LANCASHIRE has this year claimed the Brontës for itself with events showcasing the siblings’ Red Rose connections.

Pendle Council has just finished its six-month programme of free events to mark Charlotte Bronte’s bicentenary and links with her neighbouring county.

The activities aimed to bring to life places just over the border from the Haworth and Stanbury moors which inspired her writing.

Locations included the atmospheric village of Wycoller with its ruined hall, regarded as the real Ferndean Manor in Jane Eyre.

Pendle Council enlisted its own Brontë enthusiast Sarah Lee to coordinate the programme, working with a tourism officer, walk leaders, artists, photographers and storytellers.

She said: “It’s often forgotten that Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne walked across the border over the moors into Lancashire.

“Wycoller is just nine miles as the crow flies from the Haworth Parsonage.

“Charlotte knew this area well, drawing inspiration from the landscape, turbulent histories, local news and Lancashire folklore.”

The 21 events included Explore The Gothic, a landscape painting and photography workshop capturing the melodramatic nature of the landscape.

Primary school children who lived within walking distance of Wycoller had a Jane Eyre drama workshop, led by learning officer Sue Newby from the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.

The Brontë Society’s youngest member Anna Stephenson portrayed Charlotte Brontë, as painted in the famous JH Thompson, during a ghost walk.

As one of a new generation of Brontë enthusiasts, Anna has been writing magazine features on the Brontë connections with Lancashire and across the border into Yorkshire with Sarah Lee, her mother.

There were walks in Charlotte Brontë’s footsteps along the Brontë Way – which also goes through Worth Valley villages – and Ferndean Way. These included ghost walks looking at hair-raising tales that found their way into the Brontës’ writing.