Old Bell Chapel on hold while another house has been saved

Old Bell Chapel, the place where Patrick Brontë used to preach in Thornton, has been undergoing repairs for four years, as this article reports. Sadly, the Bradford Council is failing to keep its commitment to the place while the volunteers are wondering whether their work has been in vain.

Volunteers working to preserve links between a village and the Bronte family have criticised Bradford Council for failing to carry out vital work - more than a year-and-a-half after it was requested.
An action group spent four years restoring the grounds of the Old Bell Chapel, in Thornton, Bradford, where Patrick Bronte preached before moving to the parsonage in Haworth.
Volunteers have cleared the overgrown site, repaired graves and headstones, installed lights and an information board and built a footpath to the historic chapel. They are now waiting for Bradford Council to complete the job and build a footpath and install drains on adjacent Thornton Road.
Site co-ordinator Steve Stanworth said installing drains was vital in order to protect the future of the site - which is quickly becoming a magnet for Bronte fans from around the world.
"In February last year I contacted the Highways Department to tell them of the need for a drain and a footpath," he said. "I was told the work would be completed by the end of that financial year. "
More than a year-and-a-half later we are still waiting. If this work is not carried out all the effort we have put in over four years will be in vain. "
Many headstones have fallen over because of the wet conditions in the cemetery caused, in part, by lack of a drain. This is an important site that needs this work doing.
"We spent around £10,000 putting in a path and sandstone worth around £1,000 has already been washed away."
A Bradford Council spokesman said they hoped to do the work later this year. (...)
Patrick Bronte preached at the chapel from 1815 to 1820 and Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne were all born at the parsonage on Market Street.
New volunteers are welcome to join the action group which meets each Saturday at the adjacent St James's church hall from 10am to noon.

We visited the place a few years ago and still found it a bit creepy because of the overgrown weeds and a certain monument on top of a tombstone. Nevertheless, it's an intersting trip as well as a nice little village. We truly hope the Bradford Council will be as good as their word and really start working on it before the end of the year. It should also be fun to join in as a volunteer - it should create a different kind of bond to the Brontë family :) Good luck!


Pictures: On the left, the Old Bell Chapel, today ( source); on the right: the Old Bell Chapel in 2004 (courtesy of BrontëBlog ;))

In similar - only much more agreeable - news: we recently reported the succesful story of Imelda Marsden's efforts to save Thornbush Farm. Today, though more tangently, we have heard of another house being given a grade II from English Heritage. According to the BBC News, Elizabeth Gaskell's house on 84 Plymouth Grove in Manchester, where Charlotte Brontë and other literary figures of the time such as Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray stayed, is starting its way to finally being the literary shrine it should have always been.

The Grade II-listed building, built in the 1830s, is described by heritage groups as second only in importance to the Bronte Parsonage at Haworth in Yorkshire.

It is also one of the few surviving buildings of its type in Manchester.

The property is owned by the Manchester Historic Buildings Trust, which is trying to save and restore it.

If you remember, last March the Lottery Fund and other sources donated over a million pounds to start the repairs, and English Heritage promised funding to come. Here it is, we suppose! It's always such great news to hear of a historic building being saved, especially if it's Brontë-related.

Categories: Brontëana, Patrick_Brontë,Charlotte_Brontë, In_the_News