Brontë Parsonage Museum

This little area is perhaps not much changed since the time of the Brontës. The Parsonage has gained an extra wing (with the gable, on the right). Down the lane, on the right of my photo, is the old schoolroom that Patrick Brontë built for the children of Haworth. Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell all taught here at various times. In 1854, it was where Charlotte had her wedding reception when she married her father's curate, Rev'd Arthur Bell Nicholls. Sadly, she died just 9 months later during her first pregnancy. 

Patrick Brontë outlived his wife and all his children. He died in 1861. The family's possessions were given to friends or auctioned. Even before Patrick died, there was a huge amount of interest in the Brontës, thanks to the speculation over who had written the various novels, published under pseudonyms. One of Charlotte's friends, Elizabeth Gaskell, published her popular biography 'The Life of Charlotte Brontë' in 1857 and Haworth became a place of pilgrimage for devotees. 

In 1893, the Chief Librarian of Bradford founded The Brontë Society. They began gathering memorabilia, which was initially displayed in a small museum on Haworth's Main Street. In 1928, Sir James Roberts (who by then was the sole owner of Salts Mill), showing remarkable foresight and goodwill, bought the Parsonage and gifted it to The Brontë Society. It has been a museum, with an ever expanding collection, since then. It gets thousands of visitors each year, from as far away as Japan where, it seems, the Brontës are famous and revered. My own visit this time coincided with that of a group of very excited primary school children. As a result, I didn't take many photos inside! 

The dining room is where the siblings gathered to write in the evenings and to share their stories, walking around the table as they read. It was here in 1848 - so they say - that Emily died on the sofa, of TB, a few months after her brother Branwell had died of the same disease, exacerbated in his case by opium and alcohol addiction. Anne died the following year, also of TB, in Scarborough, where she had been taken to try a sea cure. 

Charlotte lived another six years, dying aged 38 shortly after her marriage and in the early stages of pregnancy. Her bedroom now holds various items belonging to her, including her writing desk and some clothes and bonnets.