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The Brontë Society

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The Brontë Society

One of the world's oldest literary societies, founded in 1893 to promote the family's achievements and administer the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth

23/01/2026

Ahead of our 2026 season, we have decided to merge our pages.

All content will be shared on the Brontë Parsonage Museum page. We hope you continue to engage with us there.

Members of the Brontë Society can stay up to date and access exclusive content on the Members’ Area of our website.

You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok.

Thank you
Brontë Parsonage Museum

19/01/2026

On this day in 1880, Martha Brown died. She was the daughter of John Brown, the village s*xton and friend of Branwell Brontë.

Martha was taken on to provide permanent extra help to the Brontë family in 1839, following the retirement of their long-standing housekeeper Tabitha Aykroyd. Eleven-year-old Martha took the servants’ room previously occupied by Tabitha.

Martha served at Haworth Parsonage until the death of Patrick Brontë in 1861.

Learn more about Martha Brown on the Bloomberg Connects app.

17/01/2026

Today we celebrate the birthday of Anne Bronte. On 17 January 1820, Anne, the last of the Brontë children, was born in Thornton. Described by Charlotte as 'Long-suffering, self-denying, reflective, and intelligent', and very much regarded as the baby of the family, Anne is known to twenty-first century readers as the author of one of the earliest feminist novels, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, in which she makes the following statement:
'I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the s*x of the author may be. All novels are or should be written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.' Happy Birthday Anne!

24/12/2025

It's Christmas at Wuthering Heights ... Cathy has just returned from Thrushcross Grange, Nelly is making Christmas cake and attempting to invoke some Christmas cheer:
'After ... putting my cakes in the oven, and making the house and kitchen cheerful with great fires befitting Christmas eve, I prepared to sit down and amuse myself by singing carols, all alone, regardless of Joseph's affirmations that he considered the merry tunes I chose as next door to songs ... I smelt the rich scent of the heating spices; and admired the shining kitchen utensils, the polished clock, decked in holly, the silver mugs ranged on a tray ready to be filled with mulled ale for supper; and, above all, the speckless purity of my particular care - the scoured and well-swept floor'.
SENDING BEST WISHES & SEASON'S GREETINGS FROM ALL AT THE BRONTE SOCIETY - we would like to thank all our followers for your support during 2025. We wish you all a peaceful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

19/12/2025

On 19 December 1848, Emily Brontë died aged 30 years. The following day, Charlotte wrote to William Smith Williams:
' ... the gallopping consumption has merited its name - neither physician nor medicine are needed now. Tuesday night and morning saw the last hours, the last agonies, proudly endured till the end. Yesterday Emily Jane Brontë died in the arms of those who loved her.'

16/12/2025

132 years ago today, The Brontë Society was founded. The Mayor of Bradford, Alderman Jonas Whitley circulated the following notice dated 11 December 1893:
'I have been waited upon by a Deputation to ask if I would call a Meeting of admirers of Brontë literature in the West Riding, to consider the advisability of forming a Brontë Society and Museum.
Heartily concurring with the proposal, I have pleasure in inviting you and your friends to a Meeting to be held in the Town Hall, Bradford, on Saturday, December 16th at 3 p.m.'
More than 50 people attended the Meeting, at which the Rev. W.H. Keeling, Headmaster of Bradford Grammar School, presided, and many encouraging letters and messages were read, including one from Charlotte's publisher George Smith.
It was resolved:
THAT a Brontë Society be and is hereby formed and that the object of such Society be, amongst other things, to establish a Museum to contain not only drawings, manuscripts, paintings and other personal relics of the Brontë Family, but all editions of their works, the writings of others upon those works or upon any member of the family, together with photographs of places or premises with which the family was associated.

We'd like to think that the founders of the Society would be delighted that we continue to campaign to save Brontë treasures for the nation and that we now hold the largest variety of original Brontë items in the world.

On the steps you see below, we now welcome thousands of visitors of all ages from far and wide. We're looking forward to welcoming many more in 2026!

14/12/2025

On 14 December 1847, Emily and Anne received six copies of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey - their publisher, Thomas Newby, had not informed them that publication had taken place, so the delivery of their bound copies was their only clue! Charlotte wrote to William Smith Williams on the day they arrived, and wondered how Wuthering Heights would be received, commenting that 'it merits the epithets of 'vigorous' and 'original' much more than 'Jane Eyre' did. 'Agnes Grey' should please such critics as Mr Lewes - for it is 'true' and 'unexaggerated' enough.' Emily and Anne waited nervously for their reviews ...

09/12/2025

On 9 December 1849, Charlotte paid a visit to Harriet Martineau, a novelist and author of essays on political economy. Charlotte was in London, staying with her publisher's family, and discovered that Miss Martineau was staying around the corner. Charlotte's true identity was not yet public, but Miss Martineau was convinced Currer Bell was a woman, thanks to 'a certain passage in 'Jane Eyre', about sewing on brass rings'. The Martineaus invited 'Currer Bell' to join them for an early tea at six o'clock, and were very excited to see what their visitor would be like. Lucy Martineau, Harriet's cousin, described how: 'in came a neat little woman, a very little sprite of a creature nicely dressed; & with nice tidy bright hair - Tho' the cat is out of the bag here, we are bound not to tell her name, for she does not wish it to be made generally known ...' Harriet Martineau described Charlotte as 'the smallest creature I had ever seen (except at a fair) and her eyes blazed'. They talked about the reviews of Charlotte's books, with Lucy Martineau reporting that 'she was so pleasant & so naive, that is to say so innocent and un Londony that we were quite charmed with her.' Unfortunately, Charlotte's friendship with Harriet Martineau would end bitterly four years later, after Charlotte took offence at Martineau's criticism of Villette.

02/12/2025

On 2 December 1906, Arthur Bell Nicholls died, just a few weeks before his eighty-eighth birthday. After Patrick Brontë's death in 1861, Arthur quietly left Haworth and returned to Ireland with Patrick's dogs, Plato and Cato, and Martha Brown. He lived in Banagher with his aunt and her daughter and became a farmer. In 1864 he married his cousin, Mary Bell, the 'pretty lady-like girl with gentle English manners' who Charlotte had met on honeymoon. Their house was a shrine to the Brontë family: the parsonage grandfather clock stood on the stairs near Leyland's medallion of Branwell; Patrick's gun and a photograph of Haworth Parsonage hung in the dining room; the drawing room was given over to Richmond's portrait of Charlotte, the engraving of Thackeray and a large number of framed drawings by the Brontës. When Arthur died, Mary had his coffin placed beneath the portrait of Charlotte until it was carried from the house.

01/12/2025

On 1 December 1851, Emily's beloved dog Keeper died, just less than three weeks before the anniversary of his mistress' death. He was ill for a single night and then 'went gently to sleep' the following morning; 'we laid his old faithful head in the garden', Charlotte told Ellen Nussey, adding that Anne's dog Flossy, was 'dull and misses him'. 'There was something very sad in losing the old dog; yet I am glad he met a natural fate - people kept hinting that he ought to be put away which neither Papa nor I liked to think of.'

26/11/2025

On 26 November 1897, Ellen Nussey, lifelong friend of Charlotte Brontë, died aged eighty. The thirteen year old Ellen met the fourteen year old Charlotte at Roe Head School, Mirfield. They began corresponding as school friends, and this correspondence lasted until the end of Charlotte’s life, and is responsible for so much of what we know today of Charlotte’s life. Hundreds of letters from Charlotte’s side of their correspondence still exist, and 350 were used by Mrs Gaskell as the basis for her seminal biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857). Arthur Bell Nicholls asked Ellen to destroy them after Charlotte’s death, but happily Ellen refused.

Address

Brontë Parsonage Museum
Haworth
BD228DR

Opening Hours

Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm
Sunday	10am - 5pm

Telephone

+441535642323

Website

http://www.bronte.org.uk/

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