This is the quintessential view of the Brontë Parsonage, the one that all the tourist brochures show: taken from the crowded graveyard that surrounds the church, with all its lichen covered gravestones. In the wall separating the two, there's a stone that notes that when the Brontës lived there, there was a gate and path that connected the house directly with the church.
The church, St Michael and All Angels, is still Haworth's parish church and tries to balance its duties as a spiritual centre with its role as a tourist attraction. It is currently undergoing some extensive restoration. The present church is not actually the building the Brontës would have known, as it was rebuilt in 1879, after their deaths, when the old church was found to be unsafe and unsanitary - water from the graveyard was seeping in through the floor.
With the exception of Anne, all the Brontë family are buried in a vault under the church, over which a memorial chapel has been constructed. Anne died of TB in Scarborough and was buried there.
Interesting post, thank you
ReplyDeleteI would think that people would want to pass through the gate. Is the stone blocking where the gate was?
Water from the graveyard was not only entering the church: it was also flowing down the hill and dangerously contaminating the water supply. The people of Haworth were often sick, and died young. What does expect if one inters thousands of rotting bodies directly above the village houses?
ReplyDeletePeter that is not good news to hear. I live downhill from an old cemetery where sometimes you can see oil slicks in the run off water. A neighbor use to go on and on about contamination making us sick. I told her in addition to the distance soil filtering, a nearly two foot concrete slab wouldn't absorb illness. I have to look into the matter.
DeleteThe sanctuary carries a certain poignancy.
ReplyDeleteIf you have the slightest doubt get your local county health authority to check your drinking water for cholera, typhus etc. A contaminated water-born virus is not to be trifled with. Send your water to the lab. Then you can sleep sound of nights!
ReplyDelete