Auction day

Today's the day. The Brontë Birthplace auction takes place or has already taken place, though there are no news as yet on the outcome. (Scroll down this post for the EDIT).

BBC News has an article on it.

The historic four-bedroomed house in the Thornton area of Bradford is to be sold after the current owner, novelist Barbara Whitehead, decided to sell up.
The Grade II listed building on Market Street has a guide price of £200,000 and boasts a plaque detailing its link with the famous family.
The authors were born there before the family moved to Haworth parsonage.
Mrs Whitehead sold her home in York to buy the Bradford property with a view to restoring it faithfully to its Georgian splendour.
The aim had been to resell the property to the Bronte Birthplace Trust, but the charity failed to get Lottery funding and eventually folded.
Visitors from as far afield as Japan and America regularly came to the house.
The Bronte family moved into the property in 1815 before their father took them to Haworth in 1820.

The Guardian too writes about it.

A potential literary goldmine - which has fought shy of commercialism since its famous occupants moved out - comes up for auction today in a humdrum list of empty pubs and undeveloped strips of industrial land.
Estate agents are hoping to break a 200-year jinx on the exploitation of 72 Market Street in the Yorkshire village of Thornton, where three of Britain's most celebrated writers were born.
In spite of nurturing Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë through what their father called "the family's happiest five years", the roomy stone-built terrace house has failed successively as a butcher's shop, tourist centre and restaurant.
No beauty, facing straight on to a busy road with only a handkerchief garden overlooking Bradford, it nonetheless has a plaque recording the Brontës' time from 1816 to 1821, when their father was the village curate.
"When you consider that this family gave the world the likes of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre it's hard to believe that the home in which they were conceived and born is still available for private sale," said Tony Webber of Eddison's, which is offering a relatively modest guide price of £200,000. "Just consider how the appeal of the Brontës is global and the parsonage in Haworth, only a few miles over the moors, is one of the region's most visited tourist destinations."
That is part of the problem, according to tourism groups, as the picturesque parsonage surrounded by mature gardens with an authentically wuthering backdrop, has effectively collared the Brontëland trade. Although attempts have made to promote other centres, including Wycoller hamlet and Fieldhead, the home of Charlotte's heroine Shirley, none has broken Haworth's grip on coach parties from as far away as South America and Japan.
The birthplace will be auctioned this afternoon at Leeds United's football stadium in Elland Road, between a couple of lots housing bungalows at Hull and Withernsea on the Yorkshire coast. The four bedrooms, three staircases and a split level dining/sitting room - where the Brontë sisters were born - are being sold by Barbara Whitehead, a writer who reconverted the house from an unhappy spell as two flats. Thornton itself has tended to fight shy of the Brontë bandwagon because of the jams and olde worlde facades that have been inflicted on Haworth. But the village has its own charms - including a steeply wooded valley and a history of curious industries, including the breeding of maggots for medicinal purposes.
Mr Webber said: "It would be nice to see the home purchased and used to further build the Brontë country brand in Yorkshire. Then again, how romantic would it be if a family bought it and their children went on to make an impact in the literary world?" (Martin Wainwright)

While we would love to see more people visiting other 'Brontë shrines' it is easy to understand why most people goes to the Parsonage, especially when they are only mildly interested in the Brontë family. This is where they spent most of their lifetimes and where the biggest collection of Brontëana is kept.

However, we would like to encourage visitors to the area to explore other places as suggested in the article. BrontëBlog has repeatedly mentioned our love for Wycoller, but places such as Thornton itself, or Scarborough - with Anne's grave - or Hartshead or Thorp Green, only to name a few, are truly worth a visit.

EDIT (6:15pm): Thanks to Sarah who has just alerted us to this just-posted entry at the Brontë Parsonage Blog.

There were insufficient bids for Lot 53 today at the auction held in Leeds United's Banqueting Suite at Elland Road. Therefore 'No Sale' was declared for the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton. The guide price had been reduced from £200,000 to £180,000 previously.

It is a place that entails lots of care and maintainance, that's why we were rooting for some official 'body' stepping in. Oh well, we'll see what happens next time.

EDIT (11:45pm): Or maybe it has been sold. Tattycoram alerts us of the following BBC News stream:

A house in Thornton, which was the birthplace of the Bronte sisters, has been bought at auction by a mystery buyer, a property dealer no less.

Or maybe not. The Guardian says:

A two-century jinx on a potential literary goldmine held true today when the birthplace of the Brontë sisters failed to reach its modest reserve price at auction.
Sluggish bidding stopped short of £180,000 for the stone-built terrace house in the Yorkshire village of Thornton - well below offers for humbler bungalows in adjacent lots. Estate agents had sent details to Brontë enthusiasts in the United States and Japan in the hope of hiking offers for 72 Market Street, where the three literary sisters were all born.

We are confused.

EDIT (26/06/07): Continued here

Categories: Brontëana, In the News