My pilgrimage to the Bronte Parsonage...

In the final week of the semester, I travelled to Haworth, a village in West Yorkshire, to visit the Bronte Parsonage Museum. The museum is the actual family home of the Bronte sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne as well as their parents and brother. (After their mother passed away, their aunt moved in to help the family.) The house exists as it did when they lived there, and features items actually used by the family, as well as some that were recreated to look as they did in their original form...and you know how I feel about that! 💓💓

Emily was the author of Wuthering Heights, one of the first Victorian novels I ever read. As a teenager, that novel had a lasting impact on me and my own writing, but not as much as Charlotte's Jane Eyre, which I believe to be the greatest Victorian novel ever written. I have taught Jane Eyre many times, and I still enjoy it. I also find that even students who would normally be put to sleep by 19th-century lit, actually enjoy Jane Eyre. It was part of my Women Writers syllabus this semester, and I still cried when I read it, even after all this time. So naturally I had to make a trip to the parsonage, even though it is quite a ways from London and required a train ticket. 

I couldn't require it of my students for that reason, and I regret offering it as extra credit, since I think that grants unfair privilege to the wealthier students. However, I would totally advocate for getting this trip funded, particularly if you are teaching Women Writers and including Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre or any Bronte work. Haworth isn't exactly exciting...it's downright sleepy in fact, but it's pretty and has some lovely little pubs and shops. It reminded me of Corsham, a little village outside of Bath that I travelled to for a conference about ten years back. While there I enjoyed a pint in a little pub, and had some nice conversation with some locals who were there. That's something that probably won't happen in London.

Importantly, I learned a lot about the Bronte women and their family that I didn't know, and I came to appreciate the mission of the museum. In addition to preserving the past, it seemed interested in the community and the future. At the time of my visit, visitors were invited to fill out a little form with their concerns about the present and hopes for the future to be placed in an urn labeled with the month. The urns, which will be revisited later like time capsules, are a part of an installation by artist Layla Khoo called Contemplating Hope. They are meant to resemble Anne and Emily's diary papers, which are also on display.

There is a lot of value in this place for students - creative writers as well as Women's Lit scholars. The stories about the family say a lot about the power of imagination and the importance of keeping a journal or diary. When they were little, the sisters and their brother created a whole fictional world, complete with characters and their adventures - and their dad encouraged it, despite being a protestant pastor. When I think of how much is lost due to the digital age, I could feel sad, but then I remember that I too had TV, and I had notebooks filled with characters and stories too. It's not hopeless for my nephews or any kids today. They just need that encouragement.

It was a long journey, and a difficult one due to the effect of the weather on the trains, but I was more than glad I went. I hope to return and spend a bit more time in Haworth - maybe get a room for the night - and return to the museum when I can linger.

See here the drawing room, with a portrait of Charlotte above the hearth. The recreated rooms were accompanied by placards and the exhibition room at the end told the family's complete story. 

In the same room see the table where many of their works were written. (When they first began sending their work out, they went by male names: Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell.)

Many of these objects, including the couch, were refurbished originals. The museum featured original letters, papers, sketchbooks and early copies of their work. There were a lot of other artifacts such as sealing wax, writing implements, and clothing. 

This apostle cupboard was in the family, and is actually described in Jane Eyre, Charlotte was so enamored with it.

Of course I had to get one of the kitchen. The Bronte story though is an important one in discussing women authors, because they would have been distracted from their work by the duties of the household in the same way women still are today. 

This is a copy of a portrait drawn by brother Branwell, who was an artist. He blotted himself out of the picture, but you can still see him as a kind of blurry shadow.

Branwell's story is kind of sad. He fell in love with a married lady he was working for and of course it didn't work out. Afterward, he started having problems with alcohol and drugs. The recreation of his room reflects his troubled later days, and the sketch below is one he drew of death coming for him while he slept. He died suddenly, and though we don't know exactly how, I think we know how.

When I was in this room, the pages of a book on the desk started moving, as if blowing in the wind. 

"The half minute time is up, so come to the scratch won't you."

"Blast your eyes; it's no use, for I cannot come."

In 2017, artist Clare Twomey invited patrons to the museum to help recreate the lost manuscript of Wuthering Heights. Ten thousand visitors contributed one line at a time, and it was completed in 2019.

Some chickens in town. Below a little hotel called Rochester House...there was also a little motel called the Bronte Cottage. The countryside was very lovely, too, and there were many nice views, as the parsonage was high upon a hill.

A lot of adorable dogs seen. Warning...lots of uphill walking, but I think that added to my satisfaction.

The Bronte sisters are in Westminster Abbey, not here, but this was among the most beautiful parish graveyards I've seen.