Once home to the famous literary siblings – who drew inspiration for their classic works from the neighbouring moorland – it attracts visitors from across the world, keen to see where the sisters wrote and how they lived.

But whilst the past is central to any museum, parsonage bosses are also keen to look to the future.

And the team's ambitious plans were outlined to Keighley MP Robbie Moore during a visit to the site.

He met up with museum director Rebecca Yorke, who showed him around a historic building – bought by the Brontë Society last year – in the village's West Lane.

The three derelict adjoining properties were acquired shortly before they were due to be sold at auction.

They include the former studio of photographer Fred Smith, who was caretaker of the original Brontë Museum when it was situated above the Yorkshire Penny Bank in the early 1900s.

Many of Smith's photographs, which document the Haworth of that time, are now in the Brontë Society archive and it's hoped some will be displayed in the building once renovations are complete.

The premises will also provide additional space for the society's growing archive and team, and offer opportunities for closer engagement with residents and visitors.

Following the release of the latest movie version of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, visitor numbers to the museum have enjoyed a boost.

Mr Moore says: "It was fantastic to meet with Rebecca and hear about the society's exciting plans for the future.

"The Brontë Parsonage is one of the most important literary sites in the country and it was great to hear about the continued success of the museum – particularly following the recent Wuthering Heights film.

"A huge 'thank you' to Rebecca and the team for the update, and tour of the newly-acquired buildings in West Lane which have massive potential. I’m looking forward to seeing the plans progress."

Rebecca says: "We were very happy to welcome Robbie to the museum and have the opportunity to update him on our recent successes and share our aims and ambitions for the future.

"We take our responsibilities as custodians of the Brontës' legacy and as a world-renowned visitor attraction very seriously, and are pleased to have our contribution to the area's cultural offer and economy recognised by our MP." (Alistair Shand)

For many years, Malouf divided his time between Sydney and Tuscany. Later, he returned to Queensland and lived in an apartment tower overlooking the beach at Surfers Paradise, where he first read Jane Eyre as a 12-year-old on summer holidays. (Nicola Heath)

For those unfamiliar with the premise of Jane Eyre, the 1847 novel was written by Charlotte Brontë. (Yes, she was Emily Brontë's older sister.) The story follows the eponymous orphaned character as she enters into service as a governess at Thornfield Hall. There, she presides over the education of an orphaned French girl, Adèle Varens. Adele is the ward of Thornfield Hall's master, Edward Rochester. Despite Rochester's surly demeanor, he and Jane eventually fall in love. He proposes, she accepts—and then a haunting secret from Rochester's past emerges.

The Chateau on Sunset borrows the major storyline and transplants it into the Golden Age of Hollywood. The backdrop is none other than the famed Chateau Marmont, whose history is just as tumultuous as the lives of the rich and famous who have sequestered behind its walls. In Lester's retelling, Jane becomes Aria Jones, an orphan sent from New York to live with her aunt, the mysterious former Hollywood legend Miss Devine Ray, at the Chateau. There, Aria makes it her business to blend in, hiding herself from her aunt's drug- and alcohol- induced stupors and evading the preying, powerful men who walk the halls. Her two closest friends are up-and-coming actresses Flitter Reeve and Calliope Burns. Aria wants one thing: To escape on her 18th birthday and live by the ocean. But all that is thrown to the wind when the hotel is purchased by brooding rockstar Theo Winchester, who promptly moves into the penthouse with his daughter, Adele.

Lester captures the opulence, corruption, glamour, power, success and fear that coursed through the waning days of Hollywood's golden age, transposing characters from Jane Eyre so that the plot is familiar but the story wholly original.

Aria is a compelling character, but not just because she's a sketch of one of my favorite heroines. In the author's note, Lester made the interesting observation that one of the sticking points of Jane Eyre is Rochester and his wife, Bertha. Bertha famously sets fire to Thornfield Hall, which causes Jane to flee and seemingly break up with Rochester. When someone says Jane Eyre, it's usually associated with "crazy wife in the attic." This is where Lester does Aria a good turn.

Similarly to actual historical events, Chateau Marmont does indeed go up in flames—but what happens next is a story that puts the girl front and center. Instead of simply running back to Theo, Aria must decide who she is going to become. And, more importantly, who she wants to become. A wallflower content with operating behind the scenes and being invisible must realize that she's worthy of the spotlight. Lester's book is powerful to me because of the fact that Theo and his ex are the afterthought. The events that lead to the conclusion of Aria's story are unexpected, taking her far from the confines of LA and exploring how satisfaction isn't so much falling in love with another person as it is falling in love with herself. (Marissa Wu)

The Bearden theatre has taken on the production of Jane Eyre, a literary staple highlighting the internal struggles of a young woman set in early 19th century England.

The play follows Jane as she navigates religious and moral hardships stemming from her relationships and conflicting setting. 

A towering chestnut tree roots the audience into the set. The tree is commonly interpreted as a symbol of Jane’s suffering due to Rochester’s villainous wife Bertha; however, Bearden theatre added a layer of emotion in the designing process. 

“In a lot of ways, the tree is also a point of safety for Jane…it’s more of a comforting place for her,” said senior and production manager Addison Pratt. [...]

Altering their own production of Jane Eyre from 2005, the set crew believed introducing the tree could augment an already impressive production. Visually, the set piece adds a realistic element to the stage, framing Jane’s relationship with her setting. The chestnut tree will act as one of many interactive elements within the play. 

“This was a new edition that we added and I think it adds a lot,” Pratt said. 

The set will go beyond traditional physical props moved on and off the stage. Working closely with the theatre department at UT, the crew was able to utilize projection mapping within the show. This technical feature will allow certain visual effects to be precisely projected onto the set, heightening the emotion of the play.

“We worked closely with the Clarence Brown Theatre downtown and have borrowed some projectors from them,” senior and set crew member Alex Mair said. “We’ve used some programs to projection map creative elements onto the stage for certain scenes. 

Added Pratt: “Our team has spent a lot of time really figuring out the different programs that we can use and finding a way to make the projections work really well on our stage, and it looks really cool.”

The theatre department will step away from traditional auditorium seating for the show, as on stage seating deepens the audience-cast connection simply from their proximity to the stage. Both cast and crew look forward to the creative elements that will be in high definition for spectators.

“While I think that traditional auditorium seating is great for big, flashier shows, you just feel so much more involved with the characters [through on stage seating],” Mair said. “You can see every single movement that’s happening, every single little detail, and it makes the story feel a lot more interactive.”

Added Pratt: “It’s definitely a much more intimate experience, which I think is really cool.”

Senior Caitlin Stout appreciates the creative liberty given to the crew throughout the production. Stout believes that as a member of set crew, it was her role to not only produce impressive design elements, but to aid the cast in their presentation. What turned into yet another showing of Bearden’s standard for creative set design first began with simple features for the cast to make their own. 

“We wanted the set to be a canvas for the actors to take on and not have to work around designs within the set,” she said. (Max Mead)

Students from Edgewood High School are presenting “You on the Moors Now” for an upcoming performance.

“You on the Moors Now” is about four women from the 19th century novels that turn down marriage proposals.

The performance tracks Jo March from “Little Women,” Elizabeth Bennet from “Pride and Prejudice,” Catherine Earnshaw from “Wuthering Heights” and Jane Eyre from “Jane Eyre” and follows them figuring out their romantic ideologies.

“It’s really great to bring classic literature back to the stage in a modern retelling of it,” Bella Baldo, who plays Earnshaw, said. “Being able to bring themes from modern culture into classic literature and really they have been there all along.”

Along with Baldo, Daphne Conner is casted as March, Ellie O’Day plays Jane Eyre and Ruthie Brenner plays the role of Bennet.

“I’m really excited for them to see the battle scene because it’s really chaotic and obscured, but it’s also really funny at the same time,” O’Day said. “We have a lot of cool weapons.” (Calahan Steed)

   

Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore (Conservative) introduced a Parliamentary debate considering the impact windfarm development might have on 2,300 hectares of protected peatland.

He argued the case against Calderdale Energy Park’s proposals to place up to 34 wind turbines on Walshaw Moor above Hebden Bridge which will impact on Calderdale and Bradford in West Yorkshire and Pendle in Lancashire. 

Calderdale Energy Park, whose statutory public consultation on the proposals runs until June 10, argues the site is in an area identified for generating on-shore wind power, helping deliver “reliable, home-grown renewable energy, helping to reduce energy costs, support local jobs and strengthen energy security”, the turbines capable of generating up to 240 mega watts (MW) on renewable energy.

But Mr Moore said this would come at a price to protected peatland, including damaging a vital carbon store, among other impacts on nature, and have a severe impact on the setting of key cultural heritage.

Taken together, that price would be too high, said Mr Moore in the debate.

“Understandably, our much-loved Brontë Society is firmly against the proposed wind farm development across our heritage landscape, which encompasses Top Withens, believed to be the inspiration for the setting of ‘Wuthering Heights’.

“That landscape, I might add, has a live application worked up right now for UNESCO world heritage status, along with listed status for Top Withens.

“If this wind farm proposal goes ahead, that landscape will be blighted forever.

“We know that because, even after the decommissioning stage of the wind farm, none of the infrastructure is proposed to be removed, apart from the turbines themselves.

“The road infrastructure, all that cabling and those deep foundations that sit beneath the turbines are not proposed to be removed once the wind farm comes to the end of its life, blighting our heritage landscape and the peat forever.”

Mr Moore said he had invited neighbouring MPs – for Shipley, Calder Valley, Halifax, Pendle and Clitheroe, and Burnley – to the debate and urged them to join him opposing the proposals, but was disappointed only Shipley MP Anna Dixon (Labour) and Calder Valley’s Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour) attended.

Ms Dixon said she agreed with him that peatlands “are crucial in our fight against climate change” and also reduced flood risk, a very evident concern in Calder Valley.

She had been contacted over the proposals by some constituents: “They rightly believe that protected peatland should be protected.

“I agree with them, and I think that the Labour Government, and I hope the Minister, will give the same assurance – I believe that is why there has been a recent announcement that large infrastructure must also be covered by a biodiversity net gain.

“I urge the Government to listen to the arguments made in this debate.

“There could clearly be major negative impacts on our precious peatlands in this area of Yorkshire, and I ask that the Government look carefully and reconsider the proposals.”

Mr Fenton-Glynn, who since the proposals were announced has been under pressure from some constituents to openly oppose the plans, said he knew the moorland well and it was a “uniquely beautiful landscape, resplendent with curlews, lapwings and other moorland birds” though in itself this would not be reason to block the plans as the country needed to ramp up green energy infrastructure.

But following the science should inform the process: “The more we learn about peat and its role in absorbing carbon, the clearer it is that building on peat will do more harm than good,” he said.

Mr Fenton-Glynn said his point was not about a development in Calderdale but about the principle of trying to tackle climate change and looking at that “in the round” with regard to developments on peat and whether any developments on peat make sense.

“I think my position is fairly clear from what I am saying.

“I followed the evidence where it led me, and it led me to the concerns that I have expressed to Ministers fairly constantly, to the point where I have made clear my view that building on protected peat is counter-productive to our climate change aims,” he said.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Chris McDonald, responding for the Government, said: “From the contributions we have heard today, I would say there is strong agreement in this room on the need both to tackle climate change and to care for our special environments in the UK, including peatland.

“Because peat soils are rich in carbon, disturbances will have climate impacts.

“We therefore recognise that building infrastructure such as onshore wind on peatland can have detrimental impacts, and we appreciate that communities have valid concerns about that.

“That is why we have protections in the planning system requiring careful consideration from developers and decision makers when onshore wind farm developments are proposed on peatlands.

Mr McDonald said the Government was committed to publishing additional guidance regarding wind farm construction on peatland in England.

The Government was also in ongoing discussions with the Scottish Government about developing a carbon calculator tool for England similar to the one currently used in Scotland, which could inform policy decisions around developments on peatlands, he said.

Mr Moore said the debate had been worthwhile but he still had major concerns – the Government offering guidance rather than protection.

He claimed neighbouring MPs had not put forward a position as to whether they would join him in campaigning “as strongly as we can against this application.”

“Concerns have been raised, but there is no formal position,” said Mr Moore. (John Greenwood)

A contributor to The Harvard Crimson lists 'Seven Depictions of the 19th Century and the Women Who Wrote Them', including

‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ by Anne Brontë (1848)

“Wuthering Heights” may be the Brontë novel of the moment, but Anne Brontë’s 1848 novel, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,” stands apart as one of the earliest feminist novels. The book begins with the arrival of the mysterious young widow Helen Graham and her son in a small town in Northern England. Rather than residing near the other villagers, Mrs. Graham chooses to inhabit a run down mansion on a hill named Wildfell Hall. Her behavior attracts disdain from others but intrigues a young farmer named Gilbert Markham. After he discovers her dark secret, Markham finally understands why Mrs. Graham hides away in her forbidding home. In “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,” Brontë depicts the dark side of domesticity, rendering a staunch critique of the unequal treatment that women received in 19th century marriages. Mrs. Graham’s fearless abandonment of her husband makes her one of the first feminist characters. She does not desire to stick to convention but literally runs away from it. (Nina M. Jasanoff)

Artlyst reviews Paula Rego's exhibition of drawings, Story Line, at Victoria Miro London.

Among her strongest works are those of women. Rooted, sturdy and beefy-thighed, they seem to defy their apparent vulnerability. In the wonderful pastel on paper of Jane Eyre, the lone figure stands hands on her hips in a workaday red dress, nursing an air of rebellion. While her study for Germaine Greer shows the feminist icon sitting knees flopped open in a gesture of sexual defiance. (Sue Hubbard)

A contributor to Express didn't like Wuthering Heights 2026 and recommends the 2009 adaptation instead.

Wuthering Heights is one of those stories that always seems to be getting a new adaptation, with many proving somewhat divisive for fans of the original novel. Earlier this year, Emerald Fennell's take on the classic tale was released in cinemas, and, like many adaptations before it, left fans divided.

As a huge fan of the original novel, I knew I just had to see the film; although, having seen some reviews ahead of time, I was rather sceptical. I was a little shocked, though, as the film actually ended up being worse than I had predicted – and felt more like bad fan-fiction than an adaptation of Emily Brontë's writing. From bizarre casting, to out-of-character storylines and cutting out half of the story, the film was ultimately rather disappointing.

And while there are certainly plenty of other bad adaptations of Wuthering Heights out there (MTV's version, anyone?), there are some that are actually quite good.

One that has remained popular since its release, at least among fans of the Brontës, is the 2009 mini-series starring Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley as Heathcliff and Cathy – a pairing whose chemistry was so good that they've since married in real life and welcomed two children together.

True to the story, however, the pair's on-screen counterparts didn't quite get a happy ending. Unlike the 2026 adaptation, and many others too, the 2009 version opted against stopping halfway through the story.

While the 2009 mini-series isn't without its issues, Heathcliff being white-washed being one inaccuracy that both adaptations are guilty of, the heart of the story itself is still there. (Isobel Pankhurst)

Joanne explained how Emily Bronte’s 1847 masterpiece has impacted her as an artist:

The part of Wuthering Heights which always stays in forefront of my mind is actually within the third chapter where the narrator’s ghostly experience with an icy hand outside his window, the tree knocking at the window and Cathy’s ‘Let me in’” says Joanne, “then in the concluding chapters her ghost is always there, ever present.

I hope that I can do it some kind of justice, not an easy thing to do by any means especially as my understanding of the meanings within it have developed and changed in parallel with my own life and emotional experiences.

In a strange twist of fate when I was only 13, Kate Bush released her Wuthering Heights which at that time spoke to me exactly as I felt about the novel…and started me on new creative journeys with a passion for music, which in its turn led me to art college.

That was 40 years ago and little could the young art student Joanne have known how much the dramatic landscapes that the novel conjured would change the direction of her life.

Joanne said:

The seeds of my love of Yorkshire were sown when I was very young, indeed decades before I ever visited the county. From the age of nine or ten I read novels voraciously: Dickens, Hardy, Elliot, Austin [sic] and the Brontës, and a lot of the literature, poems and plays of that era.

But it was always the Brontë novels that fascinated me most, the ones that over the years I have read over and over, my understanding of which has grown and altered as I have. Through their writing I developed a love for the wilds and the moors that I had never seen: until I was in my 40s and came for a week every year with my four children, renting an old North Yorkshire farmhouse with no neighbours and no internet or telephone signal.

And so another 20 years on and I am living here and breathing the wild and the wuthering, and wanting to try to express my own impressions of my favourite Brontë novel: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, in my own artistic medium of precious jewellery.

During the past year, Joanne has been liaising with a stone carver from the renowned gemstone cutting region of Idar-Oberstein in Germany, to create a carved rock crystal image of Cathy. This carved head is approaching completion and she will have it at her studio for the launch of the Pateley Jewellery Quarter on the weekend of 25/26 April. The design, a vignette or picture piece, can be worn as a brooch or pendant but also is intended to be displayed as a work of art in precious materials.

It will represent that ‘Cathy’ moment at the window which in many ways defines and saturates the whole story.

Joanne said:

Many completed pieces of jewellery in my studio have the influence of the Yorkshire landscape running within them. Indeed it has been an influence on my work for very many years. So now I am delighted that I can call this place my heartfelt home.

I am always very happy to discuss my work and to create jewellery pieces for individual clients which will speak to them in a personal and life-affirming way. Since neolithic times people have felt the joy of creating and wearing jewellery, its possession seems to be an intrinsic part of the human condition. It feels the perfect time for me to create an iconic art piece of Wuthering Heights.

   

 A couple of alerts for today, April 23, in Haworth:

'The Heights' Poetry Book Launch
Thu 23 Apr, 7:00pm

Old School Room

The history and landscape of Haworth continue to inspire many artists, writers and poets. We are delighted to host the launch of local poet Lydia Macpherson’s pamphlet The Heights (Calder Valley Poetry). Lydia now lives in the last inhabited house before Top Withens. Her five times great-grandfather Jonas Sunderland farmed Top Withens (widely believed to be the location for Wuthering Heights) during the lifetimes of the Brontës.  Her first collection, Love Me Do (Salt, 2014), won the Crashaw Prize. 

Lydia will be joined by special guest poets Clare Shaw and Alan Buckley. Clare’s poetry collections include Towards a General Theory of Love (Bloodaxe, 2022) which won a Northern Writers’ Award. Their poetry is anthologised in the National Trust’s Nature Poems (2023) and 100 Queer Poems (Vintage Penguin Random House 2022). Alan Buckley’s collections include Touched (HappenStance, 2020) and Still (Blue Diode Press, 2025). He is a founding member editor of ignitionpress and has taught creative writing to young people with both First Story and Arvon.

   

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the lovelorn Ophelia famously drowns. The prince of Denmark has cruelly spurned her, her father has died, and she’s stricken with grief. If only she had realized Taylor Swift’s vision for her: In the song “The Fate of Ophelia,” the pop star imagines that she has instead been saved by a new suitor. Her version of the tragic figure, Swift sings, is “no longer drowning and deceived, all because you came for me.”

Hollywood has been making me think of Swift’s track quite a bit lately. The sparkly earworm deploys one of her favorite tricks: messing around with a literary classic for lyrical fodder. Cinema has been going through its own “Fate of Ophelia” era these past few months, with a litany of new adaptations that dramatically alter their source material. The writer-director Emerald Fennell turned Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë’s Gothic novel about obsession and social status, into erotic fanfiction. [...]

Updating a classic isn’t inherently a bad idea; Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a dutiful adaptation of Shelley’s 1818 novel, just won three Oscars, and Fennell’s Wuthering Heights has enjoyed an excellent box-office run. Yet most of these projects have been as superficial as Swift’s single, in which Ophelia survives just by pledging “allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes”—a cheeky reference to Swift’s fiancé, to be sure, but Ophelia’s problem was never really about the vibes. That reductiveness, though, works far better in a four-minute pop song than in a feature-length film. Call it the rise of CliffsNotes Cinema—watered-down transformations that offer glossy but thin summaries of the originals and strip away the challenging material that helped turn them into cultural mainstays in the first place. These movies make the provocative palatable: Uncomfortable relationships and nuanced characterizations—essentially, what made the stories endure—get lost in the fog of showy filmmaking. [...]

This type of nuance all but disappears in CliffsNotes Cinema, which often looks incredible—I’m certainly taken with the costumes in Wuthering Heights, as well as with the soaring sets in Frankenstein —but robs its audience of the chance to analyze anything for themselves. That’s largely because these movies dull the sharpest edges of their source material, aiming for obvious takeaways regardless of how nonsensically they’re rendered. Despite never giving its titular character an opportunity to explore her original identity, The Bride! gleefully insists that she has become an avatar for female empowerment. Rather than explore the book’s larger point that class is an inescapable burden, Wuthering Heights makes its central conflict about whether its protagonists can be together. These films argue that their characters act on raw emotions: lust, fury, sadness. Yet these feelings fail to linger in the audience. Unlike a Taylor Swift song that gets stuck in your head, they just fade away. (Shirley Li)