"
If Fieldhead had few other merits as a building, it might at least
be termed picturesque: its irregular architecture, and the grey
and mossy colouring communicated by time, gave it a just claim
to this epithet. The old latticed windows, the stone porch, the
walls, the roof, the chimney-stacks, were rich in crayon touches
and sepia lights and shades. The trees behind were fine, bold,
and spreading; the cedar on the lawn in front was grand, and the
granite urns on the garden wall, the fretted arch of the gateway,
were, for an artist, as the very desire of the eye.
Charlotte Bronte; Shirley (1849)
Take
a 360 degree outside Oakwell Hall here...
Oakwell Hall was built in 1583, today it recreates the period
in the 1690s when it was home to the Batt family who were Royalists.
Charlotte Bronte visited in the 1830's and featured it as "Fieldhead"
in her Novel "Shirley".
"she
and her uncle walked up the broad, paved approach leading from
the gateway of Fieldhead to its porch. She followed Mr. Helstone
reluctantly through that porch into the sombre old vestibule beyond."
Charlotte Bronte; Shirley (1849)
Oakwell Hall
Nutter Lane,
Birstall,
Batley,
WF17 9LG
Tel: 01924 326240
Opening times:
Monday to Friday: 11am - 5pm
Saturday & Sunday: 12pm - 5pm
N53° 44.389 W001° 40.310
Elevation 404ft
