THE SUMMER hols are upon us, so I’ve been out and about in the museum this week speaking to little – and not so little - ones about their favourite objects and rooms.

Eleven-year-old Amelia Kerr was visiting with her family from Chester, and had popped into the museum for the second time in a day to take part in the Wild Wednesday workshops we host throughout the holidays.

Local artist Rachel Lee is running Marvellous Miniatures and Pocket Brontës workshops on a number of Wednesdays throughout the holidays, and really enjoys running the workshops because seeing the ways in which children engage with the materials she provides is incredibly rewarding.

Amelia was certainly letting her imagination take over: she’d made a miniature chair, and was off home to create a mini Charlotte Brontë!

Her favourite room in the museum was the dining room, not simply because the Brontë sisters wrote their famous novels in there, but because it was ‘cosy’, and she liked how you could hear the grandfather clock ticking on the stairs.

So all in all, she had a brilliant day exploring the world of the Brontës.

We’re all very excited about a new partnership with West Yorkshire Playhouse, and are looking forward to their Brontë season, which runs from September to October. I shall be booking tickets for Villette, and Wasted – a work-in-progress rock musical based on the Brontës. Too intriguing to miss!

And as a result of this new partnership, from the middle of August through to October half-term, visitors to the museum will be able to enjoy a unique audio experience – listening to a 30-minute contemporary drama written by Emma Adams, entitled Tiny Shoes.

For a small fee, visitors will be loaned an Ipod, and will be encouraged to go and stand in the graveyard and listen to the drama. I can’t wait to experience it myself, especially when the season changes and the days get shorter – it should be very atmospheric.

And finally, staff at the museum were very saddened to hear of the recent death of Eric Mitchell, whose father Harold was – and remains – the longest-serving member of staff at the Parsonage, being its first custodian in 1928, the year the museum opened.

Eric was born at the Parsonage in 1935, in a room that is now the far end of our exhibition room. He had early childhood memories of soldiers who were stationed at the new Sunday School across from the Parsonage congregating in their sitting room, waiting their turn for a bath.

And he also recalled how in the 1940s the museum only closed for one day a year at Christmas, and yet their Christmas dinner would be interrupted on occasion by people insisting on a visit!

It’s always fascinating to hear stories about those who have had a part to play in the history of the Parsonage, and we are very grateful that Eric continued to visit throughout his life, and shared his stories of Parsonage life with us.