STARTING A NEW CHAPTER
Things are looking up for the Brontë Society
THE INTERNECINE conflict between its traditionalists and modernists has for years played out like the plot from a Victorian novel.
But the latest figures to emerge from the parsonage at Haworth suggest that the steadying influence of a clergymanturned-treasurer who is Patrick Brontë’s spiritual successor might be calming the waters.
As it celebrates its 125th anniversary, the Brontë Society – one of the oldest such groups in the world – has reported that not only is income from visitors to the parsonage it administers up by more than a fifth, but more of them are joining as members.
It is welcome news for an organisation whose fallout over its decision to use the actress and model Lily Cole as a figurehead for its celebrations of Emily Brontë’s bicentenary this summer created national headlines. Writer and academic Nick Holland, author of three books about the Brontës, resigned in outrage.
“What would Emily think if she found that the role of chief ‘artist’ and organiser in her celebratory year was a supermodel?” he fumed.
But the honorary treasurer’s books suggest that the society is in rude health. The interest created by To
Walk Invisible, Sally Wainwright’s BBC drama about the sisters’ rise to fame and their brother Branwell’s battle with alcoholism – and perhaps by the furore over Ms Cole – has swelled numbers for a second successive year.
Worldwide membership had risen by nearly six per cent as of last Christmas, and the number has continued to rise this year.
The treasurer has a unique and direct connection to the family. As rector of Haworth Parish Church, the Rev Peter Mayo-Smith was fulfilling the role Patrick Brontë, father to Emily, Charlotte and Anne, had held for four decades.
He was conscious of the weight on his shoulders.
“One of my great heroes is Patrick Brontë,” he said. “When you look at what he did for the Haworth area, his campaigning was in the mould of Wilberforce.
“He was a remarkable and very much a modern man in some ways. He brought education in because he saw it as the way out of poverty. And when there was raw sewage in the streets, he fought long and hard to get proper sanitation.
“Isn’t it ironic that his legacy in the village is a tourist economy based on his family?”
The rector, who two years ago moved in semi-retirement to the neighbouring moorland parish of Eldwick, was brought in to the Brontë Society after previous bouts of acrimony.
Its then chairman, the British- American playwright Bonnie Greer, had to bang her stiletto on the table to restore order as an extraordinary general meeting descended into chaos. She resigned, blaming what she called “malevolent lamebrains”.
At the 2016 AGM, another row was reported, with one member repeatedly “screaming” until he was threatened with expulsion, and another comparing the society’s rulebook to the East German Stasi. Rev Mayo-Smith admitted that he did not know who Ms Cole was, save for having seen her on Doctor Who.
He has yet to meet her, but is “looking forward” to doing so, he said.
He did, however, meet the Duchess of Cornwall, who said her visit to the parsonage earlier this year fulfilled a long-held ambition.
One of my great heroes is Patrick Brontë. Brontë Society treasurer the Rev Peter Mayo-Smith
IT WOULD have seemed astonishing to the Brontë sisters, in their quiet and secluded lives, that long after their deaths they should inspire such love and devotion from legions of admirers.
Yet it is a cause for rejoicing that not only do they continue to do so, but that their appeal is growing. More visitors than ever flock to Haworth to explore their heritage and the countryside that inspired them, and membership of the Brontë Society is increasing.
That should be celebrated as it marks its 125th anniversary. Its history has not always been harmonious, but happily that belongs to the past and it can look forward with optimism.
The magic of Emily, Charlotte and Anne endures. Their spirit makes their books timeless and draws visitors to the parsonage where they lived. The crowds will continue to grow, because these daughters of Haworth touched the hearts of the world.