Joanne, a tireless Brontë traveller based in Lancashire, often shepherds Brontë fans around the places she knows so well. She and I discussed the possibility of organising a trip together.
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| Joanne and Helen in action |
Up until 2019, I used to visit Haworth each June for the Brontë Society’s annual get-together, when trips would be organised to places in Yorkshire and beyond. Other BBG members often joined me. This annual gathering has since been discontinued and I have missed the excursions, in particular.
I found the prospect of organising such excursions myself daunting until Joanne encouraged me. The Brontë Society committee members who used to organise them had years of experience and the local knowledge that I lacked; Joanne had an intimate acquaintance with the places and contacts that could open doors.
She also has a car, and on a recce on a few freezing cold days in March this year she was my indefatigable chauffeur. By that time, I’d decided on a three-day programme with a Charlotte day, an Emily day and an Anne day.
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| Oakwell Hall guide Mandy reading from 'Shirley' |
Part of the Charlotte day would be spent in “Shirley Country” – the area in the Spen Valley where Charlotte and her sisters attended Roe Head School, and where she often stayed on visits to her friends Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. The Emily day, of course, would be based in Haworth and the moors. Equally inevitably, the Anne day would take us to Scarborough, some 100 miles from Haworth.
Doing a recce with someone like Joanne who has visited every place with even a remote Brontë connection was uniquely informative for me personally, but it posed a problem for me as trip planner. After my whistle-stop tour of Shirley Country with Joanne, I had to narrow the itinerary down to one that could be done comfortably by a group of Brontë enthusiasts, rather than Brontë nerds.
Joanne and I had stopped off to look at churches where Patrick Brontë had been the incumbent, graves of people in the Brontës’ circle, and houses where these people lived. For example, we’d worked out where to get the best view of the Red House, the home of the Taylor family. For years it was a lovely museum which I often visited with the U.K. Brontë Society, but it became a private residence after the local council withdrew funding.
Since the group would have only a few hours in Shirley Country, the painful task facing me was to exclude from the itinerary many of the places Joanne and I had visited! Even so, our coach had to stop off and find somewhere to park at four different places. We were lucky in our pleasant and unflappable driver, John. In my choice of coach company, I was advised by a past organiser of Brontë Society excursions.
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| Joanne and Helen at Roe Head School |
Joanne’s contacts, built up over years of trying to get access to Brontë places, got us into the Roe Head School building where the Brontë sisters studied. Recently Joanne has also forged a close connection with the newly-opened Brontë Birthplace in Thornton, where she works as a volunteer guide. Having visited it with her ahead of the official opening on 15 May, I knew I had to take the group there.
One of the most satisfying aspects of organising the trip, for me, was being able to bring the group into contact with local enthusiasts as well as showing them places. There is something unusual about what can be called the Brontë “community.” All great writers have their fan clubs, but the Brontës seem to exert a uniquely emotional appeal, and Yorkshire is of course proud of its most famous literary family.
From my experience of Yorkshire people, I had expected warm welcomes at the places we visited, but those we received far exceeded my expectations. At the Birthplace, we crowded into the little house together with a veritable delegation of patrons, committee members, staff and volunteers, who seemed as delighted to meet us as we were to be there with them.
Wherever we went, those hosting us seemed thrilled to meet us. Mandy, our guide at Oakwell Hall, had prepared sprigs of rosemary from the garden stuck to little cards for each one of us. Lauren, chair of the Anne Brontë Association, had gone to endless trouble preparing our Scarborough programme. This included Emma Conally-Barklem reading her poems at the Maritime Heritage Centre — a chance to meet one of the Brontë community’s creative people whose work is inspired by the family.
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| Helen MacEwan thanking Emma Conally-Barklem for her poetry reading at the Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre |
Another creative person the group spent time with was the multi-faceted Michael Stewart, Haworth resident, author, guide, speaker and creator of the Brontë Stones project, who led group members on a walk to Top Withens and also gave us a talk.
There is a “Brontë industry” which has made Haworth into a bit of a theme park, but there is also the individual zeal driving ventures such as the Anne Brontë Association; thanks to Lauren, the Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre now boasts an “Anne Brontë corner.”
I’ve written to thank the people who welcomed us on our tour, and their replies indicate that the Brussels Brontë Group has left a good impression and lots of goodwill in Yorkshire. The success of a tour is at least in part down to the participants, and we were lucky to have such a wonderful and special group of people making the journey from Brussels.
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| Brussels Brontë Group members at the Parsonage |
Helen MacEwan
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