A story of the loss of a public cultural and heritage resource

Dewsbury Reporter has an article on the sale of Mary Taylor's Red House.

The Spen Valley Civic Society hopes that the new owner of Red House Museum in Gomersal will give the historic building “the tender loving care it deserves.”

The Grade II Listed building, which was owned by Kirklees Council, was sold at auction for £650,000 last week.

Once the home of Charlotte Brontë’s friend Mary Taylor, the museum closed its doors in 2016 and was earmarked for a wedding venue years later but this plan fell through.

The council announced last year that it was looking to dispose of several assets when it was facing a £47m deficit, although local community groups hoped that Red House could be saved.

A spokesperson for the Spen Valley Civic Society said: “For all those local residents who campaigned to keep the Red House open as Spen Valley’s local museum and Brontë site, its sale for £650,000 is the end of the story.

“A story of the loss of a public cultural and heritage resource. The Civic Society would like to see some of the proceeds being used for other public resources in Spen Valley, such as Spen’s Town Hall in Cleckheaton.

“We hope that the new owner of The Red House will respect its historical value and give the building the tender loving care it deserves as a Grade II Listed building.” (Adam Cheshire)

Offaly Express features the presentation of Martina Devlin's novel Charlotte at Crank House.

The Banagher Brontë Group welcomed famous author Martina Devlin to Crank House on Saturday afternoon for the launch of her acclaimed book “Charlotte”.

James Scully warmly welcomed Martina and the audience to the launch of “this wonderful book.”

He gave some background information about what Banagher Brontë Group is. “We are an organisation founded in December 2023 with the aim of highlighting the connection between Banagher and the famous Brontë literary family from Haworth in Yorkshire, England.

“This connection began in 1845 when an Irish curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, who had grown up in Banagher, became the new curate helping Patrick Brontë, incumbent curate of Haworth and none other than father of the famous writers, Anne Brontë, Emily Brontë and Charlotte Brontë. This same curate, less than ten years later, in 1854, became the husband of Charlotte Brontë and he brought her to Banagher on their honeymoon.”

James said the Group has enjoyed a great year and has been very active. “We visited Haworth. We took part in the St Patrick's Day Parade in Banagher. We have a growing collection of tapestries and marionettes. We have a number of plans for the future. And now we are delighted to welcome the acclaimed novelist and Irish Independent journalist Martina Devlin to our town for the launch of her highly-praised novel 'Charlotte'. I first met Martina in the summer of 2021 and I was delighted when she said Mary Anna Bell Nicholls, who lived in Cuba Court House here in Banagher and became the second wife of Arthur Bell Nicholls, was going to feature prominently in her novel 'Charlotte'.”

The audience was then treated to a fascinating and detailed interview process between Maebh O'Regan of Banagher Brontë Group and Martina Devlin, during which Martina revealed her incredibly extensive knowledge of the Brontës.

Maebh began the interview by saying she had hugely enjoyed the novel. She asked why was Martina so interested in the Brontës?

Martina said her deep interest goes back to her childhood when she read 'Jane Eyre' and loved it. “Many things struck me when I read the novel, many lines leapt out at me, including the powerful line spoken by Jane, 'I am no bird and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.' I loved that fierce, independent spirit. It was very attractive. In a way my novel 'Charlotte' is an act of homage to 'Jane Eyre'. 'Charlotte' also grew out of the fact that I wanted to draw people's attention to the huge Irish connection, the huge Irish influence in the Brontë story. Take for example the gothic elements in Jane Eyre or in Wuthering Heights, I think there is something very Irish which has inspired those elements. Also, Charlotte's father Patrick, who was from County Down, was well known for being an excellent storyteller. I think the Brontë sisters may have imbibed some of that genius for storytelling from their father.”

Maebh said Martina's novel is told from the viewpoint of Mary Anna Bell Nicholls. Why was this?

“The more research I did,” replied Martina, “the more pivotal Mary Anna seemed. She met Charlotte and Arthur when they arrived in Dublin on their honeymoon. She spent some of their honeymoon in Cuba Court with them. Mary Anna was young, 22, and I thought it must have been quite dazzling for her to meet one of the most famous female novelists in the world. It would be like a young woman meeting Tom Cruise in Banagher now!

“The novel covers quite a long time frame. There was the nine months of Charlotte and Arthur's marriage. The years that followed fascinated me and I wanted to tell the story of that.”  (Read more) (Derek Fanning)

WFSU features the students and teachers of the University of South Florida’s inaugural Taylor Swift class.

"We collaborated and talked about Swift as like a savvy Victorian novelist -- going back to the Brontës, actually, in some ways -- talking about all her re-recordings and marketing strategies in the context of 19th century publishing," she said.

The elective class, LIT3301, rotates topics based on interest. The idea for a Swift class came when the trio was having lunch one day in the month of – you guessed it – August.

But Jones, an associate professor, explains that while some thought the idea was legendary, others deemed it unnecessary.

"There was a letter to the editor in the Tampa Bay Times about how it was sort of an embarrassing thing for USF to be doing,” she said. “Like, back in the day, professors taught real things like Shakespeare and Milton and Jonathan Swift and the Brontë sisters." (Mahika Kukday)