The Parsonage

I've had a great day out with pal Chris today. We had a muddy walk across to Haworth and a tour around the newly opened Parsonage, home of the Brontes. It has just reopened after Christmas and an extended closure for re decoration. Apparently they found some remnants of original wallpaper and have had them reproduced, as well as painting other rooms in colours of the day. I wanted to make the visit as I have just enjoyed reading 'The Taste of Sorrow' and wanted to re acquaint myself with how the author used the available source material in this fine novelisation of the lives of the sisters. Haworth is very much a pretty tourist village these days but in the time of the Brontes it was a hellish place with many families living on subsistence and open sewers running down the streets. One theory why the sisters died young is that the water supply to the house was housed in lead pipes and also runs through the graveyard you can see in the blip.

Whenever I visit I am amazed at the tiny, tiny books which the young Brontes wrote on scraps of paper. They lead such isolated lives as children that they created imaginary worlds such as Angria that they would escape into. These books have to be viewed through a magnifier and, even so, they are still extremely difficult to read.

I stocked up on postcards and fridge magnets then, after soup and a cuppa and a browse around the gift shops, we headed home.