Charlotte, Anne & Emily Bronte - Walking in the footsteps of the Bronte Sisters.

The rolling hills of West Yorkshire, beautiful yet harsh and bleak, home to three sisters that use their life experiences and its wild landscape to create some of the greatest novels in the world that still resonate with the 21st century audience. In this video we're going to walk in the footsteps of the Bronte sisters, piecing together their fascinating but tragic short lives as we travel around Yorkshire to some of the places they lived or frequented, places you can explore when you next visit Yorkshire. We have come to Thornton just outside Bradford. Patrick Bronte an Irish Anglican priest was curate at this church in 1815. We are walking through what's left of the original St James church locally known as the Bell Chapel. Patrick lived just half a mile away with his wife Mariah and their first two almost unknown children Elizabeth and another Mariah. It was in this small house on Market Street Thornton that Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne were born between 1816 and 1820. The house is now marked with a blue plaque and until recently was a coffee shop that inside still retained some of the originality of their time there. The children were christened at the church. Today not much is left as a new church across the road was built in 1872 and this one fell into disrepair. The new St James church holds inside the original font used by Patrick to christen the children, his writing desk and wash basin. Sadly even though it should have been open the church was locked on the day of our visit. In 1820 Patrick was offered a new permanent position as curate of St Michael and All Angels church in Howarth. It was perfect timing as the property in Thornton was far too small and cramped for the family of eight. He accepted the post and moved his young family. Howarth in the early 19th century comprised of a line of dirty damp stone cottages cut into the steep Pennine hillside separated by a cobbled road on main street. It was a poor industrial mill town and fast becoming disease ridden due to the contaminated water supply and inadequate sanitation. Today this picturesque village is a mecca for Bronte fans across the world. Excited to experience a small piece of the Bronte's life in between the distractions of the independent shops, cafes and bakeries. Many of the buildings that the Bronte's frequented when arriving in Howarth still exist. We will have a full walking tour of the village later in the series, so make sure you are subscribed and have the notification bell ticked so you don't miss it. Poking out at the top of the village is the church of St Michael and All Angels. Patrick took up his post and would officiate here for over 40 years. A perk of the job provided him and his family with the parsonage just a few steps away through the graveyard. The entire family would live here for the rest of their lives. The home was comfortable and even though he employed two servants they were by no means rich. Domestic help was cheap and Patrick's small church wage had to support the whole family. The female children would have had daily chores to complete. What we see today is larger than when they arrived in 1820. A new right wing was added a hundred years after their passing. The Bronte society maintains this special home as a museum with a wealth of artifacts and personal possessions on display. Whilst we'll see some of them during our video, we will cover an in-depth room by room tour of the house in next week's video. You can book a visit to the house from this website. Note it is closed on a Monday and Tuesday each week. Settling in an exciting new chapter for the children was about to begin. Living on the doorstep of the moors as their playground and a larger more comfortable home over their heads. This euphoria quickly evaporated when in January of 1821 Mrs. Bronte fell gravely ill with what's widely believed to have been uterine cancer. By spring all six children had contracted scarlet fever and Patrick was struggling to manage the family, all of which were still under eight. Mrs. Bronte's sister Elizabeth Branwell arrived from Penzance Cornwall to take charge. The children recovered but Mrs. Bronte would live for just a few more painful months, dying in the house on the 15th of September with the family around her. She would become the first to be buried in what would become the family's vault at the Howarth Church. Elizabeth stayed and continued to care for her dead sister's family. Whilst it was meant to be a temporary arrangement, after three failed attempts by Patrick to remarry, Elizabeth would remain for the rest of her life. Patrick had come from a poor Irish background but working hard and ambitious he obtained a scholarship at King's College Cambridge and then became successful within the Church of England. This background allowed him to take on the full-time schooling of Branwell in an era when education was not compulsory. Whilst most other children in Howarth would be working in the mills or on a farm, the Brontes were luckier and could attend school. For the girls this was the newly opened school for poor clergyman's daughters at Cowan Bridge, Lancashire, some 50 miles from Howarth. It promised to equip them with an education to become teachers or governesses. Maria and Elizabeth arrived first, followed by Charlotte at the age of eight and Emily three months later aged six. Today all the remains of the school is a line of cottages that form holiday lets. Back in 1824 it was a strict disciplined institution and would become immortalized as the terrible Lowood school in Charlotte's Jane Eyre. Conditions were poor and death was all around them. An outbreak of tuberculosis raced through the school and Maria aged 11 was sent back to Howarth where she quickly died, followed just three weeks later by Elizabeth aged 10, both following their mother into the family vault. An extremely traumatic time for the family, losing the three eldest female members of the household in just four years. Patrick immediately removed Charlotte and Emily from the school and thankfully they'd not contracted the disease. Schooling would continue at the Parsonage, assisted by Aunt Branwell. Cocooned in the house the four remaining children became close. It was a long time before Patrick allowed the girls to attend proper schools again to complete their education. Mrs Bronte's death hit Patrick hard as you can imagine, but he still managed to encourage the creativity and education of his offspring so that they would become successful and able to make their own ways in life should marrying into wealth not happen. In this room the children began to develop their talents, sparked by the purchase of a set of toy soldiers for Branwell. An account by Charlotte tells us that they each claimed a soldier giving them names and creating a world around the little wooden toys called Glass Town. They would act out scenes and later began to write down the stories in tiny books intended for the soldiers to read and tiny enough that Patrick was unable to read their tales with his poor eyesight, he surely would have disapproved. It's incredible to think that the beginnings of their love of writing and the novels that they later produced started in this tiny room. At 14 Charlotte left the protection of the home to complete her education at Rowhead School, Muirfield, which sadly we could not visit. She would meet her lifelong friends Mary Taylor and Ellen Nussie at Rowhead. She ended up becoming a teacher and brought Emily and Anne with her as pupils. Emily couldn't adjust and with extreme homesickness returned back to Howarth after just a few months. Anne was more determined and managed two years. Over the coming years the girls would try various teaching and governess roles as a way of making money. Charlotte desperate to be writing but circumstances requiring her to teach. Many of these experiences are reflected in the novels. Patrick's eyesight was failing and they were acutely aware that should he go blind they would lose the parsonage and be on the streets. They even tried their hand at opening a school of their own in the parsonage, assisted by money from Aunt Branwell. Charlotte and Emily traveled to Brussels in February 1842 to improve their language skills. This is the actual chest Charlotte purchased whilst away. However by October Aunt Branwell was taken ill and quickly died before the girls could make it back. She is buried in the family vault. Charlotte returned to Brussels but Emily would remain as housekeeper at the parsonage. Ultimately the school opening failed as no pupils could be found. What of Branwell during this time? His father had taught him at home employing a local artist to provide all the children with art lessons, something Branwell enjoyed and this developed into his enthusiasm for art and architecture. In 1834 he painted a portrait of his three sisters. He included his own image but became dissatisfied with it and painted over it. It's become one of the most famous portraits of the Brontes, you can see the original at the National Portrait Gallery. Coming of age and with the family's high expectations that he should provide, he set up as a portrait painter in Bradford. The reality was that whilst he could draw he wasn't very good and returned home in debt within a year. After several other career failures he turned to drink and drugs. This is the black bull at the top of main street in Howarth. From outside almost exactly as Branwell would have seen it as he walked in and staggered out regularly. This chair in the parsonage museum collection is believed to have been his favourite chair from the black bull from which he would drink himself into a stupor. Across the road is the cabinet of curiosities which in the Brontes lifetime was their local apothecary. It was from here the family could obtain medicine and cures for their ailments but for Branwell it was a shop to obtain laudanum, the victorian version of opium as it's known today. Inside you can still see the victorian wooden glass cabinets and drawers salvaged from chemists, grocery shops and museums to give you a feel of what it would have been like as you browse the eclectic mix of oils, bath salts, creams and other extraordinary gifts. It's a wondrous place to visit. By the summer of 1845 all three sisters were back at the parsonage and out of work, a bleak time indeed. They had been writing stories and poetry since they were children and when Charlotte found a manuscript of Emily's poems the thought of becoming published writers came to her. Using a legacy from Aunt Branwell and publishing under male pseudonym names for fear of being rejected as women, a book called Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell appeared in 1846. Currer was Charlotte, Ellis was Emily and Anne was Acton Bell. There were some positive reviews but only two copies were sold. Nevertheless, encouraged that they'd been able to publish, all the sisters began to The drawing room was where they did much of their writing, sitting together, gathering ideas, scribbling notes and correcting each other. Charlotte used her experiences in Brussels to write a love story called The Professor, set in a Belgium school. Anne wrote Agnes Grey, the story of an unhappy governess. Emily wrote Wuthering Heights, the doomed love between Cathy and Heathcliff. Anne and Emily's work was approved for publication but Charlotte was disappointed that her novel had been turned down by several publishers. Patrick Bronte was diagnosed with cataracts and following a successful operation in Manchester, Charlotte helped him recuperate. During this time sitting in a dark dining room with him hours on end, she created the masterpiece Jane Eyre. The first publisher to read it pounced on it and published it with huge success in October 1847. Agnes Grey and Wuthering Heights would finally be published in December of the same year. All three sisters were now published novel writers, yet no one knew who they really were. The success of Jane Eyre heightened the interest in Agnes Grey and Wuthering Heights. Speculation was rife with many believing the books were penned by one person. The wild and harsh moors graphically described, particularly in Wuthering Heights, were the sisters playground just steps away from the parsonage, the Howarth Moors. You can take a circular walk directly from Howarth to Top Withens where it's believed Emily found inspiration for Heathcliff's home, Wuthering Heights. The longest walk starts right at the parsonage and takes around one hour and 30 minutes to reach Top Withens or as we did you can park at Pennystone Hill Country Park which reduces the time to one hour and a three mile walk one way. If this still sounds a lot then maybe just head to the Bronte waterfall bridge and chair just 25 minutes from the car park so you can be back in a little over an hour. We put on our hiking boots and headed the full circular route from the car park to Top Withens. Remember to check the weather conditions as it can change quickly. Warm clothing, raincoats and some water are a very good idea. There is a phone signal in many areas of the moors should you have an issue and of course plenty of other people are making the trek as well. As we take in the scenery let's continue to piece together the potted history of the Bronte sisters life story. In June of 1848, Anne's second novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, graphic tale of a violent alcoholic, was published and widely believed to be based on Bramwell's drink and drug addiction. As speculation over who was writing the books continued, Charlotte and Anne traveled to London and revealed their identities to the publishers. Emily had refused to go wanting to remain anonymous but even after the reveal to the world Emily continued to write as Ellis Bell. So just in the distance just up there there's a tree that is Top Withens and that's where we're heading where Emily Bronte had the inspiration for Wuthering Heights. Hopefully we can get up there. Pretty rocky and at some point this is the path that they would have taken to come here across the moors and get their inspiration for their novels. Life appeared to be improving for the family with income from the book sales assuring them some stability but the death that had followed them throughout their lives was about to strike another tragic blow. Bramwell died suddenly in September, aged just 31, possibly through alcohol poisoning or some say tuberculosis. His body laid to rest in the family vault a few days later. Shortly after Emily and Anne both became ill, ultimately dying of tuberculosis. Emily passed away at the Parsonage on the 19th of December 1848, aged just 30. Anne thought she could fight it with a sea air cure and left for Scarborough with Charlotte on the 24th of May 1849, but died four days after arriving at the age of 29. She would be the only family member to be buried outside of Haworth in St Mary's Church Scarborough. Charlotte's decision to spare her father further anguish from another funeral. We have reached the Bronte bridge and the Bronte waterfall which is more of a trickling stream, maybe due to the dry summer. There is a chair shaped stone called the Bronte chair which people like to believe Charlotte came and sat on to write. Someone has engraved her name on it. It's a pretty bridge and people like to come on picnic in this area. We'll continue up the steep incline and head on towards Top Withens. Charlotte's life became more comfortable due to the income from her novels, but without her sisters she became desperately lonely. She threw herself into working on her third novel Shirley as a distraction from her loss. This is Oakwell Hall in Birstall, a beautiful Elizabethan manor house. Charlotte knew the area well as it's not far from Rowhead where she studied and later worked as a teacher. Her lifelong friends Ellen Nussie and Mary Taylor were also close by. Charlotte visited the hall in the 1830s when it was a school and was so inspired by its beauty that she featured it in Shirley as Field Head, the home of the heroine Shirley Kielder. The property is quite stunning and free to visit. It has so much more history to explore even with its special connection with the Bronte sisters. We'll cover this in a full visit later on the channel. Nearby is Gommersall where Mary Taylor lived and Charlotte visited many times. The Red House as it's known was once a museum but sadly closed down. Charlotte used her experiences here to create Braemains and the Taylor family became the Yorks in the novel. By October 1849 Shirley had been published but it was never as successful as Jane Eyre. Her final novel Villette was published in 1853. We are now closing in on Top Withens. This second part of the hike is more rugged and strenuous than walking to the Bronte bridge. As you get higher the wind from the exposed moors starts to hit you. The landscape is truly wild and desolate. So again ahead of us at the top there you can see the tree and the ruined farmhouse that's where we're heading. Hello! The last big push now I think, climbing all the way to the top. Reaching the derelict house on Top Withens we arrive where Emily is believed to have come. Even though this building bears no resemblance to the Earnshaws home as described by her in Wuthering Heights, it could have been in her mind as she peered out across the moors, maybe on a day very much like today. The ruin lies on the famous Pennine Way. Such is the interest for the Brontes in Japan that some of the signs are translated in Japanese. The two trees beside the building are called Cathy and Heathcliff and on her birthday each year flowers are left by the trunk. We've reached the halfway point on the map and now start to turn back heading towards Stambury. Our route is stunning and being downhill a bonus on the legs. So just ahead of us you can see the reservoir and then just to the left some lovely little houses and white buildings. That's the village of Stambury and that's where we're heading now for a well-earned pint. Hopefully if it's open at the Wuthering Heights pub. A fitting end to our walk here in Bronte country. Leaving the village behind us on the final part of the walk, we pass the lower Laith reservoir. Quite low at the moment due to the reduced rainfall this year and it's one final push up a steep hillside back to the car park. The walk has taken us three hours without the pub stop. It was tough at times but so worth the experience, not just for the Bronte link but to explore some of the moors Yorkshire is famous for. We highly recommend you put on your boots and try at least some of it when you visit. This is the study of Arthur Bell Nicholls at the Parsonage. He had been assisting Patrick Bronte as a curate for a number of years and in 1854 proposed marriage to Charlotte. Whilst Patrick was initially against it, he eventually came around to the idea and they were married in Howarth church on the 29th of June. Their happiness would be short-lived whilst in the early stages of pregnancy, constantly sick and becoming weak, Charlotte died on the 31st of March 1855 aged just 39. A plaque marks where a gate once stood and the body of Charlotte, her unborn child and all the other family members passed on their way to Howarth church. The professor Charlotte's first works would finally be published in 1857, two years after her death. Patrick would live on for a further six years. He commissioned this memorial to the family which you can view in the church. It makes for tragic reading, highlighting the short lives of the other family members. He passed away on the 7th of June 1861 at the age of 84, outliving the entire family. The Bronte sisters saw the cruel side of life and reflected that in their novels. They secured their place in history in Yorkshire forever more. Had they lived longer, what other masterpieces of dramatic fiction could have been written by the three of them? Next time we take an in-depth look inside the Bronte Parsonage with a room-by-room tour, looking closely in the house at the personal possessions and a wealth of artifacts that have been saved and protected. Drawings, letters and clothing give a greater insight to how they lived and became the world famous novelists. Join us again next week.