Exciting times for the Old School Room

Finally, good news for the Old School Room in Haworth. English Heritage has given a £15,000 grant for restoration purposes. In Keighley News:

The money is being provided for the grade II-listed Old School Room and will fund the replacement of windows as a first step towards repairing the rest of the property. (...)
Charity group Brontë Spirit has been campaigning to have the property restored. Currently, it is only partly used as the roof is in poor condition.
Responding to the English Heritage grant, Brontë Spirit chairman Averil Kenyon said: “We’ve progressed from a position where Haworth Parish Church had to consider selling the building as a possible building development site to one of seeing the restoration project become a reality.
“Now we’re a registered charity, have a 25-year lease on the building and have been engaged in meaningful discussions with English Heritage not only about its restoration but about creating a sustainable future for it.
“We have plans to open the building to the public from mid-July until the end of August. These are exciting times for Brontë Spirit and the Old School Room and we’re now extremely hopeful that not only will we be able to restore this wonderful building to its former glory but also to find a use that will sustain it over many years to come. (...)
An English Heritage spokesman said: “The building’s rundown appearance harms the village and the impression left on its many visitors. The grant will go towards new windows for the building’s main elevation to replace those that have been ravaged by years of harsh Pennine winter weather.
“Talks have been taking place between us and Brontë Spirit about the complete restoration and future of the building, and a development grant is being considered so a wider repair project can be moved forward.” (Miran Rahman)

The campaign to save the Red House Museum is not over. The Telegraph & Argus reminds us that there are still quite a few things to be aware of:

Brontë enthusiasts from across the globe are to visit Red House Museum next week to show their support for the closure-threatened property.
Members of the Brontë Society from as far afield as the US will travel to the Gomersal museum, the former home of Charlotte Brontë’s close friend Mary Taylor, on Tuesday.
Kirklees Council proposed closing Red House in January, but following hundreds of objections gave the museum a temporary reprieve while plans were drawn up to find £116,000 a year to keep it open. A meeting will be held on Monday at which a decision will be made by Kimiyo Rickett, assistant director for communities and leisure, on reducing opening hours and staff at the authority’s museums and galleries.
A proposed package of reduced opening hours includes shutting all sites one day week and three two days a week, as well as early winter closing times.
Oakwell Hall House in Birstall and Red House Museum, which recently started charging for entry, would also be closed on weekdays during the winter.
Imelda Marsden, a life member of the Brontë Society, said she would speak in support of Red House at the organisation’s annual meeting today, which will be attended by members from abroad.
She said: “When they talk about closing it, it’s not about the things inside, it’s about the social history of the museum.
“Once it’s gone, it’s gone and we have lost it. We will never get it back. It’s part of the Brontës’ story.”
Mrs Marsden said a Friends of Red House group was being set up with the help of enthusiasts from Oakwell Hall.

Keighley News reports some of the theories linking Jane Eyre's Ferdean Manor to Oakworth's Moor Lodge:

Expansion of an Oakworth tea room and shop complex has seen it renamed after a famous house in the novel Jane Eyre.
Moor Lodge has been rebranded as Ferndean because its proprietors believe the building inspired Charlotte Brontë.
In Charlotte’s novel, Ferndean was the home of brooding hero Rochester where Jane went to become a governess.
Research by local man Ian Howard revealed that the 18th-Century lodge could have been the location Charlotte had in mind.
Evidence of links with the Brontës, Freemasonry and the Knights Templar are outlined on the new Ferndean website.
Moor Lodge, which comprises several buildings, is owned by Scartop Antiques whose original shop remains on the site. It lies on the Haworth-Colne road beyond Ponden Reservoir.
Siblings Mark and Maxine Lodge run their own business, the Balcony Tea Rooms, elsewhere in the complex.
The siblings recently gained permission to open a bar in the tea rooms and plan to offer evening entertainment and weekend events. They also plan to expand the attractions at Moor Lodge – using the name Ferndean – by using some of the empty rooms in the buildings.
One will house a mini-museum devoted to both the Brontës and the lodge’s history, and others will be rented to local artists to exhibit their work.
Ferndean hosted the first Haworth Storytelling Festival last weekend, and a Fairy Festival is planned for August.
A website detailing the existing amenities, ferndeanmanor.co.uk, features several articles of local history as well as work by local artists inspired by the Brontës.
Mr Howard said he stumbled upon the link while taking advertising photographs for Scartop Antiques, and photographs at Moor Lodge for his planned graphic-novel version of the Brontë story.
He realised a cross above the lodge’s entrance was identical to one at the Freemasons lodge in Mill Hey, Haworth.
Mr Howard said well-known local families who used to own the lodge were prominent in Freemasonry, and said there were references to Freemasonry in the novel Jane Eyre. He is continuing his research and will post his findings on the Ferndean website. (David Knights)

The Haworth clamper is known even in Australia. We read in the Sydney Morning Herald:

If travellers decide to act on Simon Goldhill's suggestion to visit Haworth and the Brontë parsonage in Britain (Armchair Journey, Traveller, May 26-27), they may do well to heed advice about parking, if driving there. Haworth is a delightful village in West Yorkshire that oozes Brontë history, but unsuspecting visitors who park at the Changegate car park next to the parsonage (opposite the Edinburgh Woollen Mills shop) need to be aware this is a private car park over which the police have no jurisdiction. Unwitting visitors who are five minutes late returning, have parked slightly outside their space or whose ticket has fallen off the dashboard, will find their car wheel clamped.  (Patricia Farrar)

Culture24 lists several of the present and upcoming exhibitions at the Brontë Parsonage Museum: Costumes from Jane Eyre 2011, until September 20 2012;  Hope's whisper: Rebecca Chesney, June 22 – September 5 2012; Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing, August 31 – September 2 2012; Ways to the Stone House: Simon Warner, September 28 – December 3 2012.

The Iran Book News Agency talks about an Iranian reprint of Chekhov's The Three Sisters:

Chekhov's initial inspiration was the general life-story of the three Brontë sisters, i.e., their refinement in the midst of provincial isolation and their disappointment in the expectations they had of their brother Branwell. 

The Guardian asks readers to add new songs to the list of UK No 1s of the last sixty years published a few day ago and Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights is sorely missed:

Roderick McKie:
"Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights is one of the greatest No 1s of all time. It inspired a lot of female singer-songwriters then (they were thin on the ground in Britian in those days), and continues to do so today."
Peter61:
"1978 HAD to be Kate Bush. When Wuthering Heights was released no one had heard anything quite like it. A genuinely revolutionary sound."
pabloelbrujo:
"Groundbreaking on so many levels."
Silgen:
"1978: Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush became the first self-written No 1 by a British female artist. A single that changed the musical landscape, inspiring dozens of female singer-songwriters. And who do you pick? John bloody Travola and Olivia Neutron Bomb? Jesus wept."  (Adam Boult)

The Liverpool Echo lists several Liverpool apperances in literature:

Brontë has a very famous allusion to Liverpool in Wuthering Heights (1847). It is the place that Heathcliff is found as a wail.

The Glenwood Springs Post Independence talks about a curious local reading initative: the Alex Project which among other books includes Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights;  The Sylvia Plath Info Blog describes a wak to Top Withins from a Sylvia Plath perspective; Farid Zaine Informativo (in Portuguese) posts about Jane Eyre films; Tiny Library reviews Agnes Grey; Scribble Sketch Press has bought an old copy of Jane Eyre.

The Festival du Film de Cabourg will present Jane Eyre 2011 in France (where amazingly it has not been premiered yet). The film is scheduled next June 13. À Voir À Lire reviews the DVD French edition of Wuthering Heights 2009.

Finally, we present you this Pinterest board (maintained by the people of The Brontës Tumblr) that we are sure you will find interesting.