10/03/2008 - Haworth Captured Past exhibition
Update 7th May 2008Ancestor day on 25th May 2008, help with family history from 1-4.
Update 18th April 2008In partnership with Haworth Fairtrade, we are hosting a Fair Trade event in the meeting room of the Old School Room on the 10th May to co-incide with World Fair Trade Day.
There will be tea, coffee, buns on sale (all to go towards the refurbishment of the building), Doreen and Maureen the tea-ladies, a singer and story tellers. It will be open from between 12-4.
About the
Old School Rooms project here...About
Haworth Fairtrade here... Haworth Fair Trade website
www.haworthfairtrade.org.uk The International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) website
www.ifat.org Photos of Doreen and Maureen
cleaning Haworth Main St here... Doreen and Maureen
Gravy Browning TanNing Salon here...Update 18th April 2008‘Captured Past’ exhibition, a real success say organisers
Since the ‘Captured Past’ Photographic exhibition opened last month it has attracted an impressive 2400 visitors.
The exhibition, which was officially opened on March 21st, is being staged in the Old School Room on Church Street in Haworth as part of the campaign to conserve the building that has strong links to the Bronte Family.
Dr Angela Redmond, Project Development Officer, who is responsible for managing the project said: “We have been impressed by the numbers of people wanting to see both the exhibition and the building, which was recently re-opened for public access.
“We did not know how many people would want to see the pictures from Haworth and district’s past or the inside of this historic building, and it has been very satisfying to have received so many visitors in such a short space of time.”The exhibition, which is running concurrently with a project planning phase, funded by a £43 000 Project Planning Grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), is designed to provide access to and raise awareness of one of Haworth’s most historic buildings.
Added Dr Redmond:
“The feedback that we have received from the visitors and local residents has been very positive, and indeed we have been able to raise extra cash by selling copies of the photographs.
“Eventually we would like to turn the building into a heritage centre for the region as well as offer it as a facility to the local communities, including schools in the area.
“Its historic importance fits in well with the literary connections of the village and when the project is up and running it will help complete our understanding of life in Haworth and district in times gone by.”As part of the development of the project visitors to the Old School Room have been asked to fill in a questionnaire concerning the future use of the building and its relevance to the local lifestyle.
“The responses have confirmed our initial thinking about the need for a locally based heritage facility,” said Dr Redmond. “They have made very interesting reading and we’ve gained a considerable amount of knowledge from the information the visitors have provided. We are grateful for everybody’s contribution.”The exhibition, which will run until September this year, is a precursor to a programme of other events to be staged at the Old School Room.
The ultimate aim of the project is to seek sufficient funding to conserve and maintain the fabric of the historic building and offer it as a heritage amenity for the community.
Haworth’s ‘Captured Past’ exhibition
The exhibition of photographs from Haworth and District at the 'Old School Room’ in Church Street, Haworth is now open to the public. Admission is free and the opening hours are normally 1.00pm to 4.00pm seven days a week until September 2008.
Local historian Steven Wood will give a talk/powerpoint presentation on the pictures in the exhibition on the Sunday of the 8th June, at the Old School Room at 730 pm - tickets £2 on the door, to go towards the restoration project.
When the Rev. Patrick Brontë built the ‘Old School Room’ in Church Street, Haworth next to his Parsonage he could not have imaged that 176 years later in 2008 that the building would not be able to fully serve the Pennine village.
Today the ‘Old School Room’ is feeling its age and in need to a major face lift.
At the end of last year the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant of £43,300 to Brontë Spirit, the partnership of the Brontë Society and Brontë’s former church, St Michaels and All Angels, to plan a restoration project.
The grant has been allocated to construct a plan which will eventually see the old school room where the Brontës taught village children refurbished and developed for use in the future given a major face-lift.
The first part of raising awareness in the schoolroom and the restoration project is an exhibition of photographs from Haworth and District which were taken from the early days of photography during the reign of Queen Victoria through to the 1970s.
‘Old School Room’ Project Officer Dr. Angela Redmond explained: “The ‘Old School Room’ is the only building where all four Brontë children worked at one time or another.
“It‘s the building where Charlotte and Arthur Bell Nicholls held their public wedding feast following their marriage in St Michael’s Church just across the street.
“The Haworth district has an amazing past and we want people to be able to access it.
“Part of our thinking is that the ‘Old School Room’ could become a heritage centre for the area as well becoming a major site for the advancement of the Arts and Education within the district.
“Many people who live in the district have never been inside the ‘Old School Room’ and this will be their chance to have a look around as well as appreciate the exhibition”.
The photographs in the exhibition have been supplied by Haworth historian Mr Steven Wood and the exhibition organiser is Mr Stephen Whitehead. Dr Redmond added: “The oldest photograph was taken in the mid 1850s and perfectly illustrates the kind of life-style that the Brontë family experienced. It also has the Old School Room as backdrop which is a wonderful link with what we’re trying to achieve today.”
The exhibition will be officially opened with a media and VIP launch on Thursday, March 20 and then to the public at 2.00pm the following day. The opening will be rung in by the bell ringers of the Parish Church, lead by Captain of the bells, Simon Burnett. Admission is free and the opening hours are normally 1.00pm to 4.00pm seven days a week until September 2008.
As part of a study to help restore and utilise the Old School Room, Brontë Spirit (a partnership between Haworth Parish Church & the Brontë Society) needs to know your ideas and any concerns.
We would be very grateful if you would spend a few minutes completing this on-line questionnaire - many of the questions simply require a tick or number in the relevant box. You can download the questionnaire as a word document here...
To include the information you provide in the project we need your response by 26th September 2008. Please print and return your completed questionnaire by post or by hand to the Old School Room, Church or Parsonage Museum - a box will be left inside the entrance.
About the Old School Rooms here...
Bronte Parsonage website www.bronte.info (opens in a new window).
