Haworth and Bronte Sisters Sites in Bronte Country

The three Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, painted by their brother Branwell.

The Brontes are described as the world's most famous literary family. Many families have pairs, father and son, but the Brontes were a threesome, all contemporary.

Do as we did and visit other Bronte sites on the way to the Parsonage museum.

Useful Websites

 https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Bront%C3%AB_Country

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Literary_families

See more past and future posts about amusing and amazing places and people worldwide from travelwithAngelalansbury.blogspot.com 

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Haworth and the Brontes in Yorkshire

Emily Bronte's wedding dress, recreated, in the Haworth Museum, .

 I had visited Haworth years ago and visited the Bronte Parsonage Museum. I remembered seeing what I thought was Charlotte Bronte's dress. However, the museum has been extensively adapted and updated. On my most recent visit in August 2023 we saw Charlottle's sister Emily's dress, a reproduction made for a film. It shows the pattern Emily chose, when she bought the fabric for the dress.

The museum is suitable for all ages. For children, in one area there is a dress up corner with a rail of clothes and hats to try on. In another place children were engrossed in creating a poem from a selection of words printed out.

Wikivoyage gives a handy list of annual events.

• Haworth 1940s Weekend. in May. Events take place throughout the village, including vintage vehicle displays, evacuees event, re-enactments, speeches from Churchill, jive dancing, singing and bands playing. (updated Aug 2022 | edit)
• Haworth Arts Festival. A week of music, comedy and other arts in late July. (updated Aug 2022 | edit)
• Scroggling the Holly: a modern pseudo-Victorian ceremony in late November to early December, gathering holly to decorate the town, and parading with brass bands in period costume.
• Haworth Steampunk Weekend. early October. (updated Aug 2022 | edit)
• Torchlight Procession is held over a weekend in early December.

Useful Websites

http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/

http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/brontes/parsonage/parsonage.asp

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Haworth

Up north to pubs and places in Yorkshire

Tourists go to York to see the Cathedral and walk around the ancient castle walls. You can shop in the Shambles and visit a museum or two. Yorkshire also has Bronte country and the steam railways and the railway which goes through Howarth area to the station where the film The Railway children was set. If you have already done that or have family or friends see the Pubs. My friend Tim went to a Methodist school, then a boarding school, called Woodhouse Grove, and the prep school was called Bronte House. Charlotte Bronte was a former governess to the family in the old house. The school now has surrounding modern buildings. Tim recalls stained glass windows.

Unlike London, which has red brick houses built of  clay brick, notice the colour of the grey sandstone walls of buildings and boundary walls.

The Malt Shovel pub. A malt shovel was used for making beer. 

Commonwealth War Graves plaque.

In the town of Baildon of West Yorkshire. Methodist Wesley preached here.

Photos by Trevor Sharot.

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International Women's Day - March 8th, this year and every year

Problem
International Women's Day passed by and I didn't note it. I am a woman every day of the year. However, my friend Jilliana wrote a comment on Facebook on a photo of myself and a friend, so I thought I'd make a note now, in order to be prepared when it comes around next year.

Answers
People I should note:
1 Myself, my mother, grandmother, aunts, sister-in-law, niece by marriage.
2 Famous women I learned about in school: Florence Nightingale; Grace Darling.
3 Famous authors (in their day one might have said authoresses): (alphabetically by surname) Jane Austen; Charlotte Bronte.

4 Women in science: Marie Curie, pioneer in X-rays.

Tips
International Women's Day - a good day to write about and visit and re-visit homes of famous women:
Homes of famous women which I have visited and written about:
UK Charlotte Bronte, Haworth, Yorkshire, England, UK.

Jane Austen house, Bath, England, UK.
A BBC website shows a video of Jane's Austen's desk and around her home.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16302982
Other BBC websites show supposed paintings of her, an analysis of the family nose in pictures of other members of her family, and a waxwork. I suppose eventually they will look for her skull and get a recreation of what she would have looked like.

Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Most men do not live in isolation. So visiting the home of a famous man you are likely to learn about his mother, wife, fiancee or lover, daughter, employee, servant.

For example, visiting the Marcel Proust museum in Prague, Czech republic, I was interested to read about the girlfriends he ski not marry, especially the last one who stayed with him at the sanitarium where he died.

Living women I admire:
Catherine Lim, author, Singapore.
Angela Lansbury, actress, UK and USA, my namesake.

More in Wikipedia.

Angela Lansbury

Books set in your destination

Pick the plot's landmarks by choosing your destination. Benjamin Disraeli (The British Prime Minister in the Victorian era, not his father Isaac Disraeli) said, when I want to read a book I write one. If you want the illusion of creating your own book, here's the solution.

Travellers often pick up guidebooks about the destination from the airport or on the ferry, but what about fiction? Some destinations are obvious places to buy books set there. For example, in the UK, a book by the Brontes when visiting the Bronte museum in Haworth, Yorkshire in the north of England. I bought Withering Heights by Emily Bronte, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and the novel by Anne Bronte. Many homes in the area are places featuring in the novels or were homes of the Brontes or their friends. Dickens features many landmarks. You can do walking tours of London and see sites connected with famous authors, then read the books.

I often visit homes of famous authors. Or pick up the children's or adult's book set in the local area. In Australia I bought Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by their best selling author May Gibbs after visiting a museum about the author and the illustrations of Australian plants.

In the USA I bought books by Arthur Miller, Hemingway, Edgar Allen Poe, and Jack London.

But now here's a new concept. The book which you change by slipping in your location.

The idea of audience interaction dates back a long time. At the Canadian Expo in the sixties you could watch a performance of a play in which the audience voted. So if there were four times when you could vote there were - was it sixteen variations? I'll have to get a mathematics expert to help me on this one. Yes, my tame statistician confirms there are sixteen variations.

Now there's a pioneering story which changes the plot to include local landmarks in major cities. I'd like to change all my books to happy endings. Surprise endings and happy endings. I may not be with the majority on this. Women's magazines require short stories to have happy endings. But films and novels are different.

I think it was one of the great American novels by Hemingway, later made into a film, where studio audiences were shown two variation and asked to vote. To the surprise of the film producers the audiences chose the sad ending. More realistic? The Chinese like classic works to show grim reality. Not me. But I do like local landmarks on my literature.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3172264/Is-ultimate-holiday-read-New-travel-book-uses-GPS-adapt-plot-include-nearby-landmarks.html