Meet the Taylors!

An alert from the Red House in Gomersal:

Meet the Taylors!
Saturday 11th July 2009, 12:00PM - 4:00PM

Discover a host of costumed characters from Red House's past as you stroll around the period garden. Mr & Mrs Taylor, Aunt Laetitia, Charlotte Bronte's friend Mary Taylor and eccentric servant Hannah will all regale visitors about 19th century garden fads, flowers, fashions and some gossip too! (Walks take place all afternoon and last around 25 minutes).

The Morley Observer & Advertiser gives further details:

AT the final weekend of the Period Garden Paradise Festival at Red House in Gomersal this Saturday and Sunday (July 11 and 12), visitors can enjoy guided tours, music, activities, displays and talks in a stunningly beautiful setting.
After enjoying a period-style drink visitors can 'Meet the Taylors' on a stroll around the garden - a host of costumed characters from Red House's past, including the Taylor family, will tell them about 19th century garden fashions, flowers and some gossip too.
Walks, lasting around 25 minutes each, will take place throughout the afternoon. There will also be also herbal-scented craft activities, croquet on the lawns, a garden discovery trail and children's activities - and visitors can take home a free period garden information pack to inspire them in their own garden.
On Saturday, July 11, The Valley Flutes will provide soft music in the gardens from 1pm-4pm. Then on Sunday, July 12, there will be an afternoon of brass band music when Slaithwaite Brass perform in the gardens (weather permitting) from 1.30pm-4pm.
Also on Saturday, July 11, there will be a talk, Herbs: Magic in the Garden, at 2pm by Sweetie Ruttan of Country Pie Herbs, which will reveal the hidden secrets of herbs. These mysterious plants have been important since ancient times for cooking, scent and medicine.
Sweetie will enthral with herbal folklore, growing tips, history, medicinal uses and beliefs. Tickets cost £2.50 and prior booking is essential on 01274 335100 as places are limited. Access is by stairs only. Sweetie's unusual range of herb plants will be for sale after the talk. Country Pie Herbs will also have a stall.
The Festival is open daily Monday-Friday, 11am-4pm, and Saturday-Sunday, 12noon-4pm. Admission to the museum on Oxford Road and actvities, apart from the 'Herbs: Magic in the Garden' talk, are also free.
Red House is the period home of woollen cloth merchants the Taylor family. Charlotte Bronte was a great friend of Mary Taylor and visited Red House often. She later featured Red House as Briarmains and the Taylor family as the Yorkes in her novel Shirley.

For more information, check this excellent article published on BBC Bradford & West Yorkshire where Helga Hughes, Museum Officer at Red House is interviewed. (Picture source)

EDIT: More information in The Dewsbury Reporter.

Categories: Alert, Brontëana