Sarah Browncross is The Brontë Society’s newly-appointed
communications officer. Here
she pens the first in her monthly Parsonage Museum columns

We have had a wonderful warm summer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum with loads of visitors – and we’ve had lots going on to make the most of it.

All of the staff and volunteers here at the Parsonage have a favourite piece of the collection, from the Brontës’ dog collar to Charlotte’s wedding bonnet or Emily’s sketches, and we’ll be giving ten-minute talks on them at 2pm every weekday in September. Hear a different talk each day then find your own favourite. They’re free with museum entry. Now is also the perfect time to visit our wild meadow. Once the place where the Brontës hung their washing out to dry, it’s now an idyllic patch of nature, where you can enjoy a picnic, hunt for wild flowers or just relax and take in the stunning moors, which so inspired the Brontës.

Our Brontë Meadow is one of our best-kept secrets, and is situated right behind the Parsonage.

This summer has seen the launch of a new West Yorkshire Brontë Society branch, and non-members are welcome to come along and see what we are all about! We’ll be meeting at 1pm on September 15 for a guided walk to Ponden Hall, Emily’s ‘Thrushcross Grange’ – the home of the Linton family in Wuthering Heights.

The Parsonage’s collections manager, Ann Dinsdale, will lead the walk from the Parsonage, pointing out places of interest en route. Ponden Hall’s owners will give a personal guided tour around the house, followed by tea, cakes and sandwiches. Visit bronte.org.uk for further information.

The West Yorkshire Brontë Society is the perfect way for local Brontë fans to get more involved, with future events including a ‘behind the scenes’ visit to the Parsonage, and a private viewing of our upcoming Charlotte Cory contemporary arts exhibition.

Our Heaven is a Home exhibition continues in September. Haworth Parsonage was built in 1778-9 and was occupied by the Brontës from 1820 to 1861, but it is usually forgotten they were not the only people to live here and that other families grew up, and other lives were lived in the house.

The exhibition focuses on the history of the Parsonage, and looks at some of those other inhabitants and how they, too, left their mark on this famous house. It includes oral testimony from Eric Mitchell who, as the son of the first museum warden, was the last child to be born in the Parsonage.

He and his family lived in what is now the exhibition wing, and he tells us all about his childhood wartime memories and what it was like to grow up in a museum.