Haworth & the Brontes

Haworth is a small village with a population of about 5,000 in West Yorkshire, not far from Bradford. It is located in a set of hills known as the Pennines, just outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The area around the village is often known as Brontë Country, because three famous novelists called the Brontë sisters spent much of their lives there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brontë

http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/visitors/visiting-bronte-country/visit-haworth.asp

one can certainly imagine the dreary conditions upon which the Brontë family would have faced while living here between 1820 and 1861. Rev. Patrick Brontë outlived his wife, who died at a young age, and all of his four children, Branwell, Charlotte, Emily and Anne.

Their austere surroundings, including their Georgian style home, would certainly have encouraged finding and using their imaginations, as there was so little outside enjoyment and nothing much for them to do outside of the basics in their isolated location. Reading, needlework, housework, school studies, and teaching when they were older were their simple pastimes. It’s probably no accident then that they turned to writing and art; becoming proficient in these skills to varying degrees. All, including their father were published authors, though Charlotte and Emily are more well-known.





The Church that Rev. Patrick Brontë presided over, along with the parsonage, is just as they would have been when they lived here. The only things different might be the large trees in the cemetery, which were not there during their lives. The cobble-stoned streets are still here, along with all their favourite haunts. Originally, Haworth was a wool-manufacturing village and is surrounded by the moorland and the Pennine Hills.