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The Bronte Sisters The Bronte Sisters lived and wrote in the Parsonage in Haworth in Yorkshire. http://www.bronte.info/ The house is just above the town with the moor stretching out behind it. It is open to the public and contains a fascinating collection of artifacts. After visiting it, if the weather permits, we like to take a walk on the wild moor to and we ask for a volunteer to read the a scene from Wuthering Heights. If you have time and energy for a longer walk, you can trek to Top Withins and Ponden Hall, said to be Emily's Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange respectively. Continued below Photo: Branwell's portrait of his three sisters with himself cut out. |
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Near Bradford, in Gomersal, is the Red House where Charlotte's friends, Mary and Martha Taylor lived. It was the model for Briarmains in Shirley and is nowadays an interesting museum. If you are heading for Haworth from the Lake District (having perhaps spent time studying Wordsworth), you will pass through a village called Cowan Bridge. There was a schoolhouse here for the daughters of the clergy to which Mr. Bronte sent four of his daughters. Two of them died whilst here and Charlotte uses it as Lowood in Jane Eyre. Today only part of the school still exists as a private housing but a plaques marks it. In Thornton, near Bradford, is the Bronte Birthplace Museum http://www.brontebirthplace.org.uk/ where the girls spent their early years. Emily and Charlotte are buried in the church at Haworth where their father's faith must have been tested by being pre-deceased by his wife and all five daughters. Anne is buried in Scarborough where she was sent, unsuccessfully, to convalesce. There is a reproduction of the above portrait in the Bronte Parsonage and the original is in the National Portrait Gallery in London. |