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  • S2 E7: With... Graham Watson - For our final episode of series two, we welcome Graham Watson, author of 'The Invention of Charlotte Brontë', the new, eye-opening take on Charlotte's la...
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Friday, May 16, 2025

Friday, May 16, 2025 7:48 am by Cristina in , , , , , ,    No comments
The Yorkshire Post and many others report that the King and Queen visited Bradford as City of Culture 2025. And then Queen Camilla officially opened the Brontë Birthplace (which is quite a fairy tale kind of happy ending for those who have battled to save it for years, isn't it?). From The Telegraph and Argus:
Queen Camilla officially opened the Brontë Birthplace today and was met by crowds of people lining the streets including a royal superfan with a tattoo of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Royal visit formed part of the celebratations of the district’s year as City of Culture.
The Brontë Birthplace in Thornton – a cottage where the famous sisters were born - is now in public ownership after a two-year campaign which attracted more than 700 investors and achieved national recognition and grants from Bradford 2025, the Community Ownership Fund, the National Lottery Fund and Rural England.
Queen Camilla was met with rapturous applause as she exited her car, with people of all ages and cultures on either side of Market Street eager to meet her.
She took time to speak to those who had waited patiently for her before being shown around the regenerated Brontë Birthplace as she met committee members, volunteers. and was greeted by broadcaster and journalist Christa Ackroyd.
The Queen was shown the original fireplace in front of which the three sisters were born.
Her Majesty also spoke to pupils from St Oswald CE Primary School in Bradford who have taken part in the ‘Be More Brontë’ project – an education programme developed to spark a love of literature and reading and also show that, just like the Brontë sisters, anything is possible with ambition and hard work.
School headmistress, and education lead on the Brontë Birthplace committee, Gillian Wilson, asked the Queen if she wanted to write a postcard message.
Camilla wrote “Be More Brontë” and was complimented by eight-year-old Paige Booth who said: “Nice handwriting.”
The Queen smiled and said: “My very bad writing.”
She later unveiled an easel plaque to commemorate the opening. (Brad Deas)


Also in The Guardian:
The refurbished house in Bradford where the Brontë sisters were born is now welcoming visitors, having been opened on Thursday by the queen.
Nestled in a narrow street in the village of Thornton, the home where the literary dynasty spent the early years of their lives was officially opened by Queen Camilla during her visit to Bradford, this year’s City of Culture, with King Charles.
This follows 18 months of hard-fought campaigning and fundraising to purchase the historic building and transform it into a museum, educational centre and overnight accommodation.
The modest house is where the Brontë sisters Charlotte, Anne and Emily were born and lived with their church minister father Patrick and their brother Branwell. The family, including their mother Maria and two older children, Maria and Elizabeth, moved to the now-famous parsonage in Haworth in April 1820, when Charlotte was four, Wuthering Heights author Emily, two, and Anne, who went on to write The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, just three months old. Maria died not long after the move, aged 38, and the two older sisters both died in 1825, aged 11 and 10.
The building at 72-74 Market Street, Thornton, Grade II* listed since 1952, has had various uses since they left, including housing several butchers and most recently a cafe, which closed down during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A team of campaigners including Bradford-born TV presenter Christa Ackroyd and Nigel West, a volunteer fundraiser who has family links to the Brontës, have worked tirelessly to first buy the building, which went on sale for £300,000, and then raise money to renovate it.
Thanks to a £250,000 grant from the Bradford City of Culture fund and a huge crowdfunding appeal, they hit their £650,000 target. The house will now act as a museum and an educational centre for visiting school groups.
Almost a million visitors travel to Haworth every year, many of them for the Brontë links. The team behind the project is now hoping a good chunk of them will also visit Thornton, six miles away.
From July the house’s bedrooms will be open for overnight stays. The biggest has been called Charlotte’s Room, dominated by a four-poster bed, but in reality it would have been where all six Brontë children slept, with Patrick and Maria next door in what is now known as Emily’s Room. A third, named for Anne, is actually in a part of the building that was added to long after the family left.
West said: “This will be the only place in the world where you can sleep in the same room that the Brontës slept in. Downstairs, in what is now the cafe, they were born on the floor right in front of the fireplace.” (David Barnett)
Martina Devlin writes about the achievement in the Irish Independent.
It’s not often a senior member of Britain’s royal family opens a cultural centre with extensive Irish connections, but that’s exactly what Queen Camilla did yesterday – and the Brontës were the reason.
Those three sisters produced an exceptional body of work which includes Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, jewels in the English literary canon, but they have strong Irish ties through their father.
He was born Patrick Brunty and grew up in the parish of Drumballyroney in Co Down. In time, he became vicar of Haworth, the Yorkshire village where he gave his children free rein in his library and encouraged their creativity.
Patrick had ambitions to be an author himself, and although he never achieved the success of his daughters, he was published.
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A key element of the family’s story is centred on a Grade II* (grade two-star ) listed building in Thornton, near Bradford, where Queen Camilla met volunteers and Brontë enthusiasts yesterday. It has been designated the Brontë Birthplace, Thornton, but when Patrick arrived to take up residence it was a parsonage. With him was his wife Maria and their two young children: a time of hope and promise.
It was mid-May 1815 – 210 years ago, almost to the day – and although Patrick is closely bracketed with the parsonage in nearby Haworth, where they moved in 1820, he spent five productive years in Thornton. In later life, he called them his “happiest days”.
In front of a fireplace in the parlour there, the four youngest children were born – the only four out of six to reach adulthood. They were Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne, and it’s not hard to imagine their laughter ringing through the rooms.
Moves are afoot to twin Thornton with Banagher, another link with Ireland, because the Co Offaly town was an important stop on Charlotte’s month-long Irish honeymoon. It was home to Arthur Bell Nicholls, her husband and Patrick’s curate in Haworth.
Underlining that shared history and those meaningful bonds across the Irish Sea, Banagher Brontë Group representatives travelled to Thornton for the official opening.
Present were James Scully, its chairperson, and Nicola Daly, its secretary and owner of Hill House in Banagher, now Charlotte’s Way guesthouse.
Arthur retreated to Hill House after Charlotte’s death, followed by Patrick’s, and lived there for 45 years until 1906.
With him, he carried priceless Brontë artefacts, including Charlotte’s wedding dress, first editions and a painting of his sisters by Branwell, eventually left to the National Portrait Gallery in London. Many of those “relics” are now in the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.
The Thornton addition to Brontë heritage is part cultural centre, part historic site, part “immersive experience” as it describes itself.
A former butcher’s shop, it is in public ownership for the first time in more than 200 years. This birthplace is a significant site in the Brontë story and played a role in their literary evolution.
While there, Patrick was writing and had novellas and other work published, and his children saw books by him on the shelves.
He had considerably less ability – his work is uneven, heavy-handed in its religious and sometimes political allegory. However, writing was not only in the Brontë blood, through ­Patrick, but demonstrably an achievable goal.
In 2012, the Brontë Birthplace Trust was established to buy the property, by now in poor condition. Crowdfunding has been important, along with support from quarters including Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, and a share offer which raised cash from 770 members.
It was bought in April last year, brought into community ownership, and renovations began. Today, it is furnished to recreate the Brontës’ occupancy and visitors can stay overnight in rooms named after Charlotte, Emily and Anne.
The Banagher Brontë Group and its members made several visits and donated to the project. Coincidentally, one of the key movers in the Thornton initiative has close Banagher associations. Arthur’s Offaly home, Hill House, belonged to ancestors of Nigel West, a Thornton committee member responsible for fundraising
Nigel West’s father inherited Hill House in 1959 from his aunts, the Kerans, relatives of Mary and Arthur’s. The house was sold, but Nigel has an affection for it and is keen to foster links between Banagher and Thornton.
He promises Irish visitors a special welcome to Thornton and said of the royal visit: “It’s a huge endorsement of the community’s hard work.”
Charlotte called their love of writing “scribblemania” and Patrick had the bug too. A story by him was published while living in Thornton, promisingly called The Cottage in the Wood, or the Art of Becoming Rich and Happy; his recipe included God and education.
From humble origins, he transformed his life via education, and it’s a theme in all seven novels published by his daughters.
As for the Brontë Birthplace,Thornton – it’s an example of how a dedicated, determined team of volunteers can change outcomes. Self-made man Patrick would approve.

Pictures of the Brontë Birthplace appear in the latest issue of the Absolutely Yorkshire magazine. 

Great British Life reviews Brontë at Ilkley Playhouse's Wildman Theatre.
The bond between sisters is a strong one, often yielding powerful emotions, fury, jealousy and of course, great love.  As much as the great works that they created, it is the relationships between the extraordinary siblings, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne, that are explored in a fascinating and beautifully written play by Polly Teale.
Opening this week at Ilkley Playhouse’s Wildman Theatre, Brontë is presented as if it were a public rehearsal. 
The fourth wall is broken immediately as director, Chrissie Poulter welcomes in the audience and explains some of the conventions they will be using – the ringing of a bell for example, to signify the change of scene. And then we watch as the actors put on their costumes and rehearsal clothes and start the play.
Central, of course, to this piece are the sisters. Charlotte is portrayed in a stunning performance by Lottie Kingsley who captures perfectly her determination, her perseverance, her longing for adventure and escape and also her common sense and reliability. 
Eliza Wilson is beautifully assured as Emily, as she strives to reveal her unconventionality and rebellious streak and also her mystery.  Both these actors have moments of perfect stillness when they are able to convey simply with a flicker of their eyes an emotion or a thought.  Anne Bronte, the sister least confident in her abilities, is played by Victoria Bandy who manages to play the least well known writer in a manner so compelling that one is newly encouraged to seek out her works.
All of the sisters have to deal with the austerity of their father, Patrick (Patrick Hebbert) and the disreputable and chaotic nature of their brother Branwell (Reuben Baldwin).  Hebbert manages to imbue the bereft patriarch with a slight tenderness to soften his harsh reputation whilst Baldwin’s Branwell is every inch the infuriating louche of his renown. 
That said, once set against the passions and successes of his sisters, it is easy to imagine how he became so disillusioned and frustrated with his own lot in life – so many expectations are heaped on the only son.
Woven into the text of this biographical piece are extracts and scenes from the works of the sisters, and are brought to life in the roles of Cathy Earnshaw and Bertha by Vickie Wooller and Emma Towning. 
These character vignettes serve both as reminders of the novels whilst also revealing aspects of the writers’ characters which manifest through their writing.  And this is the great skill of the playwright, Polly Teale, who has delved deeply into the histories of the women and has striven to understand both their staid sufferance and confinement as well as their expansive imaginations and burgeoning successes.
Painfully and tragically and of course expectedly, there is a sequence of the family’s demise, brightened only briefly by the wittily written proposal scene between Charlotte and Arthur Bell Nicholls  (Eoin Howe) –  reminiscent of Jane Austen’s Mr Collins.
The performances alone here are enough to elicit cheers from the audience, but coupled with the superb writing and well-crafted direction it is definitely not to be missed.  Grab a ticket quickly – word will get about. (Rebecca Carter)
Gramilano gives 4 stars out of 5 to the London performances of Northern Ballet's Jane Eyre.
Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre (2016) returned to Sadler’s Wells during Northern Ballet’s London tour. Set to compositions by Philip Feeney, the ballet explores Charlotte Bronte’s novel through Marston’s deeply honed signature movements and choreography. Jane Eyre retells the story through Jane’s retrospective reflection on her life; in Marston’s prologue, Jane is found by St John Rivers, after she has collapsed around the struggles that have led her to this point. Marston eloquently shapes the male corps de ballet that explores the metaphors of Jane’s conflict, a signature trait which emerges in later ballets, including San Francisco’s Snowblind (2018). Structured as a two-act ballet, the narrative unfolds as a reflection of Jane’s life as an orphan at Lowood Institution, her arrival at Thornfield, and the tragedy (a wedding that gets interrupted by Mr Rochester’s deranged wife, and the fire that destroyed Thornfield and left Rochester visually impaired).
Marston is an outstanding storyteller. At the hands of this pioneering choreographer, nothing is left to chance. The dancers (as metaphors, the young women at Lowood, or guests at Thornfield) move through the choreography which is shaped with meticulous detail. Gestures have meaning, and are used to serve the narrative throughout the ballet. Props, including gravestones, miniature desks, a high-backed chair, also offer references to the context of the narrative, working around a sense of minimalist design. Patrick Kinmonth’s set and costume designs effectively capture the period and the Yorkshire hills. The combination of storytelling in the movements, together with the use of contemporary period costuming and stage design, successfully brings all the various components together. In true Marston style, the presence of an elevated platform at the back of the stage supported a spatial and framing device for the complexity of the narrative to unfold.
Marston’s adaptation of the novel to the stage is easy to follow in part due to the effective collaboration between choreographer, composer and scenographer. Feeney’s compositions are an outstanding element of the collaboration – the motif of the first meeting between Jane and Rochester is truly sublime. In equal measure, the progression of the movement vocabulary as their relationship unfolds through the narrative is sublimely explored. As the relationship becomes closer, the choreography becomes more ambitious, and the composition ties up the ebb and flows of the performance. The unique gesture (hands crossed around Jane’s face) is visible in the first physical encounter and moves through their various duets until it culminates in Jane’s memories and instigates her return to Thornfield. Sarah Chun and Joseph Taylor’s performances on opening night eloquently narrated the transition between their first meeting, to the blossoming of their relationship, and finally the reunion after the tragic fire. As Jane walks into the light, Feeney’s final notes fade away and leave Jane owning her story. In our world, we have come full circle.
Northern Ballet is a joy to watch; each dancer commits to their role in the storytelling that Marston has shaped. Julie Nunes as Adele, together with Harriet Marden (Aunt Reed), Gemma Coutts (Bertha), and Heather Lehan (Mrs Fairfax), have uniquely shaped vocabularies that mark out their characters and create a broad palette of steps to narrate Brontë’s story. They delivered a fine performance. Jane Eyre is a ballet which is quintessentially ‘northern’, and the company showcases its golden ‘Marston’ ballet with flair and mastery. (Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel)
London Theatre Reviews gives it 3 stars. What's really, really funny is the fact that the reviewer thinks  that Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are the same book so that Jane Eyre's partner is no other than Heathcliff.
There is very little dance in the book Wuthering Heights. At the Thornfield Hall, Jane observes people dancing, but she is not part of it. "There was the sound of the piano and the voice of singing; then a pause, and the stately measure of a dance." Dance is stately and performative, but neither emotional nor intelligent in Jane Eyre. Cathy Marston's ballet adaptation, therefore, is an interesting one. Brontë's book portrays a thinking and feeling woman and her inner consciousness expounded in hundreds of pages. It is no easy task to incarnate a fictional memoir so deeply pensive and extensive in words. 
Nonetheless, the piece has strength in storytelling. Marston great command of narrative and is clear on the direction. Young Jane, abused and overlooked growing up in an orphanage, meets Heathcliff, in whom she finds love. Through her journey, she gains strength and hope. There is certainly drama, passion and love, that is also musically persuasive. Phillip Feeney's score has both 19th-century romanticism as well as a modern, suspenseful tone, which the orchestra led by Daniel Parkinson executed near to perfection.
The production enjoys some brilliant moments, especially from the corps. The pass by the orphans and D-men creates a suspenseful feeling and adds force to the narrative. Sarah Chun and Joseph Taylor were strong dancers in Jane and Heathcliffe. Some pas de deux are sweet and playful, and lifts and drags are slightly overdone. The push-and-pull chemistry is palpable. However, there could have been more character building of Jane, especially considering the ending where Jane insists on her reign on the narrative coming out of the dark stage after her reunion with Heathcliff. Throughout the work, Jane has little contemplation, time for herself, and development of her own corporeal language. 
The set and lighting fall flat and do little to imbue a gothic atmosphere in which the piece fails to beat the original. The overall visual design could have given more magic to the piece. 
There is nevertheless, a very solid attempt to recreate a convincing love story, perhaps not Jane's story as told in her narrative, but a timeless drama that is beautiful in motion. (Sam Lee)
Seriously though, can't reviewers do just the most basic research before they attend a performance?

SW Londoner looks at the value of the lost/missing books at the British Library and one of them is a first edition of Jane Eyre.

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