Celebrate Father’s Day With Patrick Brontë

Patrick Brontë “thought that children should be brought up simply and hardily; so they had nothing but potatoes for dinner; but they never seemed to wish for anything else; they were good little creatures” [credit- Elizabeth Gaskell]. This simple upbringing certainly didn’t stifle the creativity of his children, in fact – might it have been instrumental in their desire to escape into their own imaginations?

This Father’s Day, 16 June, visit the home of Patrick Brontë, father of possibly the most well-known literary siblings in history and described by novelist Gaskell as “a wayward eccentric wild father”.

“I have lived long enough to bury a beloved wife, and six children – all that I had. I greatly enjoyed their conversation and company, and many of them were well-fitted to being companions to the wisest and best.” Patrick Bronte replying to the Lord Bishop of Ripon, 1855. (Bronte Studies, volume 32, part 2, 2007, pg.94).

In 2019 the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth is celebrating the life of the Revd Patrick Brontë, 200 years after he was invited to take up the role of Perpetual Curate in Haworth, with a year long programme of events and an exhibition.

Patrick Brontë: In Sickness and in Health, explains more about the man who, as a Minister, was expected to know how best to advise and help his parishioners who couldn’t afford medical treatment. For the first time his medical textbooks, filled with his own notes, will be collectively on display, giving a fascinating insight into his determination to help the sick, even as he lost his own family. Alongside his books are a collection of the Brontë family’s spectacles and a handkerchief, believed to have been used by Anne Brontë and spotted with blood from her infected lungs.

To mark the day, visiting fathers accompanied by their children – young or old – are eligible to a special ticket price of £5 and will also receive 10% discount in the museum shop.

For more information go to:
https://www.bronte.org.uk/