THE BRONTES

Famous throughout the world as the home of the Bronte Sisters, the small and simply beautiful town of Haworth is like stepping back in time. This quaint, hilly town with its cobbled streets, boutique shops, tea rooms, apothecaries and Railway Children-style train station is a literary mecca. Visitors flock from all over to see The Parsonage Museum where the three sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte, wrote their novels including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to name a few.

The parsonage where they lived and wrote novels and poetry at night, has been turned into a very well run and perfectly maintained shrine to these now literary giants. You can see the writing desks, the needlework boxes, the clothes and the furniture of these petite ladies as well as diaries, drawings and letters of the talented trio. In addition there are paintings by their wayward but hugely gifted brother Branwell who painted the only known picture of the three sisters together.  Visit The Parsonage (a registered charity) and imagine what hard life was like in the 1800s in rural Yorkshire.  The Bronte Sisters’ final resting place is within vaults of the neighbouring church, where their father, Patrick Bronte, preached.

In the early 1800s at the time of the Brontes, Holdsworth House was owned by the Wadsworth Family. Our diaries of their daughter Elizabeth tell of her having been to see concert violinist Paganini in Halifax – as do the chronicles of the Brontes. So perhaps these ladies, although unknown to each other, shared a theatrical passion and a room in life.

The Bronte Parsonage Museum & Society has a host of events which you might like to visit whilst staying at Holdsworth House. Plus you can buy tickets to the Bronte Parsonage from our reception.

Haworth is an enjoyable 20 minutes drive from Holdsworth House and is the epitome of Emily Bronte’s legendary Wuthering Heights. On the way you’ll pass through enchanting and mystical, wild and rugged moors where you can practically hear the echoes of Catherine and Heathcliffe around every heather strewn corner. Prepare to fall in love with Haworth and its living, breathing past.