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Monday 5 September 2016

A visit to Norton Conyers in North Yorkshire

Looking for the 'madwoman in the attic'

Marina Saegerman writes:
I had done my research in advance and I knew the house was only open to the public on select days and times, but we were lucky: the house was open for visitors in the period that we were staying in the area (27 to 31 July 2016), only in the afternoon with guided tours at 2 pm, 3 pm and 4 pm. The estate is well hidden amidst trees and parkland, and it took us a while to find the entrance. We had to park the car near the stables and the walled garden, and then a short walk  towards the House. We had to register for the group visit in a little shed next to the house and await the guide’s arrival. We received a brochure about the house and its history, written by the present owner, the eleventh baronet, Sir James Graham, which made a very interesting read. This was a good introduction to the guided tour we were about to receive.




Norton Conyers is a late medieval stately manor house, a pleasing mix of historic styles,  with Stuart and Georgian additions. It has been owned by the Graham family (originally from Scottish origin) since 1624 (except for a period of 20 years between 1862 and 1882). The house is steeped in history and has welcomed a number of noteworthy  guests such as King James II, King Charles I and of course Charlotte Brontë.

With a little delay we went over to the house via the side-entrance which still contains the bells that rang when service was required in one of the rooms (each bell having a very specific sound for each room). We were personally  greeted and welcomed for our guided tour by Sir James and Lady Graham in the Hall. The first part of the tour consisted of an introduction by the current owners about the history of the house, but also about the extensive repair and restoration work they have been doing since 2005, when they discovered a major death-watch beetle infestation in the wooden floorboards. Many pictures were shown of how the house looked like during the restoration work, we could even see some real carcasses of the destructive beetle, collected by Sir James. During the ongoing restoration work, fascinating layers of the history of the house have been uncovered and the owners have been able to carry out 'extensive  rescue archeology', as Sir James mentions in his brochure. The restoration work has been done with great care and a real passion and  respect for the historic structure of the house. As a consequence of their remarkable renovation work, Sir James and Lady Graham received the  Historic Houses Association & Sotheby’s Restoration Award 2014, which proudly hangs on the wall in the Hall.
             
The most interesting part for me was of course the link with Charlotte Brontë, who is said to have visited Norton Conyers in 1839 when she was a governess with the Sidgwick family. Lady Graham pointed  out that the restoration works have enhanced many features of Norton Conyers mentioned by Charlotte Brontë in her description of Thornfield Hall: the battlements around the roof, the rookery, the main broad oak staircase, the high square hall covered in family portraits and of course the famous Mad Woman’s room in the attic.

The 'secret' staircase, hidden behind a door in the wooden paneling on the landing near the Peacock Room – the supposed model for Mr. Rochester’’s room in Jane Eyre – and  connecting the first floor to the attic rooms, was discovered in November 2004 after having been blocked up for donkey’s years. “There was no way you could tell from outside that there was anything there,” said Sir James. This discovery aroused world-wide interest because of the striking similarity with the story of Bertha Mason, the mad wife of Mr. Rochester locked up in the attic in the novel Jane Eyre. The secret staircase was probably constructed in the late seventeenth century to provide servants with a short cut from their sleeping quarters to their workplace. It  was certainly in use when Charlotte visited and she must have heard the story of a 'mad' woman  called Mary who was locked in the attic of Norton Conyers in the eighteenth century. In Jane Eyre the staircase is vividly described by Charlotte and matches the concealed staircase in Norton Conyers perfectly, now officially also called “The Jane Eyre Staircase”. This story has most probably inspired Charlotte Brontë when writing Jane Eyre, as has the house itself.
   
Lady Graham showed us pictures of the staircase and of Mad Mary’s Room, as the attic room is called, which is situated in a remote corner of the attic. The attic is not open to the public because of the fragility of the structure, and the staircase (which is sadly too dangerous for the public to use) can only be seen from the landing on the first floor. Lady Graham told us that they  plan to restore the staircase and attic rooms in time, but at the same time respecting and keeping the specific atmosphere of the Mad Woman’s room, supposedly quite a depressing  and sad room: “this room is in a cul-de sac in the attic, very awkward to reach, the room is north-facing with a small gable window, it has a tragic feel about it”.

After this introduction we were allowed to wander around in the house and visit the rooms opened to the public. Sir James and Lady Graham stuck around and were very willing to answer any questions. I told Lady Graham of my interest in the link of Norton Conyers with Charlotte Brontë and she showed me the library which had been restored and re-furnished with items that Charlotte would have seen when visiting. She pointed out a few of these items, such as a pair of globes, a cabinet piano in the window-bay, painting equipment, the bookcases – most of which are locked apart from one triangular bookcase in a corner which contains “everything that could be needed in the way of elementary works” as described in Jane Eyre. The room was re-furnished in accordance with the description of Mr. Rochester’s study, which was used in the novel by Jane Eyre as a classroom for Mr. Rochester’s ward Adele Varens.

Apart from the Library the rooms open to the public are: the Dining Room, the Hall, where we started the tour, the Parlour (all on the ground floor), the main oak staircase, and on the first floor: the landing with the 'secret' door, the Passage, the Best Bedroom (with a reproduction of a unique wallpaper design found in an attic cupboard) and King James’s Room, where King James II and his wife stayed during their visit in 1679 - still displaying the traditional bed they are supposed to have used. Throughout the house, in all rooms open to the public, you can see a beautiful collection of family portraits and other paintings related to the house and its inhabitants, magnificent old furniture, beautiful eighteenth century plaster ceilings and many other valuable treasures and fine art work.
                                 
The house is a real marvel, so lovingly and passionately restored to its original grandeur, with great attention to detail, but there is still a lot of work to be done. I was in awe when I finished the tour.  The house has indeed a special friendly, welcoming atmosphere, which according to Sir James “results from its having belonged to the same family for three hundred and ninety-two years”. Personally I think it is also the result of the passion and dedication with which the current owners have restored and taken care of the house. You can definitely see and feel this passion in every room you visit. And some hard work has gone into the restoration, for sure!  Thanks are due to Sir James and Lady Graham for saving this fascinating historic gem for generations to come.

We still had to visit the walled garden and the stable block which is also a Grade II-listed building, like the house. It covers over three acres and was designed in the mid-eighteenth century. It still retains the essential features of the original design: two paths meeting at the central feature (the Orangery), flanked by greenhouses, with a small ornamental pond before it and colourful flower and herbaceous borders everywhere in the garden. It gives the visitor this feeling of utter tranquility, which we all need once in a while in our busy lives.What a perfect way of ending this extraordinary visit!

And, for those unmarried souls amongst us, a special message:  Reader, you can marry hereNorton Conyers is indeed a wonderful venue for weddings and other celebrations.



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Brontë Society Conference 2016

Maddalena De Leo writes:
Helen MacEwan, Maddalena De Leo, Marina Saegerman, Akiko Higuchi, Marcia Zaaijer
The Brontë Society Conference 2016 was held in Manchester at the luxurious Midland Hotel between 19 and 24 August, this year being particularly relevant because of the bicentennial celebration of the birth of Charlotte Brontë. The Italian Section was of course present with a mini-delegation consisting of Maddalena De Leo, its representative, and Caterina Lerro.

Christine Alexander

The three days event was completely dedicated to Charlotte and was entitled '... the business of a woman's life', Charlotte Brontë and the Woman's question. Among its speakers the were some of the best and most famous world scholars of the moment - for example Christine Alexander, Germaine Greer, and Sally Shuttleworth. Beside them were many other academics from all over the world.



On Friday afternoon, after the superb reception of the nearly one hundred and fifty delegates from various nationalities in the multi-starred hotel, there was the introductory lecture during  which Christine Alexander focused on the literary ambitions of the young Charlotte, referring also to her mother Maria Branwell Brontë’s libretto recently found and bought by the Society; immediately afterwards there was the introduction of the powerful book written by her and Sarah Pearson Celebrating Charlotte Brontë: Transforming Life Into Literature in Jane Eyre, the major Brontë Society publication 2016 for the bicentennial. The toast offered by Brontë Studies publishers ensued then, followed by the first dinner in the very elegant Derby Suite located on the first floor and adjacent to the conference room. After it another brilliant paper was given by the representative of the Belgian section, Helen Mc Ewan, based on the point of view of the mid-nineteenth century Belgian citizens in regard to our Brontës.



Sally Shuttleworth
Saturday 20 August saw the debut of 'key-note speaker' Germaine Greer with an original and very personal paper, full of inputs and questions about Charlotte's personal and social life, a speech that clearly attracted a lot of questions and created an animated discussion in the hall, afterwards followed by a 'visual panel’ dedicated to the cinema and TV drama adaptations of Charlotte’s novels.

In the afternoon a small group of delegates went to the nearby Manchester Central Library while almost all the others took part in the excursion previously organized by the Brontë Society which included a visit to the recently restored Elizabeth Gaskell’s house at number 84, Plymouth Grove. It was there that Charlotte’s biographer lived from 1850 until her death in 1865, writing all her novels and the Life, and it was in that same living room that she talked by night with her friend in the three times that she was her guest.
Germaine Greer


Back at the Midland Hotel and after more lectures on the role of women in Victorian times, there came the highlight of the Conference, the gala dinner with its sophisticated salmon menu, followed by Claire Harman’s dissertation in which  she - Charlotte’s latest biographer - outlined the strengths and weaknesses present in the long friendship of the three former classmates, Mary Taylor, Ellen Nussey and Charlotte Brontë.


On Sunday morning, after the report of Prof. Shuttleworth about the sense of injustice denounced in Jane Eyre and the other novels by Charlotte, the topic was instead the economic aspect of the women’s question in the Victorian era. Then there followed the comments and thanks to the Vice-President of the Brontë Society Patsy Stoneman for the excellent organization of the event, and farewells to all participants after the rapid final lunch.



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Flagship event at the Gaskell House

Charlotte's birthday at Mirfield Arts Festival

We have just received photos (thanks Huddersfield Examiner) from the Mirfield Arts Festival, which took place on 16 July in good weather.

The birthday celebration flag was flown by Society stalwart Angela Crow-Woods - who talked about Charlotte Brontë's first novel The Professor to an appreciative audience, after she had finished the opening ceremony. 



Angela writes: "Young people started the festival in the morning with music and dancing, and then I officially opened the whole festival, which will hopefully be the first of many.


"This one was organised brilliantly by Jenny Tomlinson, Chair of the Friends of Mirfield Library. We also celebrated four hundred years of William Shakespeare with a performance of parts of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

"Mirfield has strong connections with the Brontës, and the Brontë Society should not forget it."



Tuesday 5 July 2016

Poetry at the Parsonage

Richard Wilcocks writes:
It was certainly a turn-up for the books: I can not recall any events even similar to this one in my experience, and I am guessing it was unprecedented. It should be made to happen again, and not just because it links with the Parsonage's well-established and enlightened stance on contemporary arts, and because all the Brontës wrote poetry but because festivals like this should be essential items on both the Parsonage and the Haworth annual calendar. It should be repeated. Perhaps an annual poetry weekend could grow to become as significant as a Forties weekend.

The organising geniuses were Matthew Withey and Joanna Sedgwick with other members of staff and volunteers from the Parsonage, together with Mark Connors from the Leeds-based Word Club, well-used to rounding up poets of all kinds, and a poet and novelist himself. They spent many happy hours planning everything, drinking plenty of lattes in 'Cobbles and Clay' (on Main Street) to help things along. Some ideas never materialised: the marquee in which performances were going to be situated did not appear because the Health and Safety people from Bradford Council did not like the sheep droppings they discovered on the chosen field, so the poets were sent to either the old school room ('Charlotte's Stage') or to the West Lane Baptist Church ('Emily's Stage') to hold forth.

"Poetry at the Parsonage was a two day celebration of the vibrant poetry scene that stretches across all corners of Yorkshire and we were blessed with contributions from Leeds, Bradford, York, Wakefield, Sheffield, Hull, Otley, Ilkley, Huddersfield, Halifax, Horsforth, Hebden Bridge, Sowerby Bridge, Filey, Marsden....and many other places where poetry thrives in 2016," said Mark Connors on his Facebook page, and audiences were exposed to just about every variety of it. Some was Brontë-related, most of it not, and poets were of every age. My own ten-minute contribution was delivered to an audience which included the magnificent Queensbury Ladies on the front row, and if I was asked to pick out memorable individual performances I would choose Antony Dunn (www.antonydunn.org) at the young end and Patrick Lodge (www.valleypressuk.com/author/47/patrick_lodge) at the senior end. I missed the workshops, but on evidence from a participant, can say that the one led by veteran poet and creative writing coach Char March (www.charmarch.co.uk) was brilliant.

There was a bar on the grass behind the Parsonage which attracted few drinkers on the Saturday, mainly because of the cold, blustery weather, but more on the Sunday, when there was more sunshine - and musicians.

Here are two glowing reviews:

http://www.yorkshiretimes.co.uk/article/Poetry-At-The-Parsonage

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=58496




Tuesday 21 June 2016

Barry Simmons - Scrambled Eggheads



 IS writes:
The annual gathering at the Old White Lion on the Sunday evening is always something to look forward to in the programme of the Brontë Society June Weekend. Friendships are renewed, new ones are made and excellent food is available. This year members, in teams of four, replete with choices such as scampi, chicken, garlic mushrooms, sticky toffee pudding and in my case a humble cheese sandwich which was delicious, prepared to pit their wits in a quiz compiled by Barry Simmons (pictured). 

Resplendent that evening in a sparkling, red sequined jacket - which would have done Liberace proud - he can be regularly seen on our television screens in the quiz programme 'Eggheads'. He is a quizzer par excellence - he has been a winner of 'Brain of Britain' and he is a researcher at the text question and answer service. So it was probably with some trepidation that the teams - with names such as Chapter, Keeper’s Friends, Heathcliff’s Revenge - prepared to do battle.


Barry, who lives in Leeds, asked his brain teasing questions with humour and patience, and when the winner was declared there was only one mark between the top two teams.


The evening ended on a high note with Audrey Hall (pictured in a recent post), one of the Society’s vice- presidents, telling about some Brontë items she has recently acquired for the museum via her family connection with the Nusseys and also with Oakwell Hall. It was so good to hear about Audrey’s latest project - she has worked so hard over many, many years for the good of the Brontë Society and I thank her for all she has done and continues to do.