The Bronte Society’s response was given to the recent statutory consultation CEP held on the proposals.

The society said while they have a commitment to environmental sustainability and renewable energy, they “are strongly opposed to this development” with concerns about the Preliminary Environmental Information Report (PEIR) – a key document in the consultation on the impact of the development on moorland.

Reporting details of objections on the Parsonage Museum’s social media, they said: “The PEIR does not contain the baseline evidence for any assessment of the effect on Bronte heritage of the proposal and simply claims that ‘effects on the Bronte-related landscape are minor and not significant.’

“We strongly dispute this claim: the moorland between Haworth and Hebden Bridge allows the literary tourist to physically travel through the landscapes of the Brontes’ imaginations and the worlds of their novels and poetry.

“This link between the Bronte texts and the surrounding landscape was noted by Virginia Woolf when she visited Haworth in 1904:

” ‘I do not know whether pilgrimages to the shrines of famous men ought not to be condemned as sentimental journeys.

“‘It is better to read Carlyle in your own study chair than to visit the sound-proof room and pore over the manuscripts at Chelsea.

“‘The curiosity is only legitimate when the house of a great writer or the country in which it is set adds something to our understanding of his books.

“This justification you have for a pilgrimage to the home and country of Charlotte Brontë and her sisters.'”

“Woolf, along with the 70,000 visitors who visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum from across the world each year, clearly understood the inseparable connection between the local landscape and the Brontës, a connection which cannot be dismissed,” said the society. (John Greenwood)

'The Last of Us' Meets 'Wuthering Heights' in This Near-Perfect Gothic Book. (...)

Gothic novels will always be popular. Some of literature's all-time greatest efforts belong to the Gothic genre, from the seminal horror of Dracula to the timeless romance of Jane Eyre. (...)

As the title implies, Mexican Gothic borrows from the rich tradition of Gothic stories to a T. There's a large, tetric manor, High Place, haunted by the ghosts of generations past and very much modeled after the genre's best-known mansions: think of Wuthering Heights, Thornfield Hall, or Manderley. (...)

The Gothic genre has always dealt with themes of class and status. In classics like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, class plays a major role in the central romances between Heathcliff and Cathy and Jane and Mr. Rochester. The differences in standing, background, and prospects complicate the relationship between these couples, allowing the Brontë sisters to provide some very sharp observations that remain relevant almost two centuries later. (David Caballero)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

 Emily Bronte made a very interesting choice when choosing the narrators of this novel and it has always felt like one of the most important aspects of the story to me. Cathy’s servant Nelly Dean tells the story, but it is written down by Mr Lockwood who is renting the house where Cathy once lived. Both arrive with their own biases, Nelly because she was once from the same class as Cathy and then became her servant, and Lockwood, who feels outside the long established families who rule this part of the Yorkshire moors.

The layers of unreliability run throughout, Nelly often not hearing or knowing everything that happened between Cathy and Heathcliffe and Lockwood often interpreting. And the brilliance of this lies in the fact that Wuthering Heights is a novel about being an outsider, so who better to tell it than two outsiders with their own scores to settle, just like Heathcliff.

When Kate, a 47-year-old contract worker came face to face with Charlotte Brontë’s handwriting while visiting Chatsworth House, the avid reader, who counts Jane Eyre as her favourite book, struggled to contain her excitement.

“I had a little bit of a moment,” she said. “I just thought: ‘Wow, that was actually Charlotte Brontë’s writing there on that page.’ That was pretty special.” (Aamna Mohdin)

Durante años hemos repetido casi automáticamente que falta talento. Sin embargo, el informe Hidden Workers elaborado por Joseph Fuller y su equipo en Harvard Business School plantea preguntas incómodas: ¿y si el problema no fuera la ausencia de talento, sino nuestra incapacidad para reconocerlo? ¿Y si nuestros propios procesos de selección, promoción y desarrollo estuvieran dejando fuera a personas perfectamente capaces de aportar valor simplemente porque no responden al perfil esperado? Las hermanas Brontë nos recuerdan que el talento necesita disciplina, curiosidad y trabajo. Pero también ecosistemas donde crecer, personas que crean en él y líderes capaces de mirar más allá de los prejuicios. (Adela Balderas) (Translation)

Releyendo estos días «Jane Eyre», uno de esos novelones a los que el tiempo no consigue envejecer, no puedo evitar evocar la figura de su autora, Charlotte Brontë. Saber quién fue, asomarse a su vida y conocer las heridas que la acompañaron permite regresar a sus páginas con otros ojos. Charlotte Brontë medía poco más de metro cuarenta; sus vestidos, guantes y zapatos conservados hoy en Haworth parecen casi los de una niña. Pero dentro de aquel cuerpo diminuto había una voz que la Inglaterra victoriana no estaba preparada para escuchar. (...) (José María Zavala) (Translation)

Bradford Heritage Festival: Storytelling with Sophia Hatfield

Wed 15 July, 10am-4pm

The Servant's Room, Brontë Parsonage Museum

Listen to Sophia Hatfield’s entertaining take on local stories and folklore - with music, costume and props! Drop in during your Museum visit!

And part of the Haworth Festival and taking place in the Old School Rooms, just across the street of the Parsonage, a new chance to watch Pauline Vallance's What the Brontës did at the Fringe: