The imposing Victorian facade and pleasant grounds of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, photo courtesy of The Bronte Society
Haworth’s main claim to fame is that it is the village that was home to the Brontë family from 1820 to 1861, but it is a charming place in its own right which still retains a Victorian feel – and indeed several weeks before Christmas the children of the village dress up in Victorian clothes for the ceremony of Scroggling the Holly – an activity which involves a Holly Queen, Fairies, Pixies, Morris Men and, of course, Santa Claus.
Before then, on the 19th & 20th May this year, Haworth will be holding its 1940s weekend – an annual event in which the villagers and visitors dress up in period costume and are joined by military vehicles and a fly-past. There are also re-enactments, street entertainment and live shows featuring music from the period.
The Brontë family’s dwelling, the Parsonage, is now a much esteemed museum, open almost all the year round (check the Brontë Parsonage Museum’s website for full details), which is owned and managed by the Brontë Society. The Museum has collections of the Brontë family’s possessions, including furniture, household items, some of the paintings that adorned the walls when the family lived there, and, most importantly, manuscripts, letters and drawings created by the Brontë sisters. The Museum’s Research Library is an important resource for scholars of the Brontës, with all sorts of critical and biographical background on the family, as well as books, articles and other material about Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë and their brother Branwell, father Patrick and other members of their family.
The Brontë sisters would have written their books in longhand using a quill pen like this, photo courtesy of The Bronte Society
Patrick Brontë, the local curate – hence his home in the Parsonage – must have had a miserable time, as his wife died of cancer in 1821 at the age of 38 and the woes that befell the rest of his family must have sorely tried his faith. If there was an upside of his wife’s early death it was that she didn’t see her six children die, as Patrick did. Maria, the firstborn died in 1825 at the age of 11, Elizabeth was a year younger when she died less than 6 weeks after Maria. The Brontës only son, Branwell, died aged 31 in September 1848. His sister Emily died in the December of the same year aged 30. Another sister, Anne, went in the May of the following year. Charlotte Brontë died in March 1855 aged 38. Patrick outlived the last of his children by another six years, dying at 84 in 1861. None of his offspring had any children of their own, though Charlotte had married and was pregnant when she died. Unfortunately such devastation to a single family was not uncommon in those days, before hygiene and effective medicine were available to all.
Fortunately, Anne, Emily and Charlotte left a rich legacy in their novels; one which still resonates deeply today – it seems that almost every year a new film or TV drama based on of their stories reaches our screens. And for fans of the novels, you can buy the complete novels on Amazon by clicking the picture below:
The Brontë Parsonage is an imposing building, at the top of Haworth’s Main Street – a steep, cobblestoned and narrow road, lined with Victorian cottages and many interesting shops. At the lower end of Main Street, and through Central Park is Haworth Station, which is on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway line (aka KWVR). This steam railway has a great heritage – having featured in the Jenny Agutter film The Railway Children and Yanks – with Richard Gere and Vanessa Redgrave. It was also in an episode of the BBC TV comedy series Last of the Summer Wine. The KWVR will also be very much a part of the Haworth 1940s Weekend with steam trains and vintage buses providing a frequent service to bring people right into the heart of the village. The KWVR line runs between the town of Keighley and the small village of Oxenhope – home of the Oxenhope Straw Race, a team event held each summer and involving carrying a bale of straw and drinking copious amounts of beer – but all in a good cause as much money is raised for charities as a result.
0-4-0 Saddletank Locomotive "Lord Mayor", photo courtesy of Ingrow Museum of Rail Travel – owned by Vintage Carriages Trust
Continuing the railway theme, nearby Keighley has a highly acclaimed Museum of Rail Travel, with locomotives and carriages dating from as far back as the 1870s. And there’s more. The Ingrow Loco Museum is on the outskirts of Keighley, at Ingrow, another station on the KWVR and has a fascinating collection of engines and railway memorabilia. Also in Ingrow and further reinforcing the area‘s claim to be a haven for transport enthusiasts, is the Keighley Bus Museum – with 50 vehicles, some fully roadworthy and others under repair.
The Museum has a fine collection of station name plates and other memorabilia, photo courtesy of Ingrow Museum of Rail Travel – owned by Vintage Carriages Trust
Another museum in Keighley is Cliffe Castle – with displays featuring natural history, geology, minerals, crystals, and local fossils, as well as pottery, stained glass, local bygones, toys, dolls, rooms furnished in Victorian style and, from time to time, temporary exhibitions. But if you want to visit, be quick, as it will be undergoing major refurbishment work from the 2nd April 2012 and will be closed for 12 months thereafter.
Also near Keighley is East Riddlesden Hall, a 17th century manor house under the ownership of the National Trust. This award-winning (Yorkshire’s Small Visitor Attraction of 2011) house has a rose garden, a walled garden, a children’s play area, a 17th century tithe barn (one of the finest in the north of the country), embroideries, carvings, Yorkshire rose windows, a bird hide and lots more – including, allegedly, several ghosts. The Murgatroyd family, who were once the owners and reputedly lived a dissolute life, were said to be the basis for Baronets of the same name in the Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera Ruddigore.
Returning to Haworth, the Brontë Parsonage Museum is the start of the Brontë Trail – which includes the Brontë Waterfalls at Stanbury, Top Withens (reputed to be the inspiration for Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights), and Ponden Hall (renamed Thrushcross Grange in Wuthering Heights). The Trail is a little over 8 miles long and takes in some stunning and haunting scenery. It can be quite steep in places, and should never be attempted in poor weather conditions – you don’t want to risk catching consumption!
The Brontë Trail is part of the much longer Brontë Way – a 43-mile walk from Oakwell Hall (Charlotte Brontë’s Fieldhead in Shirley) near Bradford, to Gawthorpe Hall near Burnley. Charlotte was a frequent visitor to Gawthorpe, as she was friendly with the Shuttleworth family who owned it.
Another “must” for walkers is the nearby Ilkley Moor which was featured in an earlier blog.
Stop press: The piano in the Brontë Parsonage Museum will be the subject of a 30 minute programme on BBC Radio 4 at 11.30 am on Tuesday 13 March 2012 in a broadcast which explores the music that the family played and sang. The programme will feature soprano Catherine Bott and pianist Jonathan Cohen. Go here to find out more and here to read about the background to the piano’s recent restoration.
If you fancy a trip to Haworth and wish to stay for a few days, you can find Haworth bed and breakfast and Haworth holiday cottages on Hello Yorkshire. And if you’re after an Ordnance Survey folded map of the area, the following is available on Amazon:
or the following book of walks called the Bront
ë Way:
