Popular Bronte Videos

 

Today I was looking at this fil of the BBC

You can find here popular Bronte Videos

youtube/bronte

Parsonage garden

''Life, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometime there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall?
Rapidly, merrily,
Life’s sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily,
Enjoy them as they fly!' (CB)

From the e-newsletter :

July strikes me as “mid-term”. Spring with all its flourish has left us behind.  Those plants that straddle late spring and early summer such as honesty and columbine, have now been cut back. The early summer becomes history and the Summer Equinox has come and gone. Some flowers from that early summer period are still around such as roses, cranesbill and red campion but there is a need to be deadheading to encourage the last flowers from these specimens. The white roses still have their beautiful scent too. Even though the school holidays have just begun, to the gardener there is already the hint of autumn. Not only the deadheading but some leaves are beginning to fall, probably exaggerated by the dry weather. However, we need not despair just yet as there is still plenty of colour from many plants not least of all fushias and peonies with their beautiful shapes and colours. The garden has a particular dominant dual coloured hebe bush of profuse and contrasting lilac and white flowers.

 

In the back garden the vegetation as well as the flowering is prolific. Jenny has been very busy tending this area and we are now expecting a colourful show of yellow loosestrife and evening primrose. She recently rescued a struggling morning glory climbing plant (blue flowered with a bindweed like leaf) and re-planted it in the front garden in hopefully a more favourable location. Perhaps the back garden is becoming our nursery area!

Finally, a quick update on our Plant Bring and Buy held on a Sunday mid-month. We were very grateful to all those visitors who either swapped plants or donated. We enjoyed meeting with you and we hope you enjoyed the buns, cakes and cordials provided. We are currently thinking of how to use the funds to further enhance the garden.

Bronte enthusiasts hail ‘fantastic discovery’ of Wuthering Heights film script

FILM script used by the director of the first adaptation of Wuthering Heights has been bought for a five-figure sum by the Brontë Parsonage which hailed it as a “fantastic discovery”.

Made in the 1920s, using locations around Haworth, the film was made by the Ideal Film Company and was the first ever adaptation of Emily Brontë novel.
However, no survivig copy of the film has been found, despite many enquiries over the years by the Brontë Parsonage.
The script, bought from a book dealer in West Sussex, was used by the director Arthur Victor Bramble and contains 22 pages of production notes including his annotations, along with details of costumes and locations used in each scene and press cuttings.
There are original stills of the film crew carrying their equipment and shots of the child actors.

Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Brontë Parsonage, said: “It has taken several years to even come close to finding out whether a copy of the film existed, and so to now be in ownership of this incredible script is a fantastic and overwhelming triumph. It’s such an iconic film and a great effort was made to ensure the film’s authenticity with locations set in the Haworth area and telling the whole story. It’s a great loss that this classic film has not survived, but this is a great start in establishing its history.”
The script will go on display in the Brontë Parsonage Museum early next year. yorkshirepost

Clough House, Halifax Road, Hightown, Liversedge

Patrick Bronte first came as minister to St Peter's Church, Hartshead from Dewsbury in 1810. At first he lodged at Thornbush Farm, known in those days as Lousy Thorn Farm, at Windybank Hightown (picture next to Patrick Bronte). He moved to Clough House, Halifax Road, Hightown (pictured above), on his marriage to Maria Branwell in 1812. The most  famous Brontes were born after the family moved to Thornton, Bradford in 1815. Charlotte (pictured above left) was born there in April 1816.

He was at Clough House when the croppers banded together to try to destroy the cropping machines being installed in the large mills. They called themselves Luddites, and met at the Shears inn in Halifax Road to plan the attack.

Despite arriving at Hartshead Church (now St Peter’s) in 1810, Patrick wasn’t officially inducted until July of the following year. He was incumbent there until 1815 when he exchanged parishes with the vicar of Thornton in Bradford. spenboroughguardian

A DOOR which once graced the Spen residence of the Rev Patrick Bronte has found a new home in Dewsbury Minster. 2004
The front door, which is at least two centuries old, was in place at Clough House, Halifax Road, Hightown, until about five years ago.  However, its condition had deteriorated so much it had to be removed, though it has been kept in storage at the listed building ever since. Some time ago the owner, Mrs Mary Crowther, offered it to the Bronte Society, who found a suitable home for it at Dewsbury MInster. Imelda Marsden, from the Society, said: "I'm really delighted because it is going back to where Patrick preached. This door has seen a lot of history and the Luddites would have walked past it. I'm thrilled we have found a home for it." dewsburyreporter

HARTSHEAD, to which living Patrick was presented July 20th, 1810, by the Rev. John Buckworth, vicar of Dewsbury, is a small hamlet situated on a commanding eminence overlooking Calderdale, about four miles west of Dewsbury. Hartshead has now been created a parish, but up till a comparatively recent date, it was a chapelry in the parish of Dewsbury, the gift of the living being, as it is at the present day, in the hands of the vicar of Dewsbury. When Bronte came here, there was no parsonage house, so he put up, after his marriage, at a tall house at the top of Clough Lane, in Hightown, a neighbouring hamlet in the parish of Birstall. No doubt all round this commanding height the eye could range for many miles over an open, well wooded and well watered

The Eev. Patrick Bronte entered on his incumbency here on July 20th, 1810. He remained at Hartshead for five years, during which time he became deservedly popular as a preacher, so much so that when he exchanged with the Eev. Thomas Atkinson, incumbent of Thornton, the Hightown folks used often to walk over on a Sunday to hear their old clergyman preach. Mrs. Gaskell tells us that daring his stay here he was reputed as being a " very handsome fellow, full of Irish enthusiasm, and with something of an Irishman's capability of falling easily in love."


Hartshead Churcli, dedicated to St. Peter, with its weather-beaten Norman tower, and its old yew tree
is well worth a careful study. When the second Earl of Warren granted the living of Dewsbury to the priory of Lewes, this church was then in existence, that is, about 1120. It has been restored quite recently, but it still retains its Norman characte-
ristics in a striking manner. Its doorway and chancel arch, although not so highly adorned as the church at Adel, are well worthy of inspection. The old candelabrum of brass suspended from the ceiling, the finely carved reredos, and the quaint stained windows in great part erected to commemorate members of the Armytage family buried here, all take one's attention. The Armytage vault with their crest, a hand grasping a dagger, and the motto " Semper paratus," is seen in the floor of the church. In the vestry, Patrick Bronte's minute signature can be inspected in the register books which date back as far as 1612. The churchyard has nothing very notable in it. The oldest stone is one to the memory of the Hilleley family of Clifton, and bears the date 1614. archive/brontecountry

Grandparents

Patrick Bronte married Maria BRANWELL in 1812.  Maria was born in 1783 in Penzance, Cornwall, the daughter of Thomas BRANWELL and Anne CARNE. She was one of 12 children, though only six of these survived childhood. Her siblings were Anne (1769-1792), Margaret (1770), Thomas (1771-?), Elisabeth (1772-1772), Jane (1773-1855), Benjamin Carne (1775-1818), Elisabeth (1776-1842), Thomas (1778-1779), Alice (1780-1780s), Margaret (1789) and Charlotte (1791-1848).

Anne CARNE was the wife of Thomas CRANWELL and the maternal grandmother of the Bronte sisters.  The CARNE name is quite numerous in Cornwall, but it seems likely that she is the Anne CARNE who was baptized in Penzance on 27^th April 1744, the daughter of John Carne.  However, I cannot find any definite siblings for her, so any connection to this family would probably be further back.

The family was very successful in the import and export trade, and her father owned a brewery, an inn, and the largest grocers emporium in the town. The close-knit family was broken up by the death of Thomas Branwell in 1808 and of his wife the next year.

The builder of Nr 25 Chapel Street is known;
Richard Branwell and his partner Edward Hamilton in 1767, for Thomas Branwell and daughter-in law Ann (nee Carne),  as a wedding present.

Nr 25 Chapel street, Penzance . Owned and occupied by Thomas Branwell and Ann Carne married 28th November 1768. Thomas died 5th April 1808 age 62; Ann died 19th December 1809 aged 66. Said to have had 11 children, eight girls and three boys, seven of the children survived. The house was empty by 1815.
picturepenzance

 

 

Anne Branwell (Carne)
Datum van Geboorte	1745
Overlijden	Overleden 1809 in Penzance, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom
Begraafplaats:	St Mary's Churchyard, Penzance, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom geni/people/  Anne-Carne      Minnie's father Francis (Frank) Carne was a Carpenter from Madron in Cornwall, and a descendant of           Henry Carne who was born in 1678  and also lived in Madron.  Henry was Minnie's 4th Great Grandfather.           He was also the Grandfather of Anne Carne born in 1744 who married Thomas Branwell in Penzance theroyalzanettos

Opening Bronte Parsonage Museum

Bronte Parsonage Museum

The Parsonage was officially presented to the Brontë Society and opened to the public as the Brontë Parsonage Museum on this day in 1928.
 

I never saw this picture before, I love it

Another picture and background information

you can find on

kleurrijkbrontesisters/what-happened-after-death-of-Charlotte

 

Emily Jane Brontë was born on this day in 1818, in Thornton, West Yorkshire.

Bronte Parsonage Museum

Here  a few snaps from the event on Sunday celebrating the anniversary of Emily Bronte's Birthday! You can see the cake we all enjoyed which was decorated with heather from Emily's beloved moor!

 

Temperance reformation and Catholic Emancipation.

Although a strong Tory Patrick Bronte was sympathetic to many Whig ideas. He supported Roman Catholic Emancipation, was against the death penalty for minor crimes, like stealing a loaf of bread, against the workhouse system where families were separated, a man from his wife and parents from their children, and against rotten boroughs where the few voters were bribed to vote for particular members of Parliament. Patrick was one of the few Tories in Haworth, a great believer in the established (Church of England) church among a majority of Dissenters. In Haworth he was a founder member, as was Branwell, of the Haworth Temperance Society.  He was a great believer in education and fought hard to raise money for, first of all a Sunday School and later a day school. He raised money for the poor when there was little work. He raised a subscription to replace the three bells of the church by six new ones so the bell ringers could take part in competitions. brusselsbronte 

Temperance reformation
During 1830, at the beginning of the temperance reformation, twenty temperance societies were founded, totalling between two and three thousand members. The first period of the temperance movement was focused on controlling drunkenness rather than abolishing all alcoholic beverages. history/journal

This photograph proudly displayed alongside other Brontë mementos at the Temperance tea rooms in the family's home village of Haworth in West Yorkshire, the picture was auctioned by Sotheby's in 1898 when the Museum of Brontë Relics closed down and sold off everything it owned. It has not been seen since, although copies of the picture are known to exist. independent

Catholic emancipation

Catholic emancipation was the subject of political debate in the United Kingdom, which intensified in the 19th Century after the Act of Union in 1801. Catholics were not allowed to sit in Parliament¹ and therefore were represented by Protestants. Catholic emancipation — Catholic relief — was designed to give Catholics the right to sit in Parliament.

O'Connel

In 1823, Daniel O'Connell, an Irish Catholic lawyer and politician, began a campaign for Catholic emancipation. He was widely successful and raised a great deal of money through 'Catholic Rent', a subscription to an association which cost only one penny a month. His popularity led to his election for the county of Clare in Ireland, even though he could not take his seat in Parliament. Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington felt that the threat of insurrection in Ireland surpassed the threat of allowing Catholics to sit in Parliament⁴. The Catholic Relief Act was passed on 24 March, 1829. It contained a number of securities for the Protestants, including not allowing Catholics to attain certain positions and disenfranchising the 40-shilling freeholders. This meant that people who owned or lived on property worth more than forty shillings had previously been allowed to vote in Ireland, but that the property requirement would now be ten pounds.

Opposition to Catholic Emancipation
The Duke of Wellington, famous for his successes in the Napoleonic Wars, was the Prime Minister of Britain from 1828 - 1830 and the leader of the Tory party, which generally stood for the defence of the status quo. Both Wellington and his second-in-command and future Prime Minister Robert Peel had been against Catholic emancipation in the past, and their about-turn was seen as deceitful and disloyal. Wellington and Peel were of the opinion that the potential unrest in Ireland was preventable only by allowing Catholic emancipation. Many members of their own party opposed the measure, which was only passed with Whig support. The Duke of Newcastle was a strong opponent of Catholic emancipation, and in his diary described how Wellington and Peel 'betrayed their country'. He also attributes this speech to the Duke of Cumberland:

Nothing shall induce me to abandon the principles which I have always maintained and what is more to do my utmost to defeat measures which in my conscience I believe to be destructive of the Throne, the altar and the Protestant Constitution.

The opposition to Wellington and Peel's Catholic emancipation split the Tory party and led to the Whigs taking power for the first time in more than twenty years.
bbc.co.uk

The transition between the Georgian and Victorian eras

The transition between what are commonly termed the Georgian and Victorian eras is one of the great turning points of British history. The dividing line is often considered to be either 1830 (the death of George IV) or 1837 (the accession of Queen Victoria

The sphere in which the end of the Georgian Era can be mostly clearly witnessed is within the Church of England. The Church of England was transmuted from an essentially Latitudinarian Protestant sect, suspicious of ‘enthusiasm’, into a Church fully asserting its historic Catholicity, and strongly influenced by medieval ritual.

In the early 19th century, a parish vestry had wide-ranging responsibilities for such areas as poor relief, tax collection, registration of births, marriages and deaths, and road maintenance. A series of legislative measures of the 1830s gave such duties to secular bodies like poor law unions and civil vestries, making the Church’s sole concern religion.

It would be completely unjust to characterise the earlier Georgian Era as devoid of charity, but it is probably fair to state that it had never been accompanied by such spiritual fervour as shown by reformers like Wilberforce, Hannah More, Henry Thornton and Charles Simeon. Their main cause was the abolition of the slave trade, an object achieved in 1807, followed by the total abolition of slavery in 1833.

Despite the excessive pomp of George’s coronation in 1821, the monarchy – and thus the establishment – had reached its lowest point. In the eyes of many, including the growing number of political radicals, it had lost all moral integrity and could no longer command the respect of the nation. When Victoria became Queen at the age of 18, her unenviable task was to restore the moral authority of the British establishment.

Transition between the artistic cultures of the Georgian and Victorian eras, from ‘neoclassicism’ to ‘romanticism’. This was observable to some degree in all western cultures during the first half of the 19th century. Writers such as Wordsworth, Blake, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley and Bryon were mainly active during the Georgian Era, but were often dissident elements, refusing to conform to the Augustan society around them.

In the early 19th century, the dominant style of architecture was that of the Greek Revival. From the 1840s onwards gothic was the standard style for churches,

Female clothing changed drastically around the same time: dresses were no longer large and elaborate, but were simple and light in imitation of Grecian models. By the 1830s female dresses were gradually expanded and embellished, reaching the absurd extreme of the unapproachable crinoline dresses of the 1860s

It is clear that the transition between the Georgians and the Victorians has had profound consequences. The demise of the Georgian Era demonstrates how a complete set of assumptions can be undermined, and finally overthrown, from within. The battles between rationality and romanticism, moral leniency and strictness, materialism and mysticism, still affect us today. /georgian-victorian

Kings and queen during the time the Brontes were living

Patrick Brontë          17 March 1777 – 7 June 1861

Charlotte Brontë          21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855

Patrick Branwell Brontë  26 June 1817 – 24 September 1848

Emily Jane Brontë           30 juli 1818 –  19 december 1848)

Anne Brontë                17 januari 1820 –  28 mei 1849

King George III 1760 - 1820

 

At the age of 22, George succeeded to the throne when his grandfather, George II, died suddenly on 25 October 1760. On 8 September 1761 in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, the King married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom he met on their wedding day.^[19]  They had 15 children—nine sons and six daughters.

In 1762, George purchased Buckingham House (on the site now occupied by Buckingham Palace) for use as a family retreat.^[20] His other residences were Kew and Windsor Castle. St. James's Palace was retained for official use. He did not travel extensively, and spent his entire life in southern England.

Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India.

However, many of its American colonies were soon lost in the American Revolutionary War.

Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

King George IV 1820 - 1830

 

George IV led an extravagant lifestyle that contributed to the fashions of the Regency era. He was a patron of new forms of leisure, style and taste.

 

He commissioned John Nash to build the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and remodel Buckingham Palace, and Sir Jeffry Wyattville to rebuild Windsor Castle. He was instrumental in the foundation of the National Gallery and King's College London.

 

He had a poor relationship with both his father and his wife, Caroline of Brunswick

 

Taxpayers were angry at his wasteful spending in time of war.

wiki/George_IV_of_the_United_Kingdom

 

King William IV 1830 - 1837

 

William was the third son of George III and not expected to become king. He was created Duke of Clarence and from 1791 set up home with Dorothea Bland, an Irish actress known as ‘Mrs Jordan’. They lived contentedly together for 20 years, and had 5 sons and 5 daughters given the surname Fitzclarence.

 

William was in debt but, with the death of Princess Charlotte only daughter of his elder brother, he had become heir to the throne. Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen was found for him as a suitable Protestant wife and they married in 1818. The marriage was happy but despite several miscarriages there were no children who survived infancy. His London residence Clarence House was designed for him by John Nash in 1825.

 

In 1834 when fire destroyed the Houses of Parliament at Westminster he offered Buckingham Palace to Parliament. They declined and Westminster was rebuilt by Charles Barry in Gothic style.

 

William was 64 years old and the oldest person to date to succeed to the throne when he became King on the death of his brother George IV in 1830.

 
Queen Victoria 1837 - 1901

 

She was the daughter of Edward, duke of Kent (fourth son of George III) and a niece of George IV and William lV.

Childhood in Jane Eyre

Women authors and the money they earned

July day

'He said the pleasantest manner of spending a hot July day was lying from morning till evening on a bank of heath in the middle of the moors, with the bees humming dreamily about among the bloom, and the larks singing high up overhead, and the blue sky and bright sun shining steadily and cloudlessly. That was his most perfect idea of heaven's happiness: mine was rocking in a rustling green tree, with a west wind blowing, and bright white clouds flitting rapidly above; and not only larks, but throstles, and blackbirds, and linnets, and cuckoos pouring out music on every side, and the moors seen at a distance, broken into cool dusky dells; but close by great swells of long grass undulating in waves to the breeze; and woods and sounding water, and the whole world awake and wild with joy'. Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
wiki/North_York_Moors

The teeny tiny Bronte books

                    

 

 

 the-teeny-tiny-bronte-books

 

The amazing teeny tiny books by the Brontes

In 1829-30, Charlotte Brontë was 13 and her brother Branwell Brontë 12. Creating fantasy worlds they called Angria and Glass Town, the siblings made teeny tiny books.
Measuring less than 1 inch by 2 inches, the books were made from scraps of paper and constructed by hand. Despite their diminutive size, the books contained big adventures, written in ink in careful script.

Twenty books, all by Charlotte and Branwell, remain. Similar books created by the other sisters, Anne and Emily, did not survive. Nine of the existing books, known as Bronte juvenalia, are in the collection at the Houghton Library at Harvard University.
Scholars have long had access to the book, but the library has now made them more broadly available by digitizing them and putting them online.

 

“Seeing the physical object brings home the effort and intelligence it took to create them and why they created them. Having grown up with Brontë, it’s a way of connecting with the past through objects,” Houghton curator Leslie Morris told the Harvard Gazette.
“What is extraordinary is the extent to which they imitated a professional publication, the variety of the content, and the perseverance it required,” said Priscilla Anderson, who restored the books at Harvard’s Weissman Preservation Center. “The ability to make these volumes from start to finish out of scraps is impressive.”
The Brontë sisters, of course, grew up to write some of the most lasting novels in English literature. Emily penned "Wuthering Heights" and Charlotte was the author of "Jane Eyre." Charismatic Branwell's efforts to be a tutor, clerk and artist failed, and he died of tuberculosis after struggling with alcohol and opium.
Charlotte and Branwell's juvenalia can be found online here:
By Charlotte Brontë:
Scenes on the great bridge, November 1829
The silver cup: a tale, October 1829
Blackwoods young mens magazine, August 1829
An interesting passage in the lives of some eminent personages of the present age, June 1830
The poetaster: a drama in two volumes, July 1830
The adventures of Mon. Edouard de Crack, February 1830
By Patrick Branwell Brontë:
Branwells Blackwoods magazine, June 1829
Magazine, January 1829
Branwells Blackwoods magazine, July 1829

Bronte Parsonage June enewslette​r. The garden of the Parsonage.

'It was a little budding rose,
Round like a fairy globe,
And shyly did its leaves unclose
Hid in their mossy robe,
But sweet was the slight and spicy smell
 It breathed from its heart invisible.' (Emily Brontë)

 

In truth ‘June is busting out all over’ might have been a better choice but alas it is not Brontë!!  June is the most important month in the Parsonage garden.  Why? Because it’s time for the annual membership get-together for the AGM weekend.  Geoff and I are always keen to have the garden looking its best for the membership.

For a few years now we have been growing rose bushes (with varying degrees of success) but we are not faint hearted and have persevered: three of the five roses we planted are doing really well, one is in intensive care but the other has sadly died so, all in all, not too bad and hopefully the survivors will be flowering soon.

This year we have majored on foxgloves which are perfect in our south border shaded by the graveyard trees. We have acquired our foxgloves for free − which is always a bonus – thanks to Anthony.  Anthony looks after the gardens round the church and finding himself with too many foxgloves, he passes on his spares to us as part of a neighbourly quid pro quo. 

The lawns have never looked better than they do now; not a weed in sight, and believe me I have looked closely as Geoff promised me 50p for every weed I could find.  I'll not get rich out of Geoff! 

The new planting at the back of the heather garden is filling up nicely and soon we will be able to gather flowers from there to decorate the Museum. Poppies will soon be in their full glory − fingers crossed that the rain does not spoil them, they are so easily flattened.  The aquilegia are putting on a lovely show just now.  You never know just what you are going to get from aquilegia as, like cowslips and primroses, they are very promiscuous and like to surprise us with their offspring − we have a lovely double-flowered one this year that we have not seen before.

I could go on and on with this month’s diary, the garden is so full of lovely things but please come and see it for yourself.  Try to keep Sunday 13th July free as it's our first Open Garden Day.  If you have a plant in your garden that you can split, please bring us one, we too are potting up the Parsonage garden’s spare plants for a bring-and-buy stall.  I hope we shall see you then.