In 'the wildest and bleakest moors of Yorkshire'

Picture source

The Telegraph and Argus looks back on the early days of the Brontës' Museum and the Brontë Society.

The Brontë Society, founded in 1893, housed its first museum on the upper floor of this prominent building at the top of Haworth Main Street, formerly the Yorkshire Penny Bank and now the Tourist Information Centre, before moving into the Parsonage in 1928.
The building at the top of Haworth Main Street where the Brontë Society housed its first museum
From 1889 there had been a privately-run Museum of Brontë Relics at Brown's Temperance Hotel and Refreshment Rooms in Main Street, an enterprise which also catered for picnic parties and sold Haworth views. Brontë tourism was getting into its stride by then, with hyperbolic touting of "the wildest and bleakest moors of Yorkshire" and a little village "consisting of a church and a few grey stone cottages", although one guide of 1899 more realistically called Haworth "an ever-expanding colony bisected by a railway".
Advertisers played on the Brontës. The Black Bull Hotel was "close to the church and Brontë Museum", the King's Arms "opposite Brontë Museum and church" and the White Lion "next door to Brontë Museum".
Notice, on the left side of the antique shop, the sign pointing towards Colne – a reminder of the narrow corners the traffic negotiated before the opening of the Main Street by-pass in 1974.
The photograph has been supplied by Mr Kevin Seaton, of Shann Lane, Keighley. (Alistair Shand)

But a letter from a reader to the same newspaper brings us back to modern-day troubles:

As a Brontë Society member, I am concerned about our president, Bonnie Greer, and her great plans for Haworth – Greer looks to celebrate anniversaries (Keighley News, December 11).  Do the residents of Haworth really want the village to “buzz all the year round” like the car park of a Californian three-ringed circus?
I would much rather receive information from the Society council as to why our executive director walked out in June.
Ms Greer must not think she can sweep this kind of thing under the carpet. I am utterly tired of waiting for direct explanations.
She must not think she can rearrange the lives of Haworth residents without any direct contact with them all. Please remember, Ms Greer, you do not live here.
William Callagham
Oxenhope

The Courier-Journal recommends the book How to be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life by Ruth Goodman if you are

addicted to reading Victorian era novels or watching BBC period-drama series [and] Can’t get enough of the stories in “Victoria & Albert” “North & South,” “Jane Eyre,” “Wives and Daughters” and “Daniel Deronda” [...] In this very accessible book, historian Ruth Goodman satiates any curiosity you might have about the behind-the-scenes lives of the characters, as the book explores the daily life of a variety of classes during England’s Victorian era. Each chapter covers a range of subjects, such as personal grooming, housework, education, entertainment, meals and nearly every other aspect of life. Recommended for fans of “What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist — the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England.” (Elizabeth Kramer)

The Brooklyn Rail interviews Sade Murphy about her poetry book Dream Machine:

Rail: You’ve mentioned some artists and poets whose work influenced this book, but what other influences were important? How did the media and the larger world factor into the dreams as you experienced them?
Murphy: Very early on in the writing of Dream Machine I was reading a lot of Harryette Mullen’s work , I bought Recyclopedia at the recommendation of an artist I met at VSC. After I was at VSC I also visited NYC for four days and and went to the Frick and the Catholic Worker. I listened to Girl Talk nonstop. I saw the movie Tree of Life for my birthday and that prompted me to see The New World, another Malick film. I was going to mass every week. I think it was also around this time that I got into watching the cartoon Adventure Time. Toward the middle of the manuscript I saw Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights and read a lot of Lara Glenum and Aase Berg. (Laura Stokes)

Rising Kashmir discusses safety for women in India:

One can link this very well to Eva Lennox Birchs’ book Black American Women’s Writing: A Quilt of Many Colours. Birch is quick to point out that black women face double marginalization, one from m (Hanan Fatima)
en and other from white women. She refers to Charlotte Brontë’s books, mostly dealing with the right of a woman to be independent and contrasts it to right of a black woman just “to live”.

The Craven Herald and Pioneer takes a walk:

There are ruined buildings, a pit that once held a water wheel, ruined mine shafts that are best avoided, shaft entrances with gates fitted to keep the public out, and the remains of stone pillars.
Up on the hillside, viewed from the track as it snakes away from the gill and climbs back towards Yarnbury, are a house which was disguised as a chapel for a film version of Wuthering Heights, a tall chimney, and a strange, concrete-looking construction dating from just after the Second World War when the spoil heaps were re-worked for a while. (Lindsey Moore)

Via the Brontë Parsonage Facebook page, we notice that Haworth (misspelled) and the Parsonage were seen on Flog It!, Todmorden Series 9 Reversions (Episode 27) on BBC One.

This edition of the antiques series comes from the impressive surroundings of Todmorden Town Hall in Yorkshire, where presenter Paul Martin is joined by experts Catherine Southon and Adam Partridge. Amongst the treasures brought in are an amazing collection of pristine Dinky toys, a superb quality Chinese jade pendant and a 1920s advertising sign rescued from a bonfire. Paul is delighted to be able to visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Howarth (sic) and see some of the famous family's personal papers.

Bitch Flicks review Wuthering Heights 2011 particularly concerning race and gender issues.