Brontë Birthplace Museum

I recently went with a friend to visit the Brontë birthplace on Market Street in Thornton. Thornton was a village in Victorian times and it was here that Rev'd Patrick Brontë, supported by his wife Maria, was, for five years from 1815 to 1820, the minister of the Bell Chapel. Thus it was here, in what was then the modest parsonage, that four of their six children were born. They already had Maria (b 1814) and Elizabeth (b 1815) and added to their family with Charlotte (1816), Patrick Branwell (1817), Emily (1818) and Anne (1820). The three younger girls, of course, went on to become the famous novelists that we know as the Brontë sisters. In 1820 the family moved on to nearby Haworth, living in the Parsonage there.

Sadly, their mother Maria died in 1821 of cancer and the two older girls died of TB in 1825. 

Their original home was fairly new when they lived there. (It was built in 1802). Since then, it has been a butcher's shop (which explains the extension on the front); the home of a crimewriter, Barbara Whitehead, who did open it for a while as a small museum; and then a coffee shop (which I visited in 2019, see HERE) that did not reopen after COVID. In 2023, the local community and supporters set about crowdfunding to restore the building and secure its future. It has been renovated, preserving the original features that were left and adding period-appropriate decor and furniture. 

They've uncovered the original stone flags in the hallway, and the fireplace in the family room (below), in front of which, it's said, the children were born. This room, which became the butcher's shop, is now a Tea Room. 

The more formal Parlour, across the hallway, also has its original hob grate fireplace, and a series of display cabinets showing some of the items that were uncovered in the restoration. 

Upstairs, what was once the nursery where the children slept is now a large bedroom. This room had connecting doors to both the parents bedroom and that of the young household servant who helped the family.

Since the renovation, you can book an overnight stay in the house, which I'm sure will appeal to some of the many avid fans of the Brontës. 

The scullery (my first photo) was the beating heart of the domestic life of the family, where food was prepared and laundry done. The cast-iron range isn't original to the house (as the room had been stripped and turned into a more modern kitchen) but is of the same period. Leading off it are very steep stone stairs up to the small room where the family's servant slept. Nancy Garr came in 1816 (aged just 13 herself!) to help look after the children, later joined by her 12 year old sister.  

Saltaire scenes

On a very clear, cold day, the local gull population clearly thought the roof of the New Mill was the warmest place to be. 

Elsewhere in the village, there seemed to be more cars than people. I guess folks were making the most of the end of the holidays and enjoying the warmth inside their homes. 

George Street runs right down through the village. It's one of three streets that spans the entire estate south to north, carefully designed to showcase the church right at the bottom. The others are Victoria Road and Albert Terrace, at opposite sides of the residential area. 

Slicing through from east to west are Caroline Street, Titus Street and Saltaire Road (the original turnpike road). Titus Street, seen below, holds one of the more unusual village houses, which has a watchtower. It was reputedly the home of the commissionaire and chief security officer at Salts Mill. People say he used the glazed tower as a lookout but I can't verify whether that's true or not. 

Stockbridge

Edinburgh #7

Stockbridge was once a village on the outskirts of Edinburgh, now swallowed up into the city. Its main claim to fame is the photogenic Circus Lane, built in the early 1800s when Edinburgh's New Town was being developed. Originally it was a service road for the Royal Circus (see the final photo, below), a grand Georgian circle of large houses, whose wealthy inhabitants needed accommodation for their staff and stabling for their horses. 

Ironically, now, it is a very desirable place to live (probably more so than the apartments that most of the larger houses have been split into) with its cobbled street and sweet Georgian cottages, adorned with tubs and hanging baskets. It attracts photographers and Instagrammers. It wasn't that busy when I was there but I still had to wait for people to walk out of the way round the bends.  

Just round the corner, the imposing St Stephen's Church, built in 1828 at the top of St Stephen's Street, is now a theatre. 

One of the older houses in Stockbridge was built in the 1700s as a merchant's dwelling, but apparently incorporates bits of older buildings. It has this lintel, salvaged from elsewhere, that says: 'Fear God Onlye, 1605'. The IR refers to Iacobus Rex: King James VI of Scotland, who had become James I of England and Ireland in 1603. In 1796, the house was the birthplace of David Roberts, who became a celebrated Scottish artist.

The imposing Georgian houses, wide streets, garden squares and sweeping crescents (like the Royal Circus, below) of the New Town are reminiscent of Bath's elegant 18th century architecture. 

Street view

It's a while since I showed any general street views in Saltaire village. These are both taken in the upper part of the village, at the west end towards Albert Road. Most of these houses were built later in the village's construction, in the 1860s. The top one is Shirley Street, named after Sir Titus Salt's grandson, the son of William Henry. (Shirley was a man's name in those days, now more likely to be given to a woman.) The row of houses is typical of the workmen's cottages built for the mill's ordinary workforce: two bedrooms plus a living room and scullery. Small they may be, but for their time they were exceptionally good, with water, drainage, gas and a private (outside) lavatory in a small back yard. 

The bottom photo is looking east along Titus Street. The larger houses facing Albert Road (far right above and far left below) were among the grandest houses in the village, built for professionals and senior managers at the mill. When they were built, they would have had a clear outlook over fields and countryside, though since then a housing estate has been built on the land opposite. You may notice that these appear to have had their stone cleaned of the dirt and soot of centuries, though many of the smaller terraces are still blackened. 

The whole village, still a wonderful place to live, is a conservation area and World Heritage Site, because of the completeness and state of preservation of the Victorian industrial village and its mill. 

Goddards

Goddards is a National Trust property in York, an Arts and Crafts house built in 1927 for Noel and Kathleen Terry, who owned the Terry's chocolate factory (famed for their yummy chocolate oranges, which have been a staple in my family's Christmas stockings for years). The house is, sadly, not open to the public as it is used as offices for the National Trust. The gardens, designed by George Dillistone, who worked with Lutyens, are open during the summer months. I've been meaning to go for ages, and arranged to meet a friend there recently. It was a warm, bright day, pleasant for strolling and enjoying drinks on the terrace even if not ideal for photographing the gardens, which really needed soft, diffused light. 

As with most Arts and Crafts era gardens, it's arranged in a series of 'rooms' separated by hedges and shrubs. It has a terrace, formal lawns and planting around the house, herbaceous borders, a tennis court, a croquet lawn, a greenhouse and a series of ponds and rockeries, the gardens growing progressively less formal and wilder as you move further away from the house. 

Beyond the orchard, the gardens look over the Knavesmire, York's racecourse.  I include the photo below mainly because it amuses me to remember a time when my daughter was a few weeks old. We were invited to a wedding reception in the racecourse grandstand building. I asked if there was anywhere I could discreetly breastfeed... and was conducted to a hospitality box with an enormous picture window overlooking the racecourse! Thankfully it wasn't a race day so there was no-one peeping in! 

Spring bulbs in Ilkley

I took my new camera on an outing to Ilkley, on what was promised to be a warm and bright early spring day. It took me nearly an hour to get there (usually a half hour journey) owing to the many roadworks and temporary traffic lights along the route. When I arrived, it proved not to be very warm or very bright over there. Hey ho...

Never mind, I had a little stroll, finding lots of spring bulbs. I've always liked the row of houses on Wells Road, and the green in front was scattered with crocus and snowdrops. Up in Darwin Gardens there were more snowdrops, a broad river running alongside the path. 

The daffodils were a little behind, just coming into flower - by now, these will be gorgeous. 

Incidentally, an apartment in this fine house called 'Hillside', on the edge of Ilkley Moor, was where in 1859 Charles Darwin and his family stayed while awaiting the publication of his book 'On the Origin of Species', which proposed the theory of natural selection in evolution. Darwin's health was poor and he came to Ilkley to benefit from the hydropathic spa, whose spring water was believed to cure illness. 

The Mill Manager's house

The site of Bradford's Industrial Museum holds not only the mill building (Moorside Mill, a worsted spinning mill) but the house where, between 1873 and 1970, the mill managers lived with their families. The house is decorated and furnished as it would have been around 1910 when Thomas Greenwood was the manager. He and his family lived a comfortable, middle-class life, not rich but not as poor as his workforce, who lived in rows of back-to-back cottages around the mill. It must have been a noisy and dirty experience living there, very close to the mill and with only a very tiny garden to buffer it. 

The family furniture would likely have been passed down from previous family members, so is rather more Victorian in style. They probably had one servant: a live-in housemaid, who would have done everything from laying the fires to laundry and cleaning, and some cooking too, though the lady of the house and her daughters would also have prepared food. 

I'm old enough (!) that some of the items around look rather familiar, not so much because we had them in our home when I was a child, but more from my memories of visiting older relatives. We used to go to see an old lady who lived a few doors down from my grandparents. Her parlour was furnished very much in this Victorian style, stuffed to the gills with furniture and knick-knacks and complete with paintings of Highland cows and deer (fashionable because of Queen Victoria's affinity to Scotland). 'Auntie Mary' (she wasn't actually my aunt) always wanted me to kiss her... which I hated as she had whiskers on her chin! 

Elsecar village

This surprisingly tranquil scene was just a few hundred yards from Elsecar Heritage Centre. It is the beginning of the Elsecar Canal, a branch of the Dearne and Dove Canal. The canal network was created to carry coal and other cargo (including pig iron) from the mines and ironworks. The coming of the railways and subsidence from the mining meant that their viability was short-lived. It is only in recent years that they have been restored. 

Across the canal, the spire of Holy Trinity Church stands tall over the village. Built in the early 1840s, it was part of Earl Fitzwilliam's investment in the area. Like Sir Titus Salt in Saltaire, his Christian paternalism meant that he wanted his workforce to have good housing and facilities like schools and a church. 

I wondered if it might be the church that my ancestors attended but I've since researched some of their children's baptisms and it seems they were non-Conformist chapel-goers. The church itself was locked up but there was a pretty angel on a grave in the churchyard. (I love to see Victorian angel statues.) 

From the churchyard you could see an old corn mill, now a craft centre, at the side of the canal. Through a gap in some houses, there was a good view over the lower part of Elsecar village. 

Old Row (below) appears to be one the few remaining terraces of houses that Earl Fitzwilliam had built for his coal miners in the late 1700s. Plain but substantial, stone-built with slate roofs, they must have been rather superior dwellings in those days, each with a private walled yard at the front and back, and an allotment. They are now Grade II listed, reflecting their importance to the history of this area.  I bet they're still quite nice houses to live in. 

Hebden Bridge

On Remembrance Sunday, in the relentless drizzle, I decided to make the most of the atmospheric conditions with a walk along the Rochdale Canal in Hebden Bridge. (I am, as you know, quite partial to a walk along a canal towpath! 😉 ) The view above is the iconic panorama, looking east from the bridge near the centre of the town. Whoever had the idea of painting those windows frames, in the weaver's cottages backing on to the canal, in different colours was a genius! 

The building with the chimney (above) was once a mill, but was damaged in a fire in 1964. It was rebuilt around the chimney and now serves as a nursery, where my younger granddaughter happily spent some of her pre-school years. 

This area (above), in the centre of town, is known as Butlers Wharf, presumably at one time an area where boats unloaded and goods were stored. The existing building, whilst resembling a local mill or warehouse, may I suspect be a new-ish build. It holds retail premises, a restaurant and some apartments, and at one time the local visitor information centre, though whether that is still open, I'm not sure. 

The canal continues west towards Todmorden (and ultimately Rochdale and Manchester), passing various repurposed mill buildings and rows of Victorian terraced houses. It has a very different character from my local Leeds-Liverpool Canal but is equally interesting and scenic in its own way. 

 

Finding peace

Unless you're going to visit Saltaire's church, there is little reason to wander down its drive and round the back of the building. Every time I do venture down there, I'm struck afresh by how peaceful it often is. It is bordered by the Leeds-Liverpool Canal and on the towpath at the far side it can be very busy, but among the trees in the church grounds there is tranquility and beauty. 

The Stable Block cottages, along the drive, have pretty gardens. If I came across this scene abroad I'd be charmed. It's easy to overlook what's under your own nose!