New Spring/Summer Contemporary Arts Programme

Parsonage Press Release:

Costumes from the recent film adaptation of Jane Eyre, starring Mia Wasikowska (in the photo), Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell and Dame Judi Dench will be on show at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in a new exhibition which opens on Thursday 3 May. Visitors to the museum will be able to see some of the original costumes worn by the cast, displayed in the period rooms of the Parsonage. The exhibition is one of the highlights of the Bronte Parsonage Museum’s new season of contemporary arts events which is announced today. 


Artist Rebecca Chesney will be exhibiting new visual art work created during her year-long residency investigating the Brontes and the weather, in her exhibition Hope’s whisper which will open on 22^nd June. Landscape photographer Simon Warner is artist in residence 2012 for the Watershed Landscape project, a three year programme to enhance, promote and care for the moorland areas of the South Pennines. His exhibition, Ways to the stone house, will open on 28 September and feature a series of tiny landscape films, shot on the moors above Haworth, for display in the period rooms of the Bronte Parsonage Museum. The exhibition will also document the progressive ruination of Top Withens (believed to be the inspiration for Wuthering Heights), using photographs from the Parsonage archives as well as iconic images by Bill Brandt, Fay Godwin and Alexander Keighley, and will include an original sketch of Top Withens by Sylvia Plath, made on her first visit with Ted Hughes in 1956. Watershed Landscape is managed by Pennine Prospects supported by Bradford Museums and Galleries. As part of his exhibition, Simon Warner will also be curating a one-day symposium on Landscape and Literature in Haworth on Saturday 6 October. The full programme will be released shortly, and the day’s key note speaker will beSimon Armitage. 


Also visiting Haworth as part of the new season of events will be novelist Victoria Hislop on 5 July, and Dickens scholar Michael Slater will be discussing the Brontes and Dickens on the afternoon of 8 June. On the evening of 9 June, panellists Bonnie Greer, Terry Eagleton and Caryl Phillipswill be discussing the themes of race and slavery in Wuthering Heights, following a screening of the documentary A Regular Black, which explores the connections between the fictional Earnshaws in Wuthering Heights and the slave-owning families of Yorkshire. The museum will also be hosting the third Bronte Festival of Women’s Writing this summer. The weekend of readings, talks, workshops and family events will take place 31 August- 2 September and the festival will open with an event with novelist Sadie Jones on 31 August. The full festival programme will be announced in June. 


The Bronte Parsonage Museum’s contemporary arts programme is funded by Arts Council England and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. A full list of events is detailed below: 


Thursday 3 May until Thursday 20 September Costumes from Jane Eyre 2011  Brontë Parsonage Museum
An exhibition of the Oscar-nominated costumes from the 2011 film adaptation of Jane Eyre, displayed in the period rooms of the museum. The designer, Michael O’Connor, previously won an Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Costume Design for the 2009 film The Duchess.Exhibition free with admission to the museum 


Friday 8 June, 2pm Dickens and the Brontës: Heritage Authors  West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth


To mark the 2012 Dickens bicentenary, and on the eve of the anniversary of Dickens’ death in 1870, Michael Slater compares and contrasts the connections between Charles Dickens and the Brontës as ‘heritage authors’; their impact on national culture, the creation of societies of dedicated enthusiasts, and the myths that have been built around their lives and works. Michael Slater is Emeritus Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London, past President of the International Dickens Fellowship and of the Dickens Society of America, and former editor of the journal 'The Dickensian'. His biography Charles Dickens was published in 2009. Tickets £6 and should be booked in advance from jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188. 


Saturday 9 June, 8pm Origin and slavery in Wuthering Heights  West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth


The casting of a mixed race Heathcliff in Andrea Arnold’s 2011 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights put issues of race into the spotlight. Who is Heathcliff? Where does his destructive anger come from? Could Emily Brontë have been hinting at a darker secret than previously imagined? The documentary A Regular Black: The Hidden Wuthering Heights examines themes of slavery and race coded into the text, and uncovers parallels between the fictional Earnshaws and the slave-owning families of Yorkshire. Following a screening of the documentary, panellists Terry Eagleton, Bonnie Greer and Caryl Phillips will tease out some of the themes. The evening will offer a fascinating new reading of the novel, and the audience will be invited to join in the debate. Professor Terry Eagleton is one of Britain’s most influential literary critics. He is Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University, and has written many books, including Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983), The Ideology of the Aesthetic (1990), Heathcliff and the Great Hunger (1995) and Why Marx was Right (2011). Bonnie Greer OBE is a playwright, critic, broadcaster and novelist. She is the author of Entropy (2009), Obama Song (2009) and the biography Langston Hughes: the Value Of Contradiction (2011). Bonnie Greer is Deputy Chairman of the British Museum and President of the Brontë Society. Caryl Phillips is a novelist, playwright and critic. His novel A Distant Shore won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers Prize, and Crossing The River was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lannan Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Caryl Phillips is Professor of English at Yale University.
 Tickets £12 and should be booked in advance from jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188.


Friday 22 June – Wednesday 5 September  Hope’s whisper: Rebecca Chesney
Bronte Parsonage Museum


The Brontës use descriptions of weather at key emotional points in their novels, and their own daily lives were strongly influenced by the elements. In 2011 artist Rebecca Chesney installed a weather station at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, and working with a group of local weather collectors and Haworth primary school, recorded weather patterns for 12 months. Rebecca has cross referenced this meteorological data with descriptions of weather in the Brontes’ letters and novels to create new visual artwork for exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The exhibition continues at South Square Gallery in Thornton (the Bronte birthplace), from 6 to 29 July. www.southsquarecentre.co.ukYou can read more about the weather project on Rebecca’s blog: www.bronteweather.blogspot.com Rebecca Chesney is an artist based in Preston. Her work looks at rural and urban landscapes, changing environments and human activity. Previous projects include Diligent Observationat Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2011), Five Rivers at Morecambe Bay (2008) and Death Equals All Things, Bolton Museum and Art Gallery (2007). Exhibition free with admission to the museum. 


Thursday 26 July, 7pm  Literary Weather  Brontë Parsonage Museum


To accompany her exhibition, Rebecca Chesney will be in conversation with writer and critic Alexandra Harris on the cultural significance of weather. Alexandra Harris is the author ofRomantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper, which won the Guardian First Book Award in 2010. Alexandra Harris is currently writing a cultural history of weather. The evening will explore how the Brontës’ use of literary weather compares with other writers, and will be accompanied with readings of ‘weathery’ passages from literature. The evening takes place at the museum after closing, and tea and cake will be served. Places are limited to 14. Tickets £16 and must be booked in advance from jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188. 


Thursday 5 July, 7.30pm Victoria Hislop  West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth


Victoria Hislop visits Haworth to discuss her work and latest novel, The Thread.Victoria Hislop read English at Oxford, and worked in publishing and as a journalist before becoming a novelist. Her first two novels, The Island and The Return, were Sunday Times number one bestsellers and have been translated into more than twenty languages. Victoria won the Newcomer of the Year at the Galaxy British Book Awards 2007 and the Richard & Judy Summer Read competition. Her third novel, The Thread was published in November 2011. Victoria Hislop has written the introduction to the White’s edition of Wuthering Heights and describes the novel as “the book that changed me…it woke me up”. Tickets £6 and should be booked in advance from jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188 


Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing  Friday 31 – Sunday 2 September  Brontë Parsonage Museum and other venues in Haworth


The festival of women’s writing will be back for its third year, with an increased focus on creative writing and participation. The full programme will be announced in June and will include creative writing workshops, practical activities and talks by prominent and emerging women writers. We’re delighted to announce that the 2012 festival will be opened by novelist Sadie Jones. If you wish to receive festival details as soon as they are released, please contact jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk to join the mailing list. 


Friday 31 August, 7.30pm  Sadie JonesWest Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth


Sadie Jones’s first novel, The Outcast (2008) was the winner of the Costa First Novel Award. It was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Her second novel, Small Wars (2009) was longlisted for the Orange Prize. The Uninvited Guests (2012) is her third novel. 


Friday 28 September – Monday 3 December  Ways to the stone house: Simon Warner  Brontë Parsonage Museum


Landscape photographer and filmmaker Simon Warner is artist in residence 2012 for the Watershed Landscape project, a three year programme to enhance, promote and care for the moorland areas of the South Pennines. Simon Warner will create a series of tiny landscape films, shot on the moors above Haworth, for display in the period rooms of the Bronte Parsonage Museum. The exhibition will also document the progressive ruination of Top Withens, using photographs from the Parsonage archives as well as iconic images by Bill Brandt, Fay Godwin and Alexander Keighley, and will include an original sketch of Top Withens by Sylvia Plath, made on her first visit with Ted Hughes in 1956. Watershed Landscape is managed by Pennine Prospects supported by Bradford Museums and Galleries. Simon Warner is a landscape filmmaker and photographer with research interests in early photography and optical history. Recent work includes Overworlds and Underworlds for the Cultural Olympiad, and The Arts of Place in Bradford (2010). His solo exhibitions include A Guide to Yorkshire Rivers at Impressions Gallery and Leaving Home at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Transported (2009) was a residency on the 36 bus route between Leeds and Harewood. Simon Warner was long-listed for the Northern Art Prize 2011. Exhibition free with admission to the museum Unbounded Moor: A Symposium on Landscape and Literature

Saturday 6 October, 10.30am – 4pm  West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth


As part of his Watershed Landscape residency Simon Warner will curate a one day symposium exploring the theme of ‘Landscape and Literature’. The day will feature a keynote address from poet Simon Armitage, as well as contributions from artists, experts and academics. Full details will follow in our October programme but for further information contactjenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188. For further information please contact the Arts Officer:01535 640188jenna.holmes@bronte.org.ukwww.bronte.info  

Thornton Moor Test Mast - Brontë Society Press Release

The Brontë Society is very disappointed with the decision to grant planning permission to Banks Renewables for a 60m wind mast on Thornton Moor. 

We feel that this decision demonstrates a regrettable lack of consideration for a heritage landscape which is unique, as well as a complete disregard for the negative impact which this will have upon the environment and the local economy.   Although the wind mast itself will be in place for a limited period, after which the mast will be removed, the structure will, for that period of time, be visible from the Haworth moorlands, and is likely to be followed up with four enormous turbines.  

The Brontë Society feels there should be no further pollution of the skyline and regrets the erection of this structure which, even if of a temporary nature, has implications for the future permanent defacement of the views from the Haworth moorlands. Haworth and its moorlands have international cultural and historical significance and any proposals which have an adverse impact on this significance are to be disapproved of.  

Chairman of The Brontë Society Council, Sally McDonald, said, "These moorlands inspired and are reflected in the writings of the Brontës especially Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.  The wild and beautiful moorland is a significant part of the Brontë story.  

Interest in the lives and works of the Brontës brings thousands of visitors to Haworth and Yorkshire year in year out.  Erecting a substantial wind mast and still more so four huge turbines three years from now will change the character of this moorland forever."

In recent weeks The Brontë Society has received an overwhelming level of interest and support from all over the world and we would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude and to reaffirm our commitment to Haworth’s cultural and historical significance. 

Contacts & Further Information:                             

Sally McDonald (Chairman, Brontë Society c/o Brontë Parsonage Museum 01535 642323)

Andrew McCarthy (Director, Brontë Parsonage Museum  01535 640194 - andrew.mccarthy@bronte.org.uk

Giant turbines on Thornton Moor?

Interest in the Bronte Society's opposition to the proposed Thornton Moor wind mast escalated last week with extensive coverage in three national newspapers on Friday (The Independent, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail) and coverage in many local papers both nationwide and overseas. 

Today has seen a consolidation of this interest with the BBC recording at the Parsonage ready to broadcast from there tomorrow morning (BBC Breakfast). Parsonage Director Andrew McCarthy was interviewed by Radio Leeds today. 

ITV's Calendar News asked for an update and have said they will be monitoring the decision and the Society's response to that decision. A large number of Society members and non members have emailed offers of support.

The decision about the mast will be made by Bradford councillors on Wednesday 11th.  There have been over one hundred public objections and the community of Denholme Gate has submitted a petition.


Thornton Moor, an inspiration for all three Brontë Sisters and a huge influence on their writing, could be home to four turbines, each more than one hundred metres in height, within a year, if the "first stage' data-gathering mast is allowed to be installed. This is the plan of Banks Renewables, the company behind the scheme.

Attack on Rawfolds Mill - commemoration

There's a photo shoot at 11 am today at Roe Head School (in the photo, now renamed Holly Bank) in Mirfield organised by the Reporter newspaper. A number of people will be there in role, in costume, for example Major David Pinder will appear as William Cartwright, the owner of Rawfolds Mill, which was attacked by Luddites in 1812 following similar attacks on other mills in the West Riding. Major Pinder will give an account of what happened two centuries ago on Saturday.

The two hundredth anniversary is on the 11 and 12 April.

In aid of Holly Bank School, Imelda Marsden will present Two Speakers with A Difference, in commemoration of the attacks, at the school on Saturday 14 April at 2.15pm, in the room where Charlotte Brontë once taught. Tickets are six pounds. The first talk is about the attack, and the second about Shirley.

One of the raffle prizes is half a gallon of 'Luddite beer' which will be drunk at the Shears pub in Liversedge, once a meeting place for the followers of General Ned Ludd.

The Garden of Oblivion - exhibition

Ian M. Emberson writes:

I have been to many art exhibitions, but this one is unique in having magnifying glasses dangling beside the drawings !  Seen from a distance Franklin's ten pictures appear as nothing but areas of vague grey mistiness.  Only as one gets closer do various dream-like concepts emerge – people, houses, skies and vast distances of  moorland.  There is no attempt at literal illustrations of  the Brontë life-stories, novels or poems.  The artist has taken all these elements into himself, and reinvented them through the power of  his imagination.  Nine year old Amy Jessett said it all when she wrote on the visitor's sheet : “As exciting as opening a book you've never read”.

'The Garden of  Oblivion' - exhibition of ink drawings by Franklin Santos Silva at the Brontë  Parsonage – 2 March to 5 April 2012

The Brontës' piano on Radio 4

On BBC Radio 4 next Tuesday 13 March at 11.30am, there will be a half hour programme about the cabinet piano and music at the Parsonage, produced by Simon Hollis, with Catherine Bott (soprano)  and Jonathan Cohen (piano).


Listen to the programme here (limited period) 


Repeat broadcast: Saturday 17 March at at 15.30 on BBC Radio 4

Restoration expert Ken Forrest

In 2010, for the first time in over 160 years the Brontë family’s cabinet piano was heard again at their former home in Haworth. This historic occasion took place at the Parsonage in June of that year following months of complex conservation work, made possible through the generosity of Florida member Virginia Esson. The piano was originally made by John Green of Soho Square.

It is not known for certain when the Brontës acquired their piano. Branwell Brontë developed a talent for both piano and church organ and it was possibly at his instigation that the instrument was acquired. Emily was described as playing ‘with precision and brilliancy’, and during her time as a student in Brussels, her ability warranted the services of the best available professor of music. Anne preferred to sing, though she was able to accompany herself on the piano. The family exception was Charlotte, whose poor eyesight proved an impediment to sight reading.

The piano has an interesting history: it was lent to Mr Grant, the curate of Oxenhope by Patrick Brontë after his children’s deaths, and then sold at an auction of Brontë items in 1861. It then passed through numerous hands before being put up for sale at Sothebys in 1916 as part of the collection of J.H. Dixon. Dixon’s wife was not satisfied with the price offered and withdrew the piano from the sale, presenting it instead to the Parsonage in memory of her husband.

The piano was valued by many of these former owners as a relic of the remarkable Brontë family. Over the years little interest has been taken in it as a musical instrument and it was no longer in playable condition. The piano has undergone a lengthy and complex restoration process carried out by Ken Forrest, a specialist conservator.  Many of the internal workings were either damaged or missing and the restoration was further complicated by the piano’s rarity and the lack of similar instruments available for comparison.

Cabinet pianos were popular in the 1830s and 1840s but today are rather unusual when compared to the more valuable pianos such as the Grand.

Charlotte Brontë's The Secret in Italian

Maddalena De Leo send us news of the recent publication in Italian of her translation of The Secret. She also mentions how happy she is to know that the Red House has been saved. She made a point of visiting it in 2009, and was one of those who emailed her opinion during the campaign to keep it from enforced closure.

News release:

The juvenile work The Secret by Charlotte Brontë has been published in Italian for the first time on 2^nd March. The translator and editor of the little book published by Albus is Prof. Maddalena De Leo who already translated and edited Brontë’s Henry Hastings in 2009 also for Albusedizioni and other Juvenilia as Mina Laury and Stancliffe Hotel etc. (Ripostes).

The Secret focuses on Charlotte’s heroine, Marian Hume, the child bride of the dark, brooding and temperamental Marquis of Douro (also known as Arthur Wellesley II and the Duke of Zamorna, the oldest son of Charlotte’s hero, the fictionalized Duke of Wellington). The story is narrated by the Marquis’ younger brother, Charles Wellesley.

The manuscript of The Secret was first documented by Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte’s biographer, who probably saw it just after her death. The first page of The Secret was reproduced in Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë, which was published in 1857. The manuscript was also included in Shorter’s The Brontës: Life and Letters, which was published in 1908.

No information is available on the manuscript’s whereabouts between 1915 and 1973, and it was presumed lost. However, the manuscript was rediscovered among the personal papers of Evelyn Wadsworth Symington, wife of United States Senator Stuart Symington, after her death in 1973.

The Italian book can boast a colourful cover and an exhaustive introduction by the editor herself.

Charlotte Brontë, Il segreto, translated into Italian and edited by Maddalena De Leo, Albusedizioni, 2012, pp. 78, euros 7,5

The book is available on Albusedizioni site

Charlotte Brontë's French

Sue Lonoff writes:
How good was Charlotte Brontë’s French in 'L’Ingratitude'?  As we know, it is a very early devoir, written a month and a day after Charlotte and Emily arrived at the Pensionnat Heger. 


In this text of fifty-eight lines, Brian Bracken has identified fourteen errors. However, eight of the fourteen are the same error: Charlotte used the imperfect tense rather than the passé simple. For example, she wrote ‘mangeait’, ‘he was eating’ rather than ‘mangea’, ‘he ate’. She made one mistake in gender (‘un’ rather than ‘une’ odeur) and one in pronoun case (‘le faisait’ rather than ‘lui faisait). She hyphenated a word incorrectly; she forgot to make ‘grand’ plural before ‘seigneurs’; she put an adjective before instead of after its noun; and she used one plural verb rather than a singular. 


Errors of this kind are commonly made by English people writing in French. Still, ‘L’Ingratitude’ shows that Charlotte came to Brussels with a fairly solid grammar base and an extensive vocabulary. Her French was not yet supple. ‘L’Ingratitude’ is stiffer than the essays she would write subsequently. Its punctuation is also erratic, but that is an issue in all of her writing, English or French. Nevertheless, she shows her teacher that she can write with imagination and charm
 

L'Ingratitude - translated by Sue Lonoff (Harvard)

This is the link to the full text of Charlotte Brontë's homework in The London Review of Books. Perhaps it should be published in the future as a little booklet with illustrations...

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n05/charlotte-bronte/lingratitude?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3405&hq_e=el&hq_m=1549840&hq_l=4&hq_v=a538576075

Hartshead fundraiser

Christa Ackroyd, Brontë Society member and presenter on BBC TV Look North, is to give a talk about the Brontës at Hartshead Church on Saturday 31 March starting at 7.30pm. For tickets  £7.50 with refreshments contact John Ferret  - Ecrb@Live.co.uk   & 01924 403602. This is raise  funds for the church. (from Imelda Marsden)

(Patrick Brontë was parson at St Peter's, Hartshead (near Cleckheaton, now part of Kirklees) between 1811 and 1815. He met his future wife Maria Branwell in Rawdon, now part of Leeds, about twelve miles from Hartshead, in 1811. They married in Guiseley, also now in Leeds.)

Contemporary Gothic

A Horror of Great Darkness: Gothic from the Brontës to Twilight was the main title for yesterday's one day conference for AS and A2 students*, exploring the relationship between the Brontës and Gothic, and how the genre continues to influence contemporary culture. It was particularly relevant to the AQA Literature B syllabus, but was also invaluable to all students wishing to gain a broader critical perspective on both nineteenth century literature, and the understanding of genre.

Students from a number of schools attended workshops, listened to lectures, toured the Parsonage (what else?) and muddied their feet in the graveyard. Efficiently organised mainly by Sue Newby, contributors included Dr Sue Chaplin from the University of Leeds and Dr Catherine Spooner from the University of Lancaster.

Richard Wilcocks writes:

Dr Spooner, dressed appropriately in black, was very much on the same wavelength as her appreciative, overwhelmingly female audience, some of whom (from Altrincham in Cheshire) have promised to send their comments to this blog. Let's hope they do. With the help of a Powerpoint and references to a variety of novels and collections of the past few years (Angela Carter's name cropping up frequently), her main point was that the gothic in all its manifestations has always had a connection with adolescence, with the crossover towards adulthood. 'Threatened virginity'  was a key phrase.

Films on her list included The Woman in Black and Let The Right One In, both of which I would class as significantly disturbing, with a strong 'lingering' quality, especially the second one, in which young Oscar's virginity is threatened by the athletic Eli, who lost hers to the original Transylvanian vampires centuries ago. "Gothic is rampant throughout the contemporary music scene," said Dr Spooner, talking about the persona constructed by 'Mama Monster' Lady Gaga, whose actual music is pretty mainstream pop, and bringing up publicity photos of Marilyn Manson.  "And it's a golden age for gothic television too, there is so much. Think of Vampire Diaries and all the Buffy episodes for a start."


Twilight books are mentioned constantly by her students. She must get tired of her subject sometimes, but is full of professional patience. ( "Perceptions of the gothic are constantly changing... You can't expect the gothic of the nineteenth century to stay as the norm... Today's vampires are different... It depends on how old you are.. It doesn't matter all that much how incredible the situations are or how awful the plotting is...") The Hartley Collins designers were quick to appreciate changing perceptions when they created covers for Wuthering Heights ('Love never dies') and  Jane Eyre ('You can't choose who you fall in love with') which might lure new young readers towards the originals.


*For the benefit of readers outside England and Wales, this means that they are aged between sixteen and eighteen. In the US, they would be studying for APs or SAT II exams.




Pictured - Dr Spooner, and a group of students from Adams' Grammar School in Newport, Shropshire, with Catherine Prince (in red), who showed them round the graveyard.

Philip Wilby's Brontë Mass

Red House: cabinet sees sense

Richard Wilcocks writes:
Good news! At the cabinet meeting at Huddersfield Town Hall yesterday afternoon it was recommended that the Red House Museum should not close. All the friends and campaigners who have been so wonderfully active in the past couple of weeks can now breathe more easily for a while, hoping that Kirklees Council as a whole will do the right thing when it meets on 22 February. Thanks to everybody who has been in touch, especially to you, Gordon North - your local knowledge is impressively wide-ranging and your alacrity is admirable.


The cabinet made it clear that there should be a new business plan for all the museums in the authority which would include ways of making museums pay their way. This means admission charges, increasing visitor numbers and allowing weddings to take place. All of which is much better than a crassly simple closure plan.


English Heritage has been approached to get the ball rolling to make Red House into a Grade One listed building. It is a Grade Two at the moment. Grade One status could be awarded not because of the architecture but because of the history. Let us hope for this, because it means that new grants would be available.


Kirklees press release.

Parsonage re-opens today

The Brontë Parsonage re-opens today following a hectic month of activity including maintenance work, cleaning, conservation and development of new displays. The new displays feature several early Bronte manuscripts, including one of the four, tiny editions of the second series of Charlotte Brontë’s Young Men’s magazine,written when she was 13 years old. A fifth edition was sold at Sotheby’s last December for nearly £700,000, with the museum narrowly losing out to the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits, Paris.

Following a surge of renewed interest in the Brontës, with the high profile manuscript sale and two new Brontë movie adaptations in the second half of 2011, the museum is gearing up for another busy year.

We were delighted to see our visitor numbers rise last year by over 8% and with over 250 bookings for 2012 already, it’s clear that visitors will be coming to Haworth in significant numbers, from within the UK but also from overseas. We have some wonderful exhibitions and events planned that will make their visit here very special.

Andrew McCarthy

Director, Brontë Parsonage Museum

The next few weeks offers a final chance to see an exhibition dedicated to the Brontës’ remarkable father, Patrick, which will be followed by a new exhibition looking at the fascinating history of the museum’s collection. There will also be an exhibition of costumes from last year’s film adaptation of Jane Eyre, and exhibitions of work by artists Rebecca Chesney and Simon Warner. 

These will focus on ‘weather’ and its historic and contemporary associations with the Brontës, and the moorland Brontë location, Top Withens. The Top Withens exhibition will include a survey of photographic images of this iconic site, as well as a sketch of Top Withens by the celebrated poet Sylvia Plath. There is also a packed programme of events with visiting authors.

Red House Campaign - momentum grows

Richard Wilcocks writes:
The Area Committee met yesterday evening in Cleckheaton Town Hall, and received a deputation of people who were deeply concerned about the threat to the existence of the Red House Museum. The public was very well represented - in fact the room was packed, every seat taken. Eight of the nine Spen Valley councillors sat in the front row, listening with what I took, fondly perhaps, to be approval. One of them sent apologies for being unavoidably absent. We must remember that the full Council consists of sixty-nine members. 


Find out exactly who they are, here.


All of the deputation speakers were asked not to take up too much time and to avoid repeating points. On behalf of the Brontë Society, I gave brief details of the friendship between Charlotte Brontë and Mary Taylor, read descriptions of Briarmains taken from Shirley and generally repeated points made previously on this blog, adding that we were "horrified" by this proposal which had been "sprung upon us at short notice". Peter Jackson, on behalf of the Little Gomersal Community Association, using a set of well-prepared notes, made it quite clear that the proposal to close Red House was very unwelcome in the area, short-sighted and badly thought-out. Local historian Gordon North spoke about the radically-minded Taylors and the impact they made in the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, and in particular about Mary Taylor, a brave and strong-willed woman who had sailed to New Zealand in 1845 and who was treated with great respect in that country. Red House is often visited by New Zealanders. He also spoke about the excellent and imaginative educational resources on the site. Member of the Brontë Society Imelda Marsden added her voice, urging all councillors present to take heed of a swelling tide of indignation. The local press made copious notes.


All of the speakers were complimented by the chair of the area committee for sticking to the rules - and all of them were applauded enthusiastically. We were then told that the 'cabinet' meeting on 7 February to look at the proposal would be held in Huddersfield, and that it would be open to the public. More about this later.


According to reports, letters and emails have been arriving from abroad - including from Australia. I have emailed friends in New Zealand to add their voices. Joan Bellamy was on Radio Leeds's Breakfast Show yesterday morning, BBC Look North took viewers on a tour of the house and the issue has been featured in a number of newspapers. Various politicians are coming on board, including Michael McGowan, former MEP for Leeds.

Red House: speak to councillors

A public meeting of the Spen Valley Area Committee of Kirklees Council is scheduled for this Tuesday (31 January) in the Cleckheaton Town Hall, Bradford Road, BD19 3RH at 7pm. As the 'cabinet' meeting of the Council on 7 February is going to be closed to the public, this is one of few chances left to actually speak with councillors in the hope of influencing them to keep the Red House Museum in Gomersal open.

If you can make it, meet at 6.30pm outside the front entrance.

Must their world disappear in stages?

ISM writes

We must protect the views the Brontës loved was the headline to an article which appeared in last Saturday’s (21 January) Telegraph Weekend. Well of course anyone who knows the area which gave such inspiration to that literary family would agree wholeheartedly. Apparently not Bradford Council which is including Haworth and its neighbouring Worth Valley villages in the plans to see 48,500 houses built within its boundaries by 2028.

Andrew McCarthy, director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum is quoted in the article as saying that the Brontës themselves lived on the dividing line between industry and untamed moorland and that the walk to enter another world is not very far. 

The fear is that this world will disappear in stages. The Reverend Peter Mayo-Smith, vicar of the village’s St Michael and All Angels church, which has been the victim of criminals and vandals who have stripped lead from the roof three times in the last eighteen months, says he finds solace in walks on the moor. Even when the wind is strong and the rain lashing he describes these lonely expanses as wonderful.

Charlotte Brontë, after her sister’s death, wrote how Emily too loved the moors and found in the bleak solitude many and dear delights and not the least and best loved was liberty. 

Just as the Brontës were always drawn back to the area for inspiration, those of us who follow in their footsteps hope that if there has to be future development it will be done sensibly and with respect.  

More Precious Than Rubies - Red House Museum

Last week, Kirklees Council made public its budget proposals. 

In addition to the recently publicised reduction in the opening times of Museums and Galleries across Kirklees, the proposals now include the complete closure of Red House Museum in Gomersal.

If these proposals are passed, Red House would be closed in September and the buildings sold - not necessarily as a museum.

Red House was built in 1660 and was the home of the Taylor Family until 1920.  It has important Brontë connections and is now furnished as a home in the 1830s when Charlotte Brontë was a frequent visitor.  Red House, the Taylor family and the Spen Valley area were all featured in Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley.  

Also on site are the recreated 1830s gardens, the restored Barn which illustrates the numerous Brontë connections in the area and the renovated Cartsheds which houses the 'Spen Valley Stories' gallery.

Last year the site received almost 30,000 visitors and was recently awarded its second Sandford Award for the quality of its heritage educational services for schools.  The site is an important asset for Kirklees and local businesses as a tourist destination which attracts visitors from all over the world to the area.

Unlike Council Services which can be cut and reinstated in better economic times, if the proposal to close and sell the site were passed an extremely important part of Spen Valley's heritage would be lost forever.

Richard Wilcocks writes:

So the Communities and Leisure Service department of Kirklees Council is recommending that the Red House Museum in Gomersal should be closed down in less than nine months. Just like that! Once again, a local authority is calculating that a short-term capital gain and a removal of dedicated museum staff is going to make up for the loss of one of Kirklees’s few tourist attractions, which is much more than a museum and a learning centre. It could be put on a list of national treasures. It is important not only for those dismissed in the official impact statement as ‘Brontë enthusiasts’ (note that these come after the local businesses in the sentence) but for anyone who believes that the most fitting memorial to Mary Taylor, a highly significant historical figure, not only because of her lifelong friendship with Charlotte Brontë, is the museum situated in her house. Perhaps that should be national memorial – let’s move beyond the parochial.

I well remember a book launch of about a decade ago, held in the Red House grounds: Joan Bellamy, who was at the time a member of Brontë Society Council, had just published More Precious than Rubies, a title which has Mary Taylor, Friend of Charlotte Brontë, Strong Minded Woman underneath it. All present were complimentary about Red House, its exhibitions and the expertise to be found within its red-brick walls, and they were not just being polite. It was described as a great aid for those concerned with education – and if proof is needed that the place is still a great aid, look online at this document. Explaining her title, Joan said that it could easily apply to the museum as well, which she greatly admired.

Now the treasure could be sold off – apparently, one quick-off-the-mark developer has already suggested that the seventeenth century building could be converted into very desirable flats, and that a chic little bistro could be put into it as well.

The Council Cabinet are to meet on 7th February.  There is to be no public consultation but they are inviting 'public dialogue'.  The whole set of proposals – including overviews of the council spending and the approach of each directorate – is available on the Council website .

Comments can be made on the website, via a local Councillor or by e-mail to consultation@kirklees.gov.uk

Brontë Society Chair Sally McDonald is busy writing letters about this, and plenty of other people (no, you don’t have to be a Society member) are using their keyboards to send emails. You as well? Letters to newspaper editors, protests to local MPs, messages to local radio and television – you could affect the outcome. The list below is not exhaustive, so please include your own contacts. You don’t have to be resident in Kirklees. Or England.

BBC Look North – christa.ackroyd@bbc.co.uk

Calendar – ITV Yorkshire – calendar@itv.com

Radio Leeds – layla.painter@bbc.co.uk

Yorkshire Post – yp.newsdesk@ypn.co.uk

Yorkshire Evening Post – eped@ypn.co.uk

Huddersfield Daily Examiner – editor@examiner.co.uk

Batley & Birstall News – batleyeditorial@ywng.co.uk

News Editor of Spenborough Guardian – Margaret.heward@ywng.co.uk

Mirfield Reporter – dewsburyeditorial@ywng.co.uk

News Team at Morley Observer – Erica.madelin@ypn.co.uk

Our friends at Brontë Blog have started a petition. Find it here.

See the Red House ('Briarmains' in Charlotte Brontë's Shirley) here in panoramic view.

Buy a Stella Vine print

Stella Vine is considered by some to be a ‘controversial’ artist because her portraits are of figures ranging from model Kate Moss to footballer Didier Drogba, and her Warhol-related style could be described as ‘child-like.’ Television art pundit Waldemar Januszczak described her as having “a combination of empathy and cynicism that can be startling”.

She is currently painting a portrait of the Brontë sisters to raise much-needed funds for St Michael and All Angels Church in Haworth, which has just a few days left to raise £27,000: English Heritage has set 20 January as the deadline for its offer to add a further £100,000.

The church roof needed seeing to even before thieves stripped lead from it – three times in the last eighteen months. English Heritage gave church fundraisers a target of £65,000 and brave efforts have been made – but there is still that £27,000 to go.

You can buy a print made from the painting for just £150, and your advance orders are important, for the reason mentioned above. There will be a total of one hundred only. To order one, email your details to stellavinestudio@gmail.com or go to this website

More on the manuscript...

Colin Randall (ex-Daily Telegraph, contributor to Abu Dhabi's The National, lives in France) has written a full and clear account of the events at Sotheby's for his France Salut blog:


http://www.francesalut.com/2011/12/bronte-in-paris-shame-about-haworth.html#more


It seems that the the French museum would be very willing to lend the little book to the Parsonage for an exhibition at some time in the future, and that it would have been willing to go up to a million pounds...