The Brontës, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre

Cowan Bridge and the Clergy Daughters' School

Cowan Bridge was the site of the Clergy Daughters' School attended by Charlotte and Emily Brontë, the notable 19th-century writers, and their older sisters Maria and Elizabeth, who died after experiencing harsh privations at the school. There is a plaque commemorating this association on the former school building, which partially survives. The churchyard of St Peter's Church, Leck, has graves of several of the children who died at the school.

Charlotte described the abuses, the typhus epidemic in which seven pupils died, the scandal which followed, and subsequent reform of the school in Jane Eyre. The character of Helen Burns is based closely on Charlotte's sister Maria. The Reverend Brocklehurst is a portrait of William Carus Wilson, who managed the school in the Brontës' time. On publication of Jane Eyre, women readers who had attended the school confirmed Charlotte's account of the regime and conditions.

The Clergy Daughters' School still exists. It was moved to Casterton shortly after the scandal. In 1840 another typhus epidemic struck 70 of the pupils, claiming the lives of three. By 1857 Dorothea Beale was teaching there. It was apparent to her that while some of the physical circumstances had improved since Charlotte's time, the spiritual aspects had not changed. When the Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell was published, Beale began to write her own unfavorable impressions of the religious education imposed at the school.

Wycoller Hall and village

The pretty hamlet of Wycoller lies 4 miles east of the town of Colne in Lancashire. This sleepy village now forms part of a beautiful country park. Wycoller is probably most famous for its Brontë connection. Today Wycoller Hall stands in ruins but this 16th century hall is believed to have been the inspiration for Ferndean Manor in Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre. The Brontës lived at Haworth, not far from Wycoller, and Charlotte would have passed through here on her way to Gawthorpe Hall when she went to stay with the Kay-Shuttleworths. Wycoller Hall perfectly fits Charlotte's description of Ferndean Manor when approached from the old coach road.

Originally owned by the Hartley family, the hall was extended in the late 18th century by its last owner, Squire Cunliffe. A keen gambler, Cunliffe also borrowed money against Wycoller Hall to fund the building work. He died heavily in debt in 1818. After his death, stones from the Hall were plundered to build nearby houses and other structures. The hall subsequently fell into ruin.

Ponden Hall and Mill

In the early 19th century Ponden Hall held what was reputedly the largest private library in Yorkshire, having a particularly fine collection of books (a catalog still exists), including a Shakespeare First Folio. We know that Emily visited and read here and scholarly studies have been made of the catalog to discover what she might have read that could have influenced her work. It's highly likely that Anne, Charlotte and Branwell visited too, as the Heatons were one of the foremost families in the area. For generations they acted as Justices of the Peace and churchwardens at Haworth Church. In the 19th century the Heaton family were textile manufacturers, particularly wool. With the death of Robert in 1898, the last surviving Heaton male, the Hall was sold. The final Heaton male, George Smith Heaton, died penniless at the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum in Victoria, Australia, on February 12, 1901.

The hall saw regular visits from Brontë children as they and the Heaton children would regularly play together. In the back garden are the withered remains of a now-dead pear tree, supposedly the gift of a lovesick teenage Robert Heaton to an older, uninterested Emily Brontë. Linking the house with the mill was a long, tree-lined driveway, passing through the area now occupied by a reservoir.

Ponden Mill, at the bottom of the hill from the house, manufactured cloth used by the army for its uniforms. During the Napoleonic wars (1803-1815) the Heatons' fortunes continued to boom as a result, but later, cheaper imports of cloth from the Indian subcontinent meant they could no longer sustain the mill, and it was eventually sold off, beginning the Heatons' slide into relative poverty.

The Pennine Moors

The Brontë sisters lived most of their short but dramatic literary lives in Haworth. In 1847, Charlotte published Jane Eyre, Anne published Agnes Grey and Emily published Wuthering Heights, but within eight years all three had died. The moors surrounding Haworth are synonymous with their lives and the literary works that they produced. Wuthering Heights in particular is full of the places and landscapes inspired by these bleak, brooding and desolate moors. "It is impossible to walk across the open moors for long without starting to feel the stir of wild imaginings, a longing to fill it with stories big and bold enough for the job, and to people it with characters strong enough to infuse its unforgiving acres with life."

Charlotte Brontë, talking about Wuthering Heights comments that the novel "is rustic all through. It is moorish and wild and knotty as a root of heath. Nor was it natural that it should be otherwise; the author being herself a native and nursling of the moors. . . . Ellis Bell did not describe as one who found pleasure in the prospect; her native hills were far more to her than a spectacle; they were what she lived in, and by, as much as the wild birds, their tenants, or as the heather, their produce. Her descriptions, then, of natural scenery, are what they should be, and all they should be."

The Brontë Parsonage Museum

The parsonage was built between 1778 and 1779. In 1820, Patrick Brontë was appointed perpetual curate of St Michael and All Angels' Church, Haworth, and arrived at the parsonage with his wife Maria and six children. It was to be their family home for the rest of their lives. Its moorland setting had a profound influence on the writing of Charlotte, Emily Jane and Anne. Patrick Brontë was a published author of poetry and fiction and his children grew up accustomed to the sight of books carrying their surname on the parsonage shelves.

On September 15, 1821, Maria Brontë died of cancer, and her unmarried sister, Elizabeth Branwell, came to run the household, exchanging her comfortable home in Penzance for the harsh climate of a bleak northern township. In 1824 the four oldest sisters left Haworth, to attend the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, near Kirkby Lonsdale. Maria was sent home ill and died at the parsonage in May 1825, aged eleven. Ten-year-old Elizabeth was returned home shortly after and died on June 15.

In 1846 Charlotte, Emily and Anne used part of their Aunt Branwell's legacy to finance the publication of their poems, concealing their true identities under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Poems was published by Aylott and Jones, but only two copies were sold. Charlotte's first attempt at writing a novel for publication, The Professor, was rejected by several publishing houses, before Smith, Elder & Co. declined to accept it but were encouraging enough for Charlotte to send them her next work, Jane Eyre. It was accepted and published on October 19, 1847. Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey had been accepted by the London publisher, Thomas Cautley Newby and appeared as a three-volume set in December 1847. After Anne's second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Charlotte and Anne were forced to reveal their true identities.

Their brother, Branwell, who had become dependent on alcohol and opium for solace, had developed tuberculosis and died suddenly on Sunday, September 24, 1848, aged 31. Emily was also dying from the disease, and never left the house after Branwell's funeral. She died aged 30 on December 19, 1848. Anne too had tuberculosis and was taken to Scarborough to try a sea cure but died four days after arriving on May 28, 1849, aged 29 years (Anne's gravestone mistakenly marks her age as 28 when she died).

Charlotte finished the novel Shirley, begun before Branwell's death. It was published in October 1849. Her last novel, Villette, was published in 1853. She married her father's curate Arthur Bell Nicholls in Haworth Church on June 29, 1854. She died on March 31, 1855, in the early stages of pregnancy, three weeks before her 39th birthday. Patrick Brontë lived at the parsonage for six more years, cared for by his son-in-law, and died there on June 7, 1861, at the age of 84.

After Patrick Brontë's death in 1861 the contents of the parsonage were auctioned. Friends and servants sold keepsakes and letters. In 1893 the chief librarian of Bradford Library held a meeting suggesting that relics, letters and documents relating to the Brontës should be collected and preserved for posterity. The Brontë Society was founded at a public meeting and a collection of Brontëana was started. By 1895 it was large enough to be displayed in a museum above the Yorkshire Penny Bank in Haworth. The society attracted 260 members, and about 10,000 visitors visited the museum in its first year.

Sir James Roberts bought Haworth Parsonage in 1928 for £3,000. He equipped it as a museum and gave it to the Brontë Society. Henry Bonnell of Philadelphia bequeathed his collection to the society in 1926 and it was transferred to the parsonage when it opened, making it accessible to Brontë scholars. The collection has grown and been supplemented by loan materials. The society has about 2,000 members. The mahogany desk at which Charlotte wrote her novels, which had been in private collections for more than a century, was donated to the museum in 2011 by a donor who purchased it anonymously for £20,000 in 2009.

Haworth village

Haworth is the epitome of Emily Brontë's legendary Wuthering Heights. There's an enchanting mystique to the wild and rugged moors that surround this beautiful village - you can practically hear the echoes of Catherine and Heathcliff around every cobbled and heather-strewn corner. Prepare to fall in love with Haworth and its living, breathing past.

Haworth's heart is its stunning Main Street. In summer it's a buzzing hive of activity with shops, crafts and tea rooms, and magnificent moorland views that compel visitors to pause for a photo opportunity practically every other step. During the winter months, wonderful rolling mists cloak the landscape making it easy to lose yourself in your own imagination: have you really just stepped straight into a Brontë novel?