POETS of the future took their inspiration from which the past in Haworth at the weekend.

The Poetry at the Parsonage returned to the Brontë Parsonage Museum and nearby venues following its successful debut last year.

The Old School Room, once used by the Brontë sisters, saw more than thirty poets from across Yorkshire perform as part of an open mic event.

This was compered by Gill Lambert and Mark Connors of Word Club in Leeds.

Meanwhile, some of the nation’s most respected poets led workshops for poets of all ages and backgrounds before performing their own work in the evening.

The poets included Patience Agbabi, Kei Miller, Clare Shaw, Zaffar Kunial and Jacob Polley, together with the museum’s Creative Partner for 2017 Simon Armitage.

On Sunday, 30 people joined Simon and members of the museum team on a ‘Wandering Bard Walk’ from Luddenden Foot to Haworth.

The 11-mile walk ended in the Branwell Suite at the Old White Lion where Simon read from his work.

Poetry at the Parsonage was organised by Diane Fare, Outreach and Events Officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

She said: “It’s been a really successful weekend. Over 30 poets of all ages and backgrounds participated in the Open Mic event which was brilliantly compered by Gill Lambert and Mark Connors.

“We’ve also had some great feedback from the people who attended the workshops and the Poetryopolis reading in the evening was completely spellbinding.

“It was a privilege to welcome such a stellar line-up of poets to help us commemorate Branwell and we look forward to working with them again in the future.”

Parsonage staff last week spearheaded celebrations to mark the bicentenary of Branwell Brontë’s birth, with events in Haworth and beyond.

The week began with with a ‘birthday breakfast’ at Branwell’s birthplace in Thornton, now Emily’s Bistro.

Attendees enjoyed coffee and pastries while Ann Dinsdale, the museum’s principal curator, shared her experiences of “living with Branwell Brontë” during her 27-year career at the museum.

In Haworth, visitors were treated to a talk about Branwell and the opportunity to watch Simon Zonenblick’s new film about the Brontë brother, entitled A Humble Station?’.

Those with artistic flair also had the chance to paint themselves (or Branwell) back into the famous Pillar Portrait during a drop-in workshop.

The day was wrapped up with the unveiling of a new Branwell flower bed planted with vibrant, flame-coloured species symbolising how the Brontë brother’s creativity fired his sisters’ imagination.

Participants in Poetry at the Parsonage included Cumbria-born writer Jacob Polley, who recalled the time as a teenager when he ‘accidentally-on-purpose’ took a copy of Jane Eyre from his secondary school.

The TS Eliot prizewinner lead a workshop entitled Small World, where he looked at the micro-decisions people made when they wrote poems.

Patience Agbabi led a workshop entitled Telling Tales – Page To Stage focusing on her modern-day interpretation of Chaucer.

Patience is a poet much celebrated for paying equal homage to literature and performance, and is a leading proponent of the spoken word scene.