Becoming Brontë Parsonage Museum Director

In The Telegraph and Argus, Rebecca Yorke writes about she came to be Brontë Parsonage Museum Director.

When I was 12-years-old, I dressed up as Kate Bush and lip-synced to Wuthering Heights at a school concert. Little did I know that 40 years later I would be the Director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

A lot has happened in between. I read Wuthering Heights for English A-level and first visited Haworth on a school trip. Aside from the atmospheric rooms of the Parsonage, and a blustery walk to Top Withens, I was struck by the proximity of Haworth to Bradford, despite the fields and moorland that seem determined to separate them.

It would be many years before I returned to Yorkshire. I studied English and Drama at the University of London then moved to Manchester to work as a jobbing actor. [...]

In 1999, I moved to Hebden Bridge and suddenly Haworth was just over the hill. The Parsonage became a place to ‘show off’ to visitors - a world-famous cultural gem on the doorstep. Victoria Wood had written her Haworth Parsonage Guide monologue by this time, and lines including “Charlotte Brontë would probably not be dead if she were alive today” were as familiar to me as “I am Heathcliff” and crept into my head as I wandered the atmospheric rooms.

While my children were growing up, I undertook freelance roles, including organiser of Hebden Bridge Arts Festival. Then, in autumn 2014, I saw an advert for a marketing and communications role at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The deadline was next day, but I applied anyway, not expecting anything to come of it. I got the job and joined the Parsonage team soon afterwards.

It was an exciting time to be working for the Brontë Society. The organisation had just acquired the Brontë family dining table which had left the Parsonage after Patrick Brontë’s death in 1861. On a snowy January day I and the other staff watched it being carried back into the room where Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë had sat at it and written their great works of literature - a special day. Between 2016-2020 we celebrated the bicentenaries of the birth of the Brontë siblings with a high-profile programme of events and exhibitions. It was a whirlwind few years and I was fortunate to meet and work with some incredible artists and writers, including Tracy Chevalier, Simon Armitage, The Unthanks and Maxine Peake. In 2016, Sally Wainwright wrote and directed To Walk Invisible - I can be spotted working in the shop in the closing scenes - and we experienced an upturn in visitor numbers.

Needless to say the pandemic hit us hard. Like many museums, we rely on visitor admissions and though support from the Arts Council and Government was welcome, financial challenges caused by restrictions and fewer overseas visitors meant the last few years haven’t been easy. We pulled through though, and are looking forward to opportunities from Bradford City of Culture 2025 and the Museum’s centenary in 2028.

It’s an honour and a joy to be appointed Director, but like any leadership post, it’s a huge responsibility. The Parsonage team comprises 32 members of staff and over 20 volunteers. They’re fantastic colleagues and I care about their views, wellbeing and job satisfaction. There are over 1,500 Brontë Society members worldwide who help us conserve our world-class collections, plus many thousands of local residents, visitors, fans and online audiences who have a passionate interest in the Brontës and their legacy. That’s a lot of people to keep happy! There are also other stakeholders: the Brontë Society receives considerable annual funding from Arts Council England, in return for which we deliver a programme of events, exhibitions, outreach and learning opportunities, to widen access to the Museum and highlight the contemporary relevance of the Brontës’ story. This makes it a varied, fascinating role, with no two days the same. My aim as Director is to lead the organisation with vision, integrity and respect for what has gone before, while ensuring that we evolve and adapt to meet 21st century challenges. Over the next few years, I’d like to expand our digital offer, engender a sense of pride in the museum in local communities and seize opportunities presented by Bradford becoming UK City of Culture 2025.

In case there are any philanthropists reading this, we could also do with some toilets! I’m mindful that my time as Director will eventually contribute just a few chapters to the Museum’s long history: like those before me I, and our amazing staff, volunteers and trustees, am just a custodian looking after this incredible cultural asset for future generations.

As co-founder of the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, writer Kate Mosse writes in The Telegraph about why now is a golden age for female writers of non-fiction.

Yet women have always been strong in (for instance) the field of biography. Today we have Claire Tomalin and Hermione Lee, but the trend dates to works by women such as Hrotsvitha in 10th-century Germany, Margery Kempe and Anne Locke in medieval England, and Elizabeth Gaskell’s 1857 biography of her close friend, Charlotte Brontë. It’s a reminder of how important it is not only that women be allowed to write and publish, but that their work be kept on the shelves for future generations to find. There are always one or two who will say that a new prize for women reinforces a two-tier system, but if there is a problem – and the figures tell us that, yes, there is a difference in how men’s and women’s work is valued – then you have two choices: to moan about it, or to do something. In the great suffragette motto: “Deeds, not words”.  

Writer Robin Ince writes about the importance of libraries in The Big Issue.

In a recent article in The Guardian, there was an insinuation that adoring books, even hoarding books, was, yet again, a middle-class pursuit. It drew much fury, with many working-class readers explaining that they now surround themselves with books because they were sparse when they were young. Many of those who spoke talked of how vital the library was to their childhood. The discussion reminded me of a book titled Do Miners Read Dickens?, the story of the South Wales miners’ libraries which so shocked wealthy gents – did these grimy men really wish to spend their free time with George Eliot’s Middlemarch or Brontë’s Wuthering Heights? The answer came back “yes”.   

Wuthering Heights is one of '10 Romantic Books That Are Perfect Gifts for Your Valentine' according to Esquire.

10 Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë

Brontë wrote this haunting gothic romance almost two hundred years ago, but its resonance has transcended generations. Wuthering Heights is a tale about the brutish and brooding orphan Heathcliff, who is in love with Catherine, the daughter of the man who adopted him. Their ensuing love affair is complicated by societal expectations and romantic rivals, as well as Heathcliff’s fervent jealousy and desire for revenge. Everyone in this story goes from zero to a hundred. No one is wishy-washy or even has time to think through their actions. Show your loved one your inner passion by reading them the most fervent quotes from this book, and you may just make them melt. (Sirena He)

Eroica Fenice (Italy) has a similar recommendation.