The Roots of Arthur Bell Nicholls

Marina Saegerman writes: 

A woman with a Brontë mission: tracing the Irish roots of Arthur Bell Nicholls in Banagher, Ireland

Every year during our annual holidays in Ireland, my husband Paul and I set ourselves a target or a mission: we follow the trail of a well-known Irish person. In the past years we have done the Michael Collins’ trail (Co. Cork and Dublin), we have followed the poet William Butler Yeats (Co. Sligo and Dublin), the Irish writers James Joyce (Dublin and surroundings) and Oscar Wilde (Dublin, Co. Galway, Co. Longford), and last year we went to Edgeworthstown, the hometown of Maria Edgeworth, and visited her grave. It is usually more my personal mission than Paul’s because of the literary, historical and cultural interest I have in Ireland. Each year we also try and find Brontë links in Ireland, we even found a shop called 'Brontë' in Carrigaline (Co. Cork), selling shoes of all things.

This year my mission was really Brontë-related: a visit to Banagher (Co. Offaly) to trace the Irish roots of Charlotte’s husband Arthur Bell Nicholls. The day of this mission was to be Saturday 20 July 2013, when we were travelling from Boyle (Co. Roscommon) to Dun Laoghaire (Co. Dublin) on our way back home. We planned to make a small detour to Banagher, the village where Arthur Bell Nicholls returned to after the death of Rev. Patrick Brontë, the town where he had spent most of his childhood and where some of his relatives still lived at that time.

It had become more my personal mission , especially since I had read the book Mr Charlotte Brontë. Paul is not so interested in literature and the Brontës but he was quite willing to drive me all the way to Banagher, because the town is situated in beautiful surroundings. I was very excited about the whole expedition. And the nearer we got to Banagher, the more excited I became. Finally I saw the sign indicating that we entered Banagher. Now, we had to locate the churchyard where Arthur was buried and the house where he had spent the last years of his life. As a way of preparing myself for this mission, I had just finished reading the book My dear boy, telling the story of Arthur’s life. I knew from that book that the house and the church were 'at the top of the hill'. When entering the centre there was a road going uphill. We took this road and noticed there was more than one church along that road, which seemed to be the main street, but at the top we saw a church spire and we were convinced that this was the church we were looking for.

St Paul's

At the top of the hill we found a beautiful old church surrounded by an old graveyard and a stone wall, which was indeed St Paul’s Church of Ireland, mentioned in the book. However, there was one big problem: the gate was closed and there was no other way of entering the churchyard. Climbing over the gate and the wall was certainly not an option. In vain we tried to call the rector whose telephone number was mentioned on the board at the entrance. I then went to one of the neighbouring houses to ask whether they knew who was in charge of the key, but although they were very helpful, they could not get hold of the person responsible.

Apparently, at that particular moment there was a funeral of a young local man going on in one of the other churches and everybody in town seemed to be at it. I was referred to the house known as 'Hill House' where perhaps they might be able to help me further. I was very excited because that was in fact the house where Arthur lived with his second wife and where he died. Following the directions and description I was given, I finally found the house in question, located on the same road very near to the church. Charlotte showed me the way! The house at 'The Hill' was known in Arthur’s day as 'the Hill House', now it was a B&B and renamed 'Charlotte’s way' - I noticed the sign at the entrance.

I really would not have recognized the house from the pictures I had seen in My dear boy: it was a beautiful yellow-painted house with a beautiful porch entrance, and a paddock in front where two ponies ran around, flowers everywhere. I was so thrilled to be there. I saw a man coming out of the house and explained the situation. I asked him whether he could help me locate the person in charge of the churchyard key. His name was John Daly and his daughter owned the house. He told me that up to six months ago he would have been able to help me with the key, but since the church had been vandalised six months ago, and nearly burned down,  the gate was kept closed at all times except for Sunday church service. He would try to sort this out, in the mean time I could go in the house to meet his daughter Nikki. I just could not believe my Irish luck: was this a fairytale? Was I dreaming in broad daylight?

In the house I met Nikki, who gave me a very warm welcome, the Irish way. She showed me around the ground floor pointing out a few items of interest related to Charlotte : a portrait of Charlotte painted by a friend artist based on the Richmond portrait, the crest of the house, a copy of the pillar portrait of the Brontës (the original was found in the attic of Hill House after Arthur’s death) which had a very prominent place in the sitting room, the room where Arthur ‘s body was laid before his burial. I was allowed to browse around on my own in all the rooms of the house and I could even take pictures. I really could not believe it. 

Hill House is a beautiful 17th century Georgian house, lovingly refurbished inside to modern standards but keeping the spirit of the house intact. It made a wonderful impression upon me. The ground floor contains a small sitting room, the dining room with a large sitting room, where the portrait of the three sisters is exhibited, the hall with Charlotte’s portrait and the crest of Charlotte’s Way, and the kitchen. A beautiful staircase, though not the original staircase which Arthur would have known, leads us to the first floor where there are four bedrooms. One of these bedrooms was Arthur’s room, another bedroom was the room in which Charlotte had tea when she visited the house and the family on their honeymoon. At the top of the staircase, the former attic, there is one more bedroom. The basement was converted to a storeroom and a bedroom with a large window opening up to the garden in the back.

While I was browsing around the house Paul came back to let me know that (by coincidence?) someone had turned up at the church gate with the key and was waiting for me to show me around the graveyard and the church. Finally, my mission could be completed: I was going to see the grave of Arthur Bell Nicholls and his second wife Mary Anna (née Bell). Mrs Fay Clarke, church warden of St Paul’s church, was indeed waiting for us at the gate. She brought us straight to the graves of the Bell family. Arthur’s grave was the grave at the right hand side of the plot.

I had brought a pot of lavender with me and on behalf of the Brussels Brontë Group I put it on Arthur’s grave together with a poem of Charlotte (Memory) and some Connemara pebble stones. The poem reads as follows:

“Though sunshine and spring may have lightened

The wild flowers that blow on their graves;

Though summer their tombstones have brightened,

And autumn have pall’d them with leaves;

Though winter have wildly bewailed them

With her dirge-wind as sad as knell;

Though the shroud of her snow-wreath have veiled them,

Still how deep in our bosoms they dwell!”

I held a moment of silence in memory of Arthur Bell Nicholls and his second wife, and in memory of the whole Brontë family. For me this was a very emotional moment. Then we went inside the church, such a quiet and peaceful place. There was a beautiful stained glass window dedicated to the Bell family of Cuba House, where Arthur grew up with his uncle, aunt and cousins. Fay told us that Cuba House was demolished many years ago (in the 1980’s). What a shame! And the same could have happened to this beautiful old church: Imagine that all this could have been destroyed by fire six months ago, if the vandals had had their way. Luckily there was an alert fireman staying in Charlotte’s Way who heard the noise and reacted immediately. The church was badly damaged, but saved. The vandals were prosecuted.

We thanked Fay for taking the time to show us around the graveyard and the church. I really was very grateful that I was given this opportunity. It really was my lucky day.

We returned to Hill House (Charlotte’s Way) where we were invited for coffee/tea in the garden. The landlady Nikki proved to be very passionate about the house. She knew and loved the house from her childhood, because her mother was a housekeeper there. When the house came up for sale, she jumped at the opportunity . She is a nurse and initially it was her intention to turn the house into a nursing home, but it proved to be an impossible task to comply with all the requirements needed for a nursing home (e.g. lift). So she turned it into a B&B. She is running the place on her own, but she said she never feels alone in the house because there are so many good spirits still present in the house. The house is steeped in history, and breathes warmth and hospitality, ........ and Brontës. She has been writing a book on the history of the house, which will be published in the near future. I’m really looking forward to reading it.

In the past...

During our chat in the garden (it was such a lovely warm and sunny day) Nikki told us that she had many English fishermen staying in the house at regular times (the region is a well-known fishing spot), but that she wanted to emphasise the Brontë link of the house a little bit more in future. She was planning to visit Haworth in the autumn this year. The fishing link got Paul interested in the house, and he got talking to Nikki about all angling events in the area. So who knows, one day soon we might come back here to stay: angling and Brontës – a perfect combination for us! We said goodbye to Nikki and John and thanked them for the warm welcome and hospitality we received. A last picture from me in front of the house was taken, and then we left Hill House..... and Banagher.

It was wonderful that everything turned out so well in the end. Not only did I reach my initial target but I got more than I expected. My personal mission was accomplished. But since there is so much more to explore in Banagher and its surroundings I’m sure we will be back here, rather sooner than later.

Links: Banagher, Charlotte's Way

My dear boy - the life of Arthur Bell Nicholls - Margaret and Robert Cochrane

Mr Charlotte Brontë – the life of Arthur Bell Nicholls - Alan H. Adamson

This article first appeared on Brussels Brontë Blog

To the Core of Charlotte's Heart

Maddalena de Leo writes:
On 5 August I went to England on a new Brontë pilgrimage, this time not in Haworth but in London and Wales. First of all, I was determined to see with my own eyes the four letters written by Charlotte to M. Heger in the years 1844-5, the same ones to which sadly no answer followed. 2013 marks the centenary of their donation to the British nation by Heger’s children Paul and Louise so it was really important for me to have the chance this year. I went to the British Library in King’s Cross, London, and having obtained first online and then in person a Reader’s Pass, not without difficulty I might add, I could see at last the so wished-for letters, one by one in a glass frame. I eagerly read the four of them, especially the third, so moving (and stitched), and also the neatly written fourth sad one. Poor Charlotte’s pain was palpable in them and I was highly impressed while deciphering her words in her usually neat calligraphy. Regrettably no photo was permitted in the Manuscript Room while holding these precious ‘selected’ documents.

Afterwards  I went to Conway in Wales since I knew my Charlotte had spent her first night there after her marriage in June 1854. I looked for and stopped outside The Castle Hotel for photos and videos, knowing it was the inn where Charlotte and Arthur Bell Nicholls had taken a rest before leaving for Bangor and Ireland some days later for their honeymoon. A few moments and I suddenly had the idea to enter the now elegant and luxurious hotel just  to ask someone to show me Charlotte’s wedding room. I thought it as a joke but who knew, I might be lucky! And so it was with my utmost surprise that after some minutes a very kind Welsh person from the reception came to my assistance and really took me in the room that had seen Charlotte Brontë’s presence more than a century and a half ago.

But my emotion reached the maximum level when nice, bald Brian showed me the double bed, a dark, carved, seventeenth century tester bed, telling me it really was the bed where Charlotte and her husband had slept that night. I then took a lot of photos and Brian smiled at my being so taken by the bed. When I could breathe I asked him if there are many Brontë fans coming there asking to visit that room but he told me that no, there aren’t any and also the room is the least booked in their hotel since the ancient fearful bed bears the following mysterious inscription on it: ‘God protect me through this night’. When I added that Charlotte’s husband was a curate, Brian burst into a loud laugh that meant, as he explained afterwards, she was well protected!

To feel Charlotte’s anguish so vividly and to see her wedding bed were for me two great incredible moments and this August I felt near her more than ever!

                                                                                                                   

Shanghai Ballet - Jane Eyre - 上海芭蕾舞團

Click here to read the review of this in Dancing Review

It's on in London now. We'd love to read your review (or your comments) as well...

Send it to heveliusx1@yahoo.co.uk


Lynne Howell comments:
Whilst visiting my daughter in London today, we happened upon this production of Jane Eyre. There were some very beautiful moments during the ballet and some baffling ones too. Sadly Jane's time at Lowood was completely glossed over. However there did occasionally appear during the performance a ghostly figure of a girl whom I presume was Helen. Her strange zombie like movements which interspersed her otherwise beautiful dancing , were rather off putting and unnecessary. Bertha Mason was centre stage and incredibly powerful, contrasting delightfully with our shy, small and reserved Jane. Bertha did however appear to come back from the dead towards the end of the piece, to re join Rochester and Jane. All three then for some reason took off their clothes. 

On the whole an enjoyable evening of ballet, with the fire scene being the stand out moment, and the ending being the low point.

Sent from my iPad (15 August)

The Stage review (thanks Paul):
http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/38837/jane-eyre

Click here to read Xinhua on the ballet.

We were in stitches

IMS writes:
I joined a small group of Brontë Society members on a sunny afternoon at East Riddlesden Hall, a seventeenth century manor house on the outskirts of Keighley, and we were in stitches. You may be forgiven for thinking that the group had gone to watch an Ealing comedy or to take part in some hilarious game show but the stitches in question were of a far more serious nature and had been worked nearly four hundred years ago.

The Parsonage Museum director, Professor Ann Sumner, shared her expert knowledge of the seventeenth century samplers which were on display in the Hall. She explained that, after the growing emergence of the middle classes in the seventeenth century, needlework really came to the fore and it was really the golden age of sampler making. These samplers demonstrated the skills, in needlework, of young girls, skills which started quite simply at around the age of five. After hours and hours of practice and work, the girls were producing such things as embroidered mirror frames and book bindings and beautifully worked panels for caskets. These panels were sent away to be made into the caskets which had small drawers and secret compartments.

Seventeenth century sewers would buy kits for their samplers from pedlars and these kits contained all the sewing material required and pattern books which would be resplendent with flowers, birds, leaves, fishes and animals. 

The three samplers discussed were all different. The oldest, surrounded by an authentic tortoiseshell frame, had a biblical theme, which was very common - this one featuring probably Rachel at the well - and was embroidered with butterflies and caterpillars. These two things were a symbol that the sampler had probably been worked in a Royalist household. The second was thought to depict Charles the Second with his wife Catherine of Braganza because the royal lion and stag could be clearly seen. All the samplers were worked in ‘stump’ work or ‘raised’ work and after surviving so long were very faded, but originally the colours would have been extremely bright.

‘She overwhelms me with oceans of needlework, yards of cambric to hem, muslin nightcaps to make and, above all things, dolls to dress.’  

Charlotte to Emily from Stonegappe- written in June 1839.

In a later age all the Brontë sisters were proficient needlewomen and it is known that Charlotte made her first linen chemise at the age of five, probably taught by Sarah Garrs, the servant, and each girl made a sampler, following in the footsteps of their mother and their aunt. Aunt Branwell  instructed the girls in sewing, thinking that really it was only the culture they needed, and when there were plans for a school at the Parsonage needlework was planned to be part of the curriculum.

We can see in all the Brontë novels that sewing is a theme running through them all - Grace Poole mends in an upstairs room and Nelly Dean sews as she narrates her story to Mr Lockwood. Caroline Helstone bemoans the fact that the sisters of local men have no earthly employment but housework and sewing.

Brontë samplers are on display today in the museum and it is remarkable when looking at the intricate and delicate work of them, and indeed of the seventeenth century ones we saw at the Hall, that all this beautiful work was produced without the aid of our modern electricity.

  

Les Soeurs Brontë - a review

Thanks, Paul Daniggelis, for sending us this link:

http://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/article-18966-the-bront%C3%AB-sist.html

 

The Brontë Sisters

Poetry in emotion.

Aimee Williams August 10th, 2013

June AGM weekend - Oakwell Hall

‘”The old latticed windows, the stone porch, the walls, the roof, the chimney-stacks, were rich in crayon touches and sepia lights and shades.”

On Tuesday drizzle took the place of sunshine as we disembarked from our coach at Oakwell Hall. The hall was used in 1921 as the location for the silent version of Shirley and is a building which has survived from the late 16^th and 17^th centuries and was almost certainly built in the Elizabethan age by John Batt whose initials appear on the porch. Charlotte Brontë knew one of the Cockill girls who with her two sisters and mother, Hannah, occupied Oakwell from 1830-1865 and ran it as a girls’ boarding school

Charlotte must have been very familiar with the hall because in Shirley, ‘Fieldhead’, the home of the eponymous heroine incorporates many things that can still be seen in the house today:

‘”The brown panelled parlour was furnished in an old style, and with real old furniture. On each side of the high mantelpiece stood two antique chairs of oak.”

Every house with a long history has a ghost story to tell and Oakwell is no different. We were told of unknown figures appearing, of shelves being unscrewed from walls and of the bloody footprint which never disappeared- until the floor was taken up- despite the vigorous efforts of scrubbing brushes and soap and water! Anyone moving from room to room could have been forgiven for thinking that they had been transported back in time for the hall frequently entertains school children, and on that day groups of children, dressed in  Elizabethan style, were happily occupied in interesting looking activities.

They were making lavender bags, writing with quills and one eager little boy told me, as he was concentrating on winding wool round four sticks, that he was making some kind of lucky charm. We saw in the kitchen that the children had prepared vegetables which were in a suspended iron pot over the fire and which they would partake of later from wooden plates.

It was an interesting morning and in these times of cutbacks and talk of closures it is hoped others in years to come will have the same opportunities to enjoy Oakwell Hall. What really made the day for me was to see how deeply the school children were involved in the educational activities there.

June AGM weekend - Excursion to Levens Hall and Silverdale

IMS writes:
After a warm and sunny weekend, full of interesting events, where friendships were renewed and new ones made, members travelled up the A65 - the destination Levens Hall near Kendal. The very understanding coach driver incurred the wrath of an impatient motorist –lights flashing, horn beeping- as he slowed down to enable his passengers to catch a glimpse of the Reverend Carus Wilson’s school building in Cowan Bridge, which the four eldest Brontë girls attended in 1824/5.

Passing over the busy M6 we soon arrived at the Hall- the building of which is divided into three periods. A Pele tower was built firstly in the thirteenth century, the second period was in the sixteenth century when the mediaeval structure was turned into a gentleman’s residence. The last period in the seventeenth century was when the South wing and brew house were added and the house exquisitely furnished. The rooms, resplendent with Elizabethan plasterwork and panelling, contained treasures such as beautiful Charles II gilded brass candle sconces and a George I burr walnut long case clock. There was furniture dating from the William and Mary period to an early nineteenth century. In each room pictures by painters of note, such as Rubens and Peter de Wint, and drawings by Edward Burne Jones, adorned the walls.

Moving around the house it became obvious that there were perhaps some tentative connections with the Brontës. It was thought that Colonel James Grahme - who married, in 1675, Dorothy Howard, one of the maids of honour to Catherine of Braganza and a daughter of the Levens Hall family -  had been born at Norton Conyers. The Graham family still live there today and Charlotte visited when she was governess to the Sidgwick family.

At the hall there is a charcoal drawing and a watercolour by George Richmond, the very same painter who painted Charlotte’s portrait in 1850. It is well known that Charlotte had been thrilled to see, in the flesh, her hero the Duke of Wellington in the Chapel Royal when she was taken there by George Smith. Wellington’s favourite niece, Lady Mary Wellesley, married Sir Charles Bagot of Levens and there were many items relating to Wellington given by him to Mary and in one of the bedrooms is his campaign bed. Many houses of this ilk attract the media and are used for films and television programmes and Levens is no different -  film versions of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Mrs Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters were made at the hall in the nineteen nineties.

Visitors can wander outside through herb gardens and pleached lime tunnels lead to a pond and fountain and in a quiet corner there are headstones where beloved family pets with the names of Tarka, Sheba and Jock are buried. Dominating all these features are the yew trees at various stages of their development into fantastic topiary shapes- the great umbrella dwarfing everything else and apparently requiring the use of scaffolding for trimming.

The next step of the Monday excursion was down narrow country lanes which led to Lindeth Tower in Silverdale and which afforded a wonderful view of Morecambe Bay looking across to Grange over Sands. Mrs Gaskell first visited Grange in 1836 and with her growing family made an annual migration to the seaside and stayed in the Tower House- which was built in 1842.  The Gaskells and other Manchester families who often stayed in Silverdale would, before 1846, travel by train only as far as Lancaster. After that date it would have been possible to get by train to Carnforth- the station made famous by the emotional film Brief Encounter.  A carriage ride would then bring them to Silverdale which, with its sense of isolation and peace, Mrs Gaskell is said to have enjoyed. In 1858 she wrote, “One is never disappointed in coming back to Silverdale”.

It was my first visit to the area and I was not disappointed!

June AGM weekend - Saturday

This year's annual lecture was given not by an academic but by an enthusiastic local historian - Steve Wood. It was accompanied by a fascinating selection of slides, some of which came as a surprise for many members of the audience in the Baptist chapel, an appropriate space for events like this because it is like a compact theatre.

The subject was The History of the Withins Farms, 1567-1930 . Most Society members tramp up to Top Withins at some time, usually in good weather. Steve Wood read a few minds when he suggested that perhaps we should have made good use of the fact that the moors around Haworth and Stanbury were significantly bucolic and that the talk should have taken place on the tops, near the set of restored ruins which are possibly one of the inspirations for Wuthering Heights. But then it would have been awkward for him to show us the old photos, and the drawings.

We saw a set of three farms in various states of repair - not only Top Withins, but Middle Withins and Low Withins as well. Only Top Withins remains, the other two having been demolished. Steve gave us a brief survey of the families which had once survived up there, some of them managing hay meadows and keeping cattle, some of them installing hen coops and pigsties. The animals had to come in with the human inhabitants, separated by walls and doors. We saw the careful plans which Steve had drawn. It would have been almost comfortable in winter in the bothy, near the beasts' heat. In one photo, oatcakes could be seen, draped over a beam to dry. They lived mainly on porridge and oatcakes, it seems. Even the dogs were served porridge.

The 'upkeep' of Top Withins farm, if it can be called that, has often been insensitive and neglectful: Keighley Town Council once made interventions, cut stones were stolen - a Yorkshire tradition going back to the Dissolution of the Monasteries and before - and various charitable parties turned up to do something, notably a class of schoolchildren from Barnsley. At one time, it was covered with names and graffiti, not the work of early members of the Brontë Society, I hope and trust. The sycamores have lasted well. Yorkshire Water bureaucrats are currently the keepers: they own just about everything on the moors around here, and have strong views on the keeping of farm animals, because of concerns about water pollution. Sheep have escaped their gaze.

There was plenty of it left when Sylvia Plath drew it, which shows the extent of the recent deterioration. The views are still stunning, but will change soon when tall new wind turbines appear on the horizon. It is, of course, still a popular tourist destination, and the paths are well looked after. Most walkers today might wear fleeces and anoraks - not so a century ago. One photo showed a group of mostly male members of the Brontë Society looking into the farm's open windows dressed in dark suits and bowler (derby) hats. The women with them were wearing long Edwardian dresses a couple of inches up from the turf and huge, elaborate headgear. They had style in those days.

June AGM weekend, Friday

The weather was unbelievably warm and windless. All the events should be held out in the open - possibly in the meadow behind the Parsonage - or so it was often said, humorously. All of the delegates were full to the brim with good humour. Here's a slideshow of just a few of them:

Branwell on Friday

The forgotten Brontë sibling will get his time in the spotlight on Friday with a performance of award-winning play The Brontë Boy in the Baptist Centre.

Former Bradford Telegraph & Argus journalist Michael Yates wrote the play about Branwell Brontë three years ago, and a performance will form part of the coming AGM weekend. The play starts at 7.30pm at the Baptist Centre. Tickets for the performance plus a cheese, wine and paté supper are available from bronte.org. uk.


Read Chris Went's review here.

Dedication of plaque at the foot of Anne Brontë's grave

Sally McDonald, Chairman of Brontë Society Council, writes: 

The new plaque

When planning the Spring Walk this year it was agreed to have a break from the usual ramble and instead design the day to include a service of dedication of the Society's new interpretative plaque which was placed late on in 2012 at the foot of Anne Brontë’s grave. We are delighted to say that the day was a great success and are looking forward to a full report of the occasion in the Scarborough Post later this week.

Members travelled from all over the country (Durham, Manchester, York, Keighley, Staffordshire, Suffolk and London to name but a few) to join the day. It was great to see old friends and to welcome some first timers!

Tour of Scarborough led by Trevor Pearson

As the service started the rain stopped and though it was chilly the skies were blue. We were very grateful to the vicar of St. Mary's Martyn Dunning who officiated (some members will remember him from our last visit to Scarborough). As Chair of Council I had the joyful task of welcoming everyone and explaining how the plaque was arrived at: to ensure that those who make pilgrimage there in the future see as generations have before the headstone and its inscription while leaving the grave undisturbed. A selection of readings followed including two of Anne's poems and her last letter. Flowers were set down and a moment’s silence concluded the service.

By the time we gathered outside of the Grand Hotel for a walk around Anne Brontë's Scarborough the sun was with us. Led by Trevor Pearson of English Heritage we were given an outstanding tour of the town. I had never visited the site of Christchurch before and what a poignant moment it was to see the site of Anne’s funeral now re-developed. Trevor was able to point out the buildings that Anne would have known, the town she arrived at, loved and spent her final days in.

My sincere thanks to Chris Went who arranged the day. Thanks also to trustees Susan Aykroyd, Anne Simpson and Doreen Harris and Membership Officer Peter Morrison who supported this special day.

Meeting in Agropoli

On 21April, 2013, the anniversary of the birth of Charlotte Brontё, the literary association Gli Occhi di Argo and the publisher ALBUSedizioni organized a meeting in Agropoli (SA) with Italian Brontë scholar and translator Prof. Maddalena De Leo who was interviewed and revealed details little investigated in Charlotte’s work, defending her and the other members of the Brontë family against any inappropriate modern hypothesis about their life and work.

The readings of some excerpts and critical reviews of Charlotte Brontë’s work were entrusted to the young actress Maria Cristina Orrico and the poet Annamaria Perrotta. In particular, an extensive critical review was read, written especially for the occasion by the writer and poet Eufemia Griffo from Milan. The journalist Francesco Sicilia introduced the event.
.

Oxenhope turbine refused permission

A planning application for a small wind turbine at Bodkin Lane, Oxenhope has been refused by Bradford MDC.  Three reasons are given, the first being that "The proposed development would introduce an incongruous and widely visible vertical element into this sensitive upland landscape within the Worth Valley, whose historical and literary associations are also central to its wider economic value in tourism terms.  The proposed turbine would be seen from a number of vantage points and would result in significant harm to the character of the landscape that would outweigh its limited contribution towards overall renewable energy targets......"

This is just what campaigners connected to the Brontë Society have been saying in objections over the last year.  Ironically, this is one turbine which was not mentioned by the Society. Meanwhile, the really gigantic ones have got the go-ahead.


UPDATE 28 MARCH 2013 : PLANNING  PERMISSION FOR THREE WIND TURBINES OVERLOOKING PENISTONE HILL IS REFUSED

In January of this year a planning application to erect three micro-scale wind turbines in Oxenhope parish was submitted to Bradford Metropolitan District Council.  Because of the location of the proposed turbines which, close to Penistone Hill, would have been clearly visible numerous vantage points, the Brontë Society submitted an objection to Bradford Metropolitan District Council in accordance with our Heritage & Conservation Policy.

I am pleased to report that planning permission for the turbines has been refused on the grounds that the development would introduce ‘incongruous’ structures into ‘this sensitive rural landscape whose historical and literary associations are also central to its wider economic value in tourist terms.  The proposed turbines would be seen from vantage points and public rights of way over a wide area and would result in significant harm to the character of the landscape that would outweigh the limited contribution towards overall renewable energy targets.’  A further reason for refusal was that the turbines would be ‘an encroachment of inappropriate  development into the Green Belt that would have a harmful effect on the openness of the Green Belt’ and, again, it was felt that the negative impact outweighed the benefits as a source of renewable energy.

This is the third such planning application which has been refused by Bradford MDC on these grounds and it is very gratifying to know that the value of this unique heritage landscape has been recognised in the planning process.

Christine Went

Heritage and Conservation Officer

Historic Redecoration

Yesterday, two hundred (or was it more?) people crowded into the Old Schoolroom opposite the Parsonage to eat from a sumptuous buffet, drink wine and meet friends from the Brontë Society and interested members of the public. After brief speeches - from Sally McDonald, Chair of Brontë Society Council, Deputy Lord Lieutenant Terence Suthers and Professor Ann Sumner, the new Executive Director, the crowd split into groups to cross the narrow road and enter the Museum to see for themselves.

In the photo - Ann Sumner and Sally McDonald.

All of the refurbishments are historically accurate, the transformed Parsonage representing the culmination of two and a half years of painstaking analysis, using up-to-date forensic techniques. In summer, 2010, the University of Lincoln and historic design consultant Allyson McDermott were approached by the Parsonage to begin an analysis of the available evidence, with a view to coming up with a new, more historically accurate scheme of redecoration.

As well as historical and scientific analysis, a wide range of contemporary sources, including watercolours and letters by the Brontës, was also referenced. This rigorous £60,000 programme has informed the creation of bespoke wallpapers, new curtains and painstakingly woven rugs.

It was all there as we looked around, without some of the curtains, which will be coming soon to add the finishing touches. To give a few examples, Mr Brontë's Study has been distempered in plain white, because no evidence could be found that it was ever papered, and the Dining Room now follows Charlotte's own decorative scheme from the early 1850s. The curtains are still in the process of being specially woven, in crimson, to match Elizabeth Gaskell's description. According to forensic analysis, the room was papered both before and after Charlotte's 'gentrification', and the chosen paper is a contemporary design, in scarlet to match the curtains. Several years ago, a scrap of wallpaper was found in Branwell's Studio which can now be dated to the Brontë period. Allyson McDermott matched it with an almost identical sample - also contemporaneous with the Brontës' time - which was found inside a housemaid's cupboard at Kensington Palace. The wallpaper has been reproduced.

So visitors in the coming season can look forward to an even better experience.

Re-Visioning the Brontës Conference

Richard Wilcocks reports:

The Re-Visioning the Brontës Conference took place on 29 January in The Brotherton Room, which holds about fifty people comfortably. Attached to Special Collections in Leeds University’s Brotherton Library, it has plenty of atmosphere, with oak columns and panels, proximity to rare Brontë manuscripts and a presiding bust of a big-whiskered Lord Brotherton. It has been used on occasion, I was told, for the telling of ghost stories, which seemed to be an appropriate fact to bear in mind during the conference, in which one of the unofficial keywords was ‘afterlife’.

Conference Organiser Nick Cass from the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, spoke to us first, and it was soon clear that the acoustics of the place are not perfect : people sitting on the periphery found it hard to hear, especially if the speaker did not project in their direction. Listening to David Wilson’s tenor saxophone was no problem, though. He played beautifully while we looked at Simon Warner’s evocative landscape photographs on a large pull-down screen – Top Withins shrouded in mist, a watery sun over Stanbury -  a mood-setting show which was followed by Jane Sellars, once at the Parsonage, now Curator of Art at the Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate. She delivered a useful historical overview of the fluctuating fortunes of the Museum, drawing attention to the effects of films on attendance and pointing out that it was “extraordinary the amount of material which has come to light in the last twenty years or so – a substantial number of items have emerged from the shadows”.

Dr Carl Plasa from Cardiff University, in ‘Southern Flight: Brontëan Migrations in Kate Chopin’s At Fault’ spoke about Chopin’s “neglected novel” of the late nineteenth century and the transatlantic afterlife of Jane Eyre, bringing in many references to contemporary assumptions about “white creole degeneracy” and the way in which Chopin had challenged these assumptions in her novel, which is set in Louisiana and packed full of characters who speak French, Spanish and Creole in addition to English. His enlightening hand-out (‘Prefigurements and Afterlives: Bertha Mason’s Literary Histories’)  drew parallels between Charlotte Brontë’s description of Bertha in Jane Eyre, Juanna Trista, a ‘pensionnaire’ in The Professor and a mentally ‘incompetent’ wife (alcoholic) in At Fault. To my surprise, at least, he made just one fleeting reference to Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea.

Amber Pouliot from Leeds University, (‘Righting the Life of the Mind: The Significance of Psychological Discourse in the Brontës’ Interwar Afterlives’) spoke about an emphasis by critics on Charlotte for most of the nineteenth century which shifted to Emily to some extent in the early twentieth century, when she might have been seen as a model of a ‘new woman’, attitudes to mental illness to be found in the frameworks of nineteenth century belief, and comments by twentieth century commentators who were influenced by psychoanalytical theories which, ironically, originated in Gaskell’s view of Charlotte and the Brontës.

Aislinn Hunter from Edinburgh University  began her lecture, which was illustrated by slides, with references to the ancient manuscripts of Timbuktu which some people thought might all have been burned by Islamist extremists (apparently some of them were successfully hidden) because she had much to say, in ‘The Brontës, Materiality and Resonance: Three Ways of Looking’ about original artefacts and documents and “the resonances which they give off”. These depend on context (for example in a museum), on foreknowledge and on tradition to a large extent, but also on the way our brains work: specialized parts of this organ deal with memory and with our perceptions of beauty and truth. She did not quote from Keats, but she did give us a brief overview of the way neurons behaved. Her illustrations on the screen included works by Victoria Brookland and Cornelia Parker – “…an encounter with the artist and with the artist who had the encounter with the Brontës”.

Sarah Prescott, who is Literary Archivist in Special Collections, introduced us to the Brontë manuscripts which are kept there, giving us a potted history of how they were acquired: we saw images of journalist, critic and collector Clement Shorter, the one who found so much that had been wrapped up in newspaper at the bottom of the Reverend Nicholls’s wardrobe and, amongst others, the outrageous Thomas James Wise, who became infamous for literary forgeries and for dealing out manuscripts like a deck of cards

‘”…like a new picture introduced to the gallery of memory”: Re-Visioning Jane Eyre through Paula Rego’ was the title for Dr Sarah Wooton from Durham University. Handed-out papers contained several reproductions of Rego’s lithographs, and Dr Wooton’s commentaries on them formed the basis of her lecture: “It is not always clear how Rego’s pictures relate to Jane Eyre… who doesn’t always appear to be the same person in different depictions… how can Rego picture a heroine who is reluctant to picture herself?… she tries to depict the ‘plain Jane’ we have come to know through reading..”

‘Charlotte’s Dress’ was a presentation by Lisa Sheppy, who graduated with an MA in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking at UWE, Bristol in 2009 with a distinction and based her research on the development of enamel printmaking and warm glass processes. She told us how a visit to the Parsonage had caused a great change of direction in her interests. She had been encouraged while she was there to make drawings in her sketch book – of items like Charlotte’s gloves and bonnet – and had been inspired to make an imaginary wedding dress – “a sort of ghost dress. It was constructed by myself and my mother, who had worked as a professional dressmaker…  the crinoline hoops are showing through…it’s like a cage…”

Dr Richard Brown from the University of Leeds’s English Department was in conversation with Professor Blake Morrison from Goldsmiths, University of London on Morrison’s play We Are Three Sisters, which was shown at the Viaduct Theatre in Halifax, performed by Northern Broadsides, in September 2011 (see this blog’s review here) before touring. Intelligently and wittily, Morrison managed to use Chekhov’s Three Sisters as a template, which involved some squeezing and shoving (for example, having Mrs Robinson actually staying at the Parsonage and bringing on a William Weightman character years after his death) but which resulted in a very watchable play. Morrison explained the problems involved in pursuing a personal project which dated back many years.

Dr Jenny Bavidge, lecturer at Cambridge University, showed clips with music. “The name ‘Wuthering’ invites an auditory experience,” she said, in ‘Listening Out: the Soundtracks and Film Scores of Wuthering Heights.’ Is music too blunt an instrument? Does it elicit too much of a Pavlovian response? We watched extracts from the William Wyler version from 1939 – music all the way through, for everything. ‘Cathy’s Theme’ makes the film “Cathy-centric”. We saw Merle Oberon’s Cathy standing in front of a window for her declaration of shared identity with Heathcliff – with not just the music but a clap of thunder. Then there was the Peter Kosminsky version – an edgier sound, Irish connections, and Bunuel’s Abismos de Pasion (1954) with its use of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde… but what we did not see an extract of was Andrea Arnold’s version, where there is practically no music (although the Young Cathy does sing Barbara Allen) but plenty of wind.

Maria Seijo-Richart from the University of A Coruña showed us clips and stills as well, for ‘Wuthering Heights in Japan: the film Arashi ga Oka (1988, directed by Yoshishige Yoshida)’. She explained how Japanese film-makers relate Western classics (for example Macbeth) to Japanese theatre traditions and storytelling techniques. It was fascinating to hear how the Noh Theatre influenced the director – the orphan Onimaru is looked after by a group of priests who worship a Mountain of Fire and who try to appease gods of anger. He is in love with Kinu, beautiful daughter of a local family… and she later dies in childbirth.

Towards the end of the day, a roundtable discussion chaired by Adam Strickson, Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing at Leeds University, did not seem to last very long, making many of those present think that the conference should have had more time allocated to it. Perhaps the next one – let’s hope for a next one – will be for two days.

The new Director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Ann Sumner, brought the proceedings to a close with some well-chosen remarks and an overview of the main areas covered.

The conference was organized through the Centre for Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries & Heritage and the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, and was funded by CCI Exchange – the University of Leeds Higher Education Innovation Fund.

A thousand new homes planned for Haworth

Nearly a thousand new homes could soon be built in Haworth: Bradford Council has fourteen sites in mind as suitable for development - the first stage in the production of its Local Development Framework. For more, read this article in today's Bradford Telegraph and Argus.

Patti Smith to perform at Parsonage

Press release from the Parsonage: 

                                

Singer- songwriter, poet and artist Patti Smith is to give a special benefit performance in Haworth in support of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, on Friday 19 April 2013.

Patti Smith is an admirer of the Brontë sisters and visited the Parsonage last year during a visit to the UK. Following her visit, Patti decided to return to Yorkshire to play a series of intimate concerts in Brontë country. Her performance in Haworth will raise profile and funds for the Brontë Parsonage Museum, and will take place as part of the Museum’s contemporary arts programme.

“We’re delighted that Patti Smith is supporting the Museum and will host this special performance in Haworth. It is yet another example of the ways in which the Brontës’ extraordinary legacy influences all aspects of contemporary culture. This will be a remarkable evening in a tiny venue very close to the Parsonage – we are expecting a huge response and I’m sure tickets will be snapped up very quickly indeed”. 

Jenna Holmes, Arts Officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum

‘An evening of Words and Music with Patti Smith and Tony Shanahan’ will take place at the Old Schoolroom in Haworth (originally built by Patrick Brontë in 1832) at 8pm on Friday 19 April. Tickets are £25 and can be booked from the Brontë Parsonage Museum: jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188.

NB All tickets have been sold. Ring if you want to be put on the waiting list

Parsonage redecorated

Parsonage Press Release from Jenna Holmes:

January 2013 will see the first major redecoration scheme in 25 years for Haworth Parsonage, once home to the world’s most famous literary family, the Brontës, and now one of the UK’s top tourist attractions.

Using historical and scientific analysis produced by academics at the University of Lincoln, and referencing contemporary sources including watercolours and letters by the Brontës, the Parsonage will undergo a major interior visual transformation led by historic interior design consultant Allyson McDermott of the McDermott Studio, Forest of Dean. The house will be restored to looking much as it did during the main period of the Brontë family’s occupation in the 1830s and 40s but will also include features introduced by Charlotte as part of her facelift for the house during the early 1850s when she began to spend some of the income she had earned from her novels Jane Eyre, Shirley and Villette in making the Parsonage more comfortable.

“This is one of the most exciting projects to take place at the Parsonage in many years and is the culmination of a two year research project. There have been attempts in the past to present the Parsonage as the Brontës’ home, but no serious archaeological work has ever been carried out before. The new rigorous historical research and scientific analysis resulting from this project has informed bespoke wallpapers, new curtains and painstakingly woven rugs. Objects from the Brontë Society collections will be displayed for the first time in this new context and familiar works will be reinterpreted. The rooms of the house are going to be transformed and may well surprise our visitors”. Quote from Ann Dinsdale, Collections Manager, Brontë Parsonage Museum.

Quote from new Executive Director, Professor Ann Sumner: “I am delighted to be taking up my new role at this exciting time and see the re-decoration taking shape. We now know so much more about how the Parsonage was presented when the Brontë family lived here and are pleased to be working with Allyson McDermott, benefitting from her wealth of experience restoring historic interiors. The newly refurbished rooms will enormously enhance the visitor experience at the Parsonage Museum and have inspired a wealth of learning events and an exhibition in 2013”.

Quote from Sally McDonald, Chairman, The Brontë Society Council: “When the Trustees of the Brontë Society agreed this landmark re-decoration it set in motion a singular opportunity to learn more about the Brontës and their home. We are delighted that when the Parsonage reopens its door on February 9^th we will be sharing more of that wonderful story with our members and our visitors”.

The newly refurbished Parsonage will reopen on Saturday 9^th February featuring some exciting new displays.

The project has cost in the region of £60,000.

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Contacts & Further Information:   

               

Ann Dinsdale (Collections Manager) 01535 640198 – a.dinsdale@bronte.org.uk

An Italian toast

On 29 December 2012 Professor Maddalena De Leo from Italy with BS members Caterina Lerro and Elisa Fierro met in Naples to mark and enjoy a very special day: the two hundredth anniversary of Maria and Patrick Brontë’s wedding. 

While celebrations of the event were taking place at midday at Haworth in the Brontë Parsonage Museum, at about the same hour the three Italian scholars raised a toast to the Brontë sisters’ parents. During the meeting Professor De Leo also read aloud some moving extracts from the novel about Maria’s life Removing the shroud of mystery originally written by her in Italian and recently published in English to mark the important event.