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.
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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.

_____________________________________________________________________________

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.

Tragic, Gifted, Precocious: Brontë Season in Leeds

Anne, Emily, Charlotte and Branwell in Two Art Exhibitions, a Conference and a Talk this January

'Visions of Angria' at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery is celebrating the world of the Brontës in the new year. However, the Gallery is not the only one to remember the four siblings from Haworth this season. Fans of the Brontës and Yorkshire's rich literary heritage have a lot to look forward to in January: two art exhibitions, a talk and a one-day conference are bringing the creativity of the Brontës into the limelight by presenting rare archival material and modern artistic responses in literature and popular culture.

'Visions of Angria' at The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery
7 January - 23 February 2013
The special display will present rarely seen manuscripts of Branwell Brontë from the University Library's Special Collections, alongside original illustrations. Providing Branwell's rich world of landscapes, characters and events with unique visualisations, Leeds College of Art students will bring these fantastic tales to life. This is a special opportunity to see the interplay between original manuscripts and their contemporary 're-visions'. 

The Gallery is open from Monday - Saturday, 10am-5pm and admission is free.

'Wildness Between the Lines', at Leeds College of Art
14 December 2012 - 2 February 2013 
The exhibition brings together the work of a wide range of artists who have been influenced by the Brontës. Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; these are just some of the works produced by the Brontës which have an enduring and universal appeal. The inspirational legacy of the Brontë family can be seen in a wide variety of contemporary creativity.
This exhibition is a unique opportunity to see, in one place, the work of a number of emerging and established artists, all of whom cite the Brontës as a source of continuing inspiration for their own creative practice.
The Gallery is open from Monday - Saturday, 10am - 4pm

'Re-Visioning the Brontës'
One day cross-disciplinary conference at the University of Leeds
The conference addresses ways in which the legacy of the Brontës is exerting an influence in a range of creative fields, and across a variety of media.

The conference programme is available at 
http://revisioningthebrontes.blogspot.co.uk

For further information, contact
bronte.revision@gmail.com

The conference is free and open to the public. It is now fully booked, please reserve a standby ticket if you wish to be notified in the event of cancellations:  http://bronterevision.eventbrite.co.uk

'A Secret History of the Brontës': Talk by Sarah Prescott, Literacy Archivist, University of Leeds 

Friday 18 January, 12.30 - 1.30 at the Central Library, Leeds 
Letters, stories and manuscripts written by the Bronte family, and now held in the University of Leeds Library Special Collections give a unique insight into their lives and work. Find out what these items tell us about the secret history of the family, and how they inform our understanding of their lives today - from Charlotte's honeymoon, to Branwell's complete disintegration.

Find us at:

The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery
Parkinson Building (pictured above)
Woodhouse Lane
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT 

Phone: 0113 34 32 778

http://library.leeds.ac.uk/art-gallery