Scarborough and Luddenden

The Scarborough Evening News has a letter concerning the Spa Coast Protection Scheme:

We are among those approached for opinion on the proposals for the above scheme, formulated by consulting engineers Halcrow Group Ltd. They have two proposals. The first would give the Spa the same appearance as the Marine Drive. The alternative would have a massive concrete retaining wall, instead of the rock armour, extending about 40 metres across the sands and stepped up to about two metres from the top of a new wave return wall.
Perhaps few will share our opinions and the purpose of this letter is really to draw attention to what is proposed. Over the years buildings of character have been pulled down in this town and replaced by concrete monstrosities. Less so in Whitby, which is why it is still picturesque, attracting visitors all year round like York.
Is Scarborough going further down the concrete path to scenic oblivion? Maybe there will be enough groundswell of opinion this time in the press to give our councillors support to insist on a restoration scheme. The Spa scene could attract period dramas which are all the rage and would keep this town on the tourist trail.
That depends on the view from the sands as Anne Brontë would have seen it from her donkey cart in 1849 which is very much as we see it today. And it is not just about period dramas - it is also about buckets and spades. A huge area of sand will be lost forever. [...]
Freddie Drabble
Sons of Neptune Ltd

Not leaving Yorkshire just yet as the Yorkshire Post's pub of the week is The Lord Nelson in Luddenden, a favourite of Branwell's:

Hidden gem is an over-used epithet, but this curious, ancient pub is just that. Tucked away in the tiny village of Luddenden with its tightly packed huddle of stone buildings, it sits squarely opposite the beautiful four hundred year old churchyard and the gurgling beck.
Dating from the early 17th century, it once held a lending library, doubled as a temporary venue for weddings and funerals, and was a sort of Yorkshire Algonquin Round Table, with local artists, poets and writers meeting there regularly, including Branwell Brontë, who in 1841 worked as a clerk-in-charge at the now defunct Luddenden railway station.

Chuck Palahniuk's references to Jane Eyre continue, today on Sea Coast Online in an article about his book Damned:

Madison seems far beyond her years at even the most basic vocabulary level, often stopping her narrative to let us know, "Yes, I do know that word or idea" and the author says that teenagers are like that naturally. It does help to have the narrator self-aware and knowledgeable in a world where chaos, mythology and existential ideas run amok.
"She's sophisticated. We've come to expect a lot less from childhood characters. No one questioned when Jane Eyre spoke in a sophisticated voice when she was 7," says Palahniuk. "We don't expect it from our children but we're more sophisticated as small children before we're dumbed down." (Rachel Forrest)

A couple of recurring references: The Deccan Herald mentions Sonam Kappor's Brontëiteness and the Messenger Post comments on the Brontë influences behind The Mystery of Irma Vep.

Nexus Magazine reviews Jane Eyre 2011 while Let's Rate Movies takes a look at the 1996 adaptation. ........aww and angelicaamanda post about Wuthering Heights. Modern Brontës has a new post by Emily.