Open Heritage Days 2018

A list of Brontë-related places to visit in this year's Open Heritage Days:

‘From Station to Station’: The Whitfield Collection display
Unitarian Chapel, Adams Hill, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 8DY

An amazing opportunity to discover selected artefacts of The Whitfield Collection, Mrs Gaskell’s private collection of books, letters and cuttings!
The Whitfield Collection is Mrs Gaskell’s private collection of books, letters and cuttings.
Visit Brook Street Chapel to see selected items from the Collection, which is usually housed at Knutsford Library, that relate to Mrs Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë and the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth.
Elizabeth Gaskell lived and worked in Knutsford and produced some of her most interesting and important books while living in the town. Many people will know Mrs Gaskell’s work from her novels, but it might be less well known that she was a close friend of Charlotte Brontë and wrote a famous biography about her at the request of Charlotte’s father Patrick. He was impressed by Mrs Gaskell’s honesty and style of writing. The biography ‘The Life of Charlotte Brontë’ was published in 1857, after Charlotte’s death.
This display includes early copies of the biography, letters and photographs.
Opening Times
Thursday 6 September: 1100-1530
Friday 7 September: 1100-1530
Saturday 8 September: 1100-1530
Sunday 9 September: 1100-1300

Great Bridlington
Priory Church Rooms, Church Green, Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, YO16 7JX

Local history and cultural societies will be displaying their work and programme for 2018/9 and they will reveal just how fascinating and varied life in Bridlington has been since pre-historic times.
There will be nine voluntary groups in the Priory Church rooms with displays and power point presentations about the greater Bridlington area. There will be information about other activities taking place around Old Town.
This is a chance to learn about black cannons, kings, a fleeing queen, war heroes, the start of the RSPB, the Lords Feoffees, the Driffield Dodger and much, much more. Discover that Bridlington is two settlements - town and quay.
PLUS a unique opportunity to learn about Charlotte Brontë's visits to Bridlington.
11 am in the Bayle Museum. Hear her novel read by costumed narrators and see the garden seat she sat on.
1.30 pm in Priory Church office learn more from Sue Reeves illustrated talk about Charlotte Bronte's visits.
Full details and times will be advertised widely.
Opening Times
Saturday 15 September: 10.00 - 16.00

The Clergy Daughters’ School, Cowan Bridge
2 Bronte Cottages, Cowan Bridge, Carnforth, Lancashire, LA6 2HS

Your opportunity to see inside what was the Clergy Daughters’ School, Cowan Bridge, attended by Charlotte and Emily Brontë 1824-25 and infamously recounted by Charlotte as ‘Lowood School’ in her novel Jane Eyre.
The Clergy Daughters' School, Cowan Bridge, near Kirkby Lonsdale, was established in 1824 by wealthy Evangelical clergyman and landowner Rev. W. Carus Wilson to provide an education at a very low fee to daughters of poorly paid clergymen; girls who would otherwise probably not have received a formal education. Following the early problems at the school as experienced by the Brontes: the bout of “low fever” and the appalling food & hygiene standards of the early housekeeper, the school must thereafter have gained a good reputation because pupil numbers (girls coming from as far afield as Sierra Leone and the West Indies - probably daughters of missionaries) steadily increased and the school was enlarged in 1828 to hold 90 pupils. The school remained in Cowan Bridge until 1833 when it was moved to larger premises in Casterton.
Moving to the present day: part of what remains of the old school is now run as a holiday cottage (Bronte School House) and we are opening the doors for HODs so that everyone can experience that feeling of treading in the footsteps of the Brontë sisters! Having stood empty for 30 years, this part of the property was sensitively renovated in 2009-10 utilising the traditional materials that would have been used in 1760 when the property was originally built. I hope you agree that we have managed to preserve the historical character of this wonderful atmospheric old building and that it retains a very special feeling! Do come and see/feel for yourself!
Opening Times
Sunday 16 September: 11:00 - 17:00

St Peter’s Church, Kirk Smeaton, Pontefract
St Peter’s Church, Main Street, Kirk Smeaton, Pontefract, North Yorkshire, WF8 3JZ

Open Church 15/09/18 10.00 am - 3.30 pm. Find out about St Peter’s Church historical gems. Bring your own sandwiches or enjoy a Church lunch for £5.00. Kirk Smeaton is the gateway to explore Brockadale Nature Reserve. Toilet facilities available.
St Peter’s Church, Kirk Smeaton will be open on Saturday 15th September from 10.00 am until 3.30 pm for tea/coffee. You are welcome to bring your own sandwiches but there will be a Church lunch available for £5.00 at 12 noon for 12.30 pm. St. Peter’s historical gems include the marriage certificate of one of the Bronte sisters and a very old brass near the vestry door. Brockadale Nature Reserve is on Kirk Smeaton’s doorstep - ready to explore.
Opening Times
Saturday 15 September: 1000-1530

Oakwell Hall & Country Park
Oakwell Hall, Nova Lane, Birstall, Batley, West Yorkshire, WF17 9LG

Enjoy free entry into the Hall over this national weekend celebrating Britain’s rich and diverse heritage. Sunday will also feature traditional craft activities with the Friends of Oakwell Hall.
A stunning Elizabethan manor house with Civil War connections. Now furnished as the Batt family home of the 17th Century, it featured as Fieldhead in Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley. Set in award winning period gardens with adjacent Oaktree café. Explore the country park with its play areas, nature trail and visitor centre gift shop.
Opening Times
Saturday 15 September: 1200-1600
Sunday 16 September: 1200-1600

Gomersal Moravian Church
Gomersal Moravian Church, Quarry Road, Gomersal, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, BD19 4JB

Grade II listed Church, built in 1751 and altered in the 1860s. Displays about the church history, Bronte links and Moravian traditions. Gomersal and the Great War display. Hymn singing. Refreshments and children's activities.
See the Grade II listed Church, first built in 1751 and altered in the 1860s. The building was extensively repaired between 2005 and 2009 with help from an English Heritage grant.
See displays about the history of the Church, and the links with the Taylor family of Red House and Charlotte Brontë.
See the special display about Moravian traditions, including the Lovefeast service and the Christingle.
See the 'Gomersal and the Great War' display, with information about the men from Gomersal who died, and also what life was life for those back home including extracts from the ministers' diary.
Hymns will be sung throughout the afternoon with the opportunity to join in if you want to!
Light refreshments will be available to buy.
There will also be fun activities for children.
Opening Times
Sunday 9 September: 1300-1600

Whitechapel Church, Cleckheaton
Whitechapel Road, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, BD19 6HR

Whitechapel Church has a Norman font, an Ellacombe system of bells, which you can try, the only Brontë grave in Kirklees, three WW1 graves including one for two brothers and stained glass window memorials .
Whitechapel is an historic place of the area and has been a place of worship since Norman times. The present church was built in 1821 and replaced an earlier of one of 1706/7.
The Norman font is dated no later than 1120 and its carvings include Celtic fertility figures which are described by experts as lewd. It has had a chequered history, but babies are still being baptised in it today.
Heaton Chapel, as then known, was built as a Chapel-of-Ease to the Parish Church of Birstall so that ' no man might die without Baptism'. Before 1534 it was a Catholic Church with the Medieval Latin mass. In 1611 James I ordered an authorised version of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer in English which is still in use once a month at Whitechapel. From 1649 to 1660 the church was used as a Non-Conformist Chapel, and it is thought that the font was then removed to the churchyard. Around 1706/7 the church was rebuilt when Dr Richard Richardson was Lord of the Manor and he had a new font made bearing his coat of arms which was placed on the repaired and upturned Norman font used as a base.
Rose Ann Heslip, aged 95, a niece of Patrick Brontë, was buried here in 1915.
The Ellacombe bells were installed in 1937.
Major roof and bell tower repairs were completed in 2007.
Internal refurbishment including rewiring, replacing the heating system, decorating, repairing stained glass windows and enclosing the porch was completed in 2018. The Richardson font is now on a new plinth inside the church.
Opening Times
Saturday 8 September: 1000 to 1600
Sunday 9 September: 1400 to 1630
Saturday 15 September: 1000 to 1600
Sunday 16 September: 1400 to 1630

Further information on The Telegraph & Argus.