Channelling the bedtime styling of Jane Eyre

Keighley News reports that the volunteers at St Michael and All Angels in Haworth have been given 'maroon sashes and name badges'.

The eight-strong team of volunteers at St Michael and All Angels in Haworth has been kitted out with maroon sashes and name badges.

Village company Wyedean Weaving produced the accoutrements.

The church attracts thousands of visitors every year, including many Brontë enthusiasts from across the world.

Patrick Brontë was priest there for more than four decades, and most of the family are interred in a vault beneath the floor at the east end of the church.

The tour guides have been showing people around the historic church since 2016.

Wyedean Weaving – better known for the military uniforms, braid and accoutrements it manufactures – stepped in with its offer of help following a chance conversation between one of the directors and a member of the tour guide team, David Pearson.

The Rev Oliver Preston, rector of St Michael and All Angels' Church, says: "We’re so grateful to Wyedean Weaving for providing our tour guides with the sashes and name badges.

"This will properly identify them to the thousands of people from both home and abroad who visit the church each year, and it’s a massive step forward for our wonderful team of volunteer tour guides."

A spokesperson for Wyedean Weaving says: "We’re proud to have played a small part in supporting St Michael and All Angels' Church, which has such deep historical ties to the Brontë family and continues to serve as a spiritual and cultural heart of our community.

"Previously, the volunteers wore small badges that weren’t always easy to spot. After chatting with David Pearson, it was decided that having a sash would be a great idea.

"Using the church’s logo, we created a one-colour print and produced the sashes right here in our mill in Haworth." (Alistair Shand)

The Living Church has an article on reading Jane Eyre in October.

In appreciating Jane Eyre—along with, perhaps, the October mood—I think we ought to remember that it is the Romantic period’s openness to mystery that made this rich Christian work possible in the first place. Brontë’s readers were not interested in dispassionate sermonizing, but they were interested in facing the questions of what lies beyond the grave, and what lies below the surface in the human heart. If we insist upon believing that spiritual mysteries do exist, we should be honest about their complexity, their obscurity, even their darkness. (Abigail Woolley Cutter)

The Spectator celebrates 'The sheer joy of nighties'.

Despite all this, I remain a devotee of nightgowns. There is something magical about them. Putting on pyjamas is just getting ready for bed; putting on a nightdress is an act of whimsy. When you’re wearing a nightie you’re channelling the bedtime styling of Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Eyre and Becky Sharp, even if you are still lying next to someone scrolling through Instagram. Suddenly it all feels glamorous and romantic. It’s like returning to the dressing-up box, allowing yourself a moment of escapism. (Rebecca Reid)