Ma Look What They Have Done to My Moor

Good news for Brontë country residents and visitors. Like all fairy tales featuring an evil character, the Haworth clamper tale seems to have reached its happy ending (we hope). The Telegraph and Argus reports:

Wheel clampers who act like “modern-day Dick Turpins” will be banned from operating on private land under a new law welcomed by former Speaker of the Commons Betty Boothroyd, businesses and visitor attractions in one of Bradford district’s most important tourist honeypots.
Campaigners have been battling for more than a decade to rid Haworth’s notorious Changegate car park of its clampers, following years of negative publicity about how their behaviour drives away tourists.
It is hoped there will be a boost in visitor numbers to the famous village where the Bronte sisters lived, when clamping on private land becomes a criminal offence later this year under the Protection of Freedoms Act.
Those who have fallen victim to the Changegate clampers include the former Speaker of the Commons, Betty Boothroyd, who was clamped in 2008 while visiting Haworth with a friend after their valid parking ticket fell face down on the dashboard of their car to obscure it.
Welcoming the new legislation Baroness Boothroyd, told the Telegraph & Argus: “It is about time. People have been taken for a ride by these cowboys for too long.”
The life peer added: “They are just cheating the public. I was very annoyed about it at the time and have had masses and masses of letters since, from overseas visitors to Haworth, about these people who have thoroughly shamed the area by what they have done.”
At the time, car park owner Ted Evans accepted that the pair had bought a valid ticket but said it had not been displayed properly.
Stephen Whitehead, a trustee of the Brontë Society who has been campaigning for a change in the law for more than a decade, said: “There has been a catalogue of complaints against the Haworth clampers.
“I have seen old men shaking and old women crying after receiving a punishment that was completely disproportionate to any crime they may have committed. Because it has been so outrageously administered, it has given Haworth national and international publicity – which has been totally negative.
“Everyone involved with the tourist industry in Haworth has been affected because it has stopped people coming.
“This will remove that blight from the village.” (Marc Meneaud)

Picture source

And more local news as The Telegraph and Argus also mentions that artist Ashley Jackson is now backing the protests against the planned wind farm on the moors.

A famous Yorkshire landscape artist is backing an anti-wind farm campaign, describing controversial plans for wind turbines in Brontë country as “money-making vandalism”.
Watercolour painter Ashley Jackson contacted the Thornton Moor Wind Farm Action Group following concerns that plans to put up turbines will “desecrate” views believed to have inspired Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights.
Mr Jackson, 70, said: “As a 16-year-old boy I wrote in my sketch book that I wished to create with a brush what the Brontë’s did with a pen. I cannot then stand back and watch as the landscape that inspires me is desecrated by concrete and metal. These windmills on the moor have been set in tonnes of concrete beneath them. What happens to this when the windmill is no longer productive. Who will remove this from our landscape? Man is destroying the world and this is money-making vandalism."
Mr Jackson has allowed the campaign to use one of his watercolour paintings on their campaign literature. The artwork, called ‘Ma Look What They Have Done to My Moor’, formed part of his 2010 exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London.
Anthea Orchard, chairman of the action group, said: “Mr Jackson contacted us after the media coverage of the test mast because he was so concerned about what was happening and the damage to the moors.
“We are delighted that he is supporting us.”

South from Haworth is Stevenage where

The street names were also themed. One area paid tribute to great British women: Brontë's Pass, (unintelligible), Elliot Road, Austin Pass, Siddons Road (David Greene and Gary Younge on NPR)

Litte Rock Books Examiner reviews the novella Waltzing with the Wallflower by Leah Sanders and Rachel Van Dyken:

Aside from the title, which ingeniously targets chick lit lovers the world over, the premise of the book sounds like a combination of “Jane Eyre”, “Cinderella”, and “Pygmalion”, mixed with a dash of “Emma” for good measure. (Jennifer Lafferty)

A chemistry teacher recalls a funny anecdote on Corante's In the Pipeline:

But when I came back for the Thursday session, the first first wave of ether vapor washed over me and nearly stretched me out on the tiles. I taught the entire lab from the hallway, shouting and waving like Monty Python's "Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights". (Derek Lowe)

New York Irish Arts reviews William Luce's Brontë. A Portrait of Charlotte. Jane Eyre 2011 is reviewed by  Daily Movie Review and Maksquibs Cinematheque. Alekseypavlovic posts in Turkish about Wuthering Heights 2011. Reader's Reach writes about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Diamante Literário posts in Portuguese about Juliet Gael's Romancing Miss Brontë. And finally Flickr user Ferndean Manor has uploaded a picture of the moors.