How to Loose your Heritage (and how to recover it)

This is one more example of neglect, short-sighted planning, and a lack of genuine interest in preserving our heritage (except when it generates immediate revenue). The Red House was a very recent example. Now, it's Thornbush Farm, the place where Patrick and Maria Branwell lived after their wedding and where Maria and Elizabeth were born. Shame on you, Kirklees Council, for letting this happen. We read in the Dewsbury Reporter:

Kirklees Council said the demolition of Reverend Patrick Brontë’s former home was “unavoidable.”

The council has approved an application for the partial demolition and rebuilding of the former home of the Brontë sisters’ father in Liversedge.

The site – located at Thornbush Farm on Miry Lane, Hightown – is in “a derelict state following years of neglect and vandalism” and comprises a single storey agricultural building and two small derelict curtilage listed buildings.

The application – submitted by Jan Capital Ltd in May 2024 – proposes a partial demolition and rebuilding of the derelict listed cottages to form two dwellings, and the construction of a two-storey extension on the footprint of the south wing – which was demolished in 2006. It also proposes building a single storey lean-to on the northern gable and converting an outbuilding to be used for storage. (...)

A separate application for listed building consent was submitted at the same time.

In the same document, the council said: “The almost complete demolition of the listed building leads to substantial harm to this designated heritage asset.

“It has been demonstrated that the building is at the point of collapse and is beyond reasonable and viable in-situ repair and therefore it is accepted that the demolition is now unavoidable. 

“The application proposes to rebuild it to replicate its historic form and architectural detailing, with the use of reclaimed materials from the demolition where possible and the reinstatement of the previously demolished wing.

“The submitted justification for demolition is, on balance, reluctantly accepted by KC C&D, with the proposed rebuilding of the cottages going some way towards mitigating the substantial harm.

“Once rebuilt, the cottages will be brought back into use with the reconstruction providing some legibility of the historic form and vernacular architecture.” (Catherine Gannon)

Reading the Application details (2024/62/91265/E) is quite illuminating. Particularly the comments by the Neighbour representations [id 1068840]:

User comments 

Type of comment: An objection 

Do you wish your comments to be published on the website anonymously?  Yes 

The original application was for a 'Bronte Centre' due to the links to the Bronte family. However over the last 18 months the company applying for permission have allowed the grade 2 listed building to fall into disrepair. The building was left unprotected & local children have been allowed to demolish the building & set fires. We personally have had to telephone the police & fire brigade to try & protect the building. A security company was employed to protect the building & scaffolding erected & we have even contacted them to advise that the security fencing had been breached. One Sunday the scaffolding company came & removed the roof covering protecting the building & part of the scaffolding. This again was reported to the police as we thought someone was stealing the scaffolding & metal sheets of roof covering. It is my opinion that there was never any intention to build a Bronte Centre & that the applicants have purposely left the building to deteriorate to the extent that it needed demolishing & then would render the application to be amended to be used for living accommodation. 

Crystal clear.

The Toronto Star interviews the author Su Chang:

Jean Marc Ah-Sen: What fictional character would you like to be friends with?

S.C.: Jane Eyre. I read the Victorian novel in my late teens, first in Chinese and then in English, and was so struck by her strong-mindedness and stubborn individualism. I’d walk around repeating her words in my head, rehearsing to become my own woman. I loved that she was plain-looking, unlike conventional heroines, and that she fended off life’s cruelty with intelligence and integrity. Even as a naïve adolescent, I thought that powerful speech she gave in response to Rochester’s proposal was the sexiest bundle of words a woman could pass on to her lover.

Jane Eyre is also the favourite book by Renee Lai, artist and contributor to Glasstire.

Louder Sound talks about when Kate Bush debuted with Wuthering Heights in 1978:

With Wuthering Heights, her startling, singular voice – which people either loved or loathed; there was no indifference – threw her into the spotlight and under the gaze of a whole nation. Within days of its release, everyone in Britain was aware of Kate Bush – or at least ‘that voice’, and its startling, wailing delivery of the name ‘Heathcliff’. Kate was on her way. (Harry Doherty)

Halesowen News traces a retrospective of the singer:

Sharing a name with the book that it briefly relays the story of, Wuthering Heights is an ample, yet rudimentary, example of many of Bush’s stylism and conventions that can be found throughout her work- mainly the immense theatrical sense. (Jude Marsh)

The Atlantic vindicates the, often undeservedly forgotten, actress Merle Oberon: 

Her work as the tragic heroine Cathy Earnshaw in William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights, arguably her most famous film, transfixed me. At the time, there were few South Asian faces in Hollywood, and the fact that Oberon had managed to break through more than 50 years earlier beggared belief in my young mind. (...)

In this regard, Wuthering Heights was perhaps her most demonstrative showcase. As Cathy, she toggled among moods—stubbornness, determination, heartbreak—with fluency. Today, one might read irony into the fact that Oberon played a character whom Emily Brontë had conceived as canonically white, while Oberon’s white co-star, Laurence Olivier, played Heathcliff, a man of indeterminate racial origin. (References to his potential South Asian heritage abound in Brontë’s text and the 1939 film, which explains some of the resistance to director Emerald Fennell’s announcement last year that she would adapt the novel with Jacob Elordi, who is white, as Heathcliff.) But the honesty Oberon brought to that character’s torment proves that she was the right actor for the part, irrespective of color. (Mayukh Sen)

 Redefining what it means to be a hero in classic literature in Times Now News:

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

This prequel to 'Jane Eyre' gives voice to Bertha Mason, the Creole woman locked away by Mr. Rochester. Antoinette, as she was once known, fights against colonial prejudice, forced marriage, and betrayal. Struggling to maintain her identity, she descends into madness—a victim of patriarchy and racial injustice. Rhys redefines heroism as a fight for self-ownership in a world determined to erase individuality. (Girish Shukla)

Several Italian media outlets report or review the Martina Badiluzzi's Cime Tempestose performances in Naples: 

La regia di Badiluzzi riesce a coniugare fedeltà al testo originale con una visione innovativa, offrendo una prospettiva fresca su un classico intramontabile. Cime Tempestose al Teatro Piccolo Bellini è un'esperienza teatrale che invita lo spettatore a confrontarsi con le proprie passioni e i propri demoni interiori, attraverso una rappresentazione che unisce tradizione e modernità in modo magistrale. (Gianpiero Pagano in Napoli al Teatro) (Translation)

Trasportando gli spettatori al centro dell’universo tormentato di Catherine e Heathcliff, attraverso il racconto dei giovani Hareton e Catherine, la cui relazione è uno dei temi centrali del romanzo, l’adattamento di Martina Badiluzzi offre un punto di vista del tutto originale, inedito finora, capace di calare nella contemporaneità questo classico, così complesso e simbolico, scritto nel 1846. (Napoli Today) (Translation)

Restando fedele al romanzo vittoriano scritto nel 1846 ma al contempo portando sulla scena temi attuali, la trasposizione di questo classico senza tempo parte dalla relazione amorosa di Cathy e Hareton, che si ritrovano a tornare per puro caso a “Cime Tempestose”.
È emblematico che i protagonisti non siano Catherine e Heathcliff, da sempre considerati tra le coppie più romantiche e passionali della letteratura ma in realtà simbolo di un amore distruttore: nella mise-en-scène di Badiluzzi è la seconda generazione essere protagonista, Cathy, la fotocopia della madre Catherine, e Hareton, figlio non desiderato. (Francesca Arfè in Eroica Fenice) (Translation)

Finally, in striking contrast with the news that opened this post, the Brontë Birthplace renovation is nearly complete with photographer Matt Gibbons capturing the freshly restored spaces, including the parlour where the sisters were born. After dedicated work by volunteers and specialists to restore historical features, the birthplace will open to visitors in March/April 2025.