (18%)
3. Lady Macbeth – Macbeth, William Shakespeare (13%)	3. Jack Torrance – The Shining, Stephen King (13%)
4. White Witch – Chronicles of Narnia, C S Lewis (11%)	4. Mr Rochester – Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (12%)
5. Annie Wilkes – Misery, Stephen King (10%)	5. Alex – A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess (10.2%)
6. Mrs De Winter – Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier (9%)	6. Frankenstein’s Monster – Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (10.15%)
7. Nurse Ratched – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey (8%)	7. Pennywise the clown – It, Stephen King (9%)
8. Mrs Coulter – Northern Lights, Phillip Pullman (6%)	8. President Coriolanus Snow – The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (7%)
9. Miss Trunchball – Matilda, Roald Dahl (6%)	9. Caliban – The Tempest, William Shakespeare (6%)
10. Miss Hardbroom – The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy (1%)	10. Kevin - We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver (5%)

 

Read more: bronteblog

Record of Charlotte Brontë’s Scottish jaunt in the visitors’ book at Abbotsford, Walter Scott’s home

Helen MacEwan writes:

On a trip to Edinburgh on 10-11 May I met up with Kathleen Shortt, the Brontë Society’s representative for Scotland. We went south to the border country for a tour of Sir Walter Scott’s house, Abbotsford, by Malcolm Morrison, a BS member who lives in Melrose and works at the house as a volunteer guide. Scott’s literary creations were of course hugely influential on the Brontës, as on so many other writers of the period; in 1834, advising her friend Ellen Nussey on which novels to read, Charlotte Brontë had written: ‘For fiction read Scott alone – all novels after him are worthless’.  Abbotsford, his amazing and highly personal creation in stone, was to ruin him financially, though he eventually managed to write his way out of debt. We were privileged to have not only a private tour of the house with Malcolm but also a private viewing of the visitors’ book that covers 1850. The book, whose binding is in too fragile a condition to allow it to be permanently displayed, was brought out for us by Sandra Mackenzie, the Heritage and Learning Officer, and opened at the page where Charlotte Brontë and George Smith signed it during their visit to Abbotsford on 5 July of that year along with 17 other visitors. Charlotte had joined her publisher for a couple of days’ sight-seeing in Scotland when he and his sister went to fetch their younger brother home from his school in Edinburgh for the summer vacation. She was originally to have joined the Smiths for a longer tour of Scotland but her time with them was curtailed, probably because of the disapproval of Ellen and others of her jaunts with the unmarried Smith. Despite the brevity of her Scottish trip Charlotte waxed lyrical in letters about her glimpse of Edinburgh, Abbotsford and Melrose, telling her friend Laetitia Wheelwright that ‘Edinburgh compared to London is like a vivid page of history compared to a huge dull treatise on Political Economy – and as to Melrose and Abbotsford the very names possess music and magic.’

bronteparsonage

 

Photo: Helen MacEwan, Malcolm Morrison (Abbotsford guide), Kathleen Shortt

 

 

Pencil sketch of a ring ouzel

On this day in 1829, Emily made this pencil sketch of a ring ouzel. Native to upland parts of northern England and Scotland, Emily had likely encountered ring ouzels on the moors near her home.

Bronte Parsonage Museum

 

 

Discovering Literature

This is a list of the more than sixty Brontë-related entries to be found there (including Emily Brontë's diary, 1837, for instance):

bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians

Discovering Literature

 

Eric Mitchell at the Parsonage

Look who came to visit on 1940s weekend! We were thrilled to see Eric Mitchell at the Parsonage yesterday - Eric's father, Harold Mitchell, was custodian here during the Second World War, and Eric was the last baby to be born at the Parsonage! Bronte Parsonage Museum