Case Studies

Brontë Parsonage Museum

Haworth, West Yorkshire

Haworth Parsonage is no longer the bleak Pennine home of the Brontë family, but a shrine, surrounded by a village almost swallowed up by the Brontë tourist industry. The museum is owned and managed by a private trust, the Brontë Society. Until relatively recently the museum’s focus was on the family and literary associations studied by visitors from around the world.

In the last five years the Parsonage’s education service has changed radically, following the appointment of a full time Education Officer. In 1998 there were fewer than 1,000 school visits, in 2001 over 2,500. The education service has become self-financing, and has turned a £2,500 deficit into a £8,500 surplus. The museum is limited by space with only a small basement available for school groups. This has not limited their ideas.

A full programme of activities and workshops meets the needs of all the National Curriculum key stages. These include, for history, programmes called Famous Faces (KS1), Victorian Life (KS2), Local History (KS3) and Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights (KS4). What makes this programme different is the determination to reach out to wider audiences. Conscious that many schools cannot afford to visit, The Brontë Roadshow has been developed. Museum staff visit schools for a charge of £2 per pupil and mileage.

Special projects have attracted funding from various sources including DfES, Yorkshire Arts, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and AS Burton Charitable Trust. In 2000 Asian school children from Bradford were introduced to Wuthering Heightsin a drama project. Last year an art project based on the writings and drawings of the young Brontës produced sculptures in the garden. This project was organised in conjunction with the NSPCC, who relieved the schools of much of the burden of transport and organisation and helped select the pupils from communities they were already working with.

Sustaining funding for such initiatives is very exhausting, and in 2003 only the core schools programme was on offer. This included holiday art and craft workshops, Sixth Form Study Days, art, bookmaking, creative writing weekends, and accredited certificate courses with Leeds University on various aspects of the Brontës and local history. The staff were keen to involve and work with the local community, whether in school holiday activities or in restoring the Sunday School for use by school parties and community groups.

The ability to sustain the natural ‘literacy’ audience under the welter of tourism, and still develop such ambitious projects, is very impressive.  JR

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