West Yorkshire members are welcome at all our special member events
Summer 2013 sees the launch of a new branch of the Brontë Society, specially for members who live in West Yorkshire and their friends and family. If that's you, then welcome to our events, and we hope you thoroughly enjoy them. If you're a Brontë Society member but don't live in West Yorkshire, you're still most welcome to attend. And if you're not yet a member but are thinking of becoming one, please do try out an event to see if membership is something you'd like to follow up.
Events, Spring 2014
Join us and other West Yorkshire members at a series of exclusive behind-the-scenes events and special visits to other Yorkshire attractions.
Saturday 22nd March
Visit to Saltaire World Heritage Site
Exploring Salts Mill and the Brontë connection with Saltaire owner, James Roberts
This visit will include a talk, a suggested lunch stop and options for a walking tour. We will be joined by a Saltaire village guide to find out more about this magnificent heritage site and there will be a small charge to cover the cost of the guide. Families with children of all ages should feel welcome to join in - there is a lovely canal, Roberts Park and playground within a stones throw from Salts Mill.
And here is a little information to whet your appetite for the visit:
"Saltaire Park, as it was known originally, was later named in memory of Sir James Roberts second son, Bertram Foster Roberts (1876-1912). Sir James was a remarkable man in his own right — the "Bradford millionaire" referred to by T. S. Eliot in The Wasteland (see Holloway). He was born into a struggling farming family near Haworth, where he had met Charlotte Brontë. Having trudged barefoot across the Yorkshire Moors to Saltaire at the age of 12, he taught himself Russian for trading purposes, travelled regularly to Russia for the same reason, and rose to become manager of Saltaire at the ripe old age of 18. He was eventually able to buy the mill-town outright in 1899 ("Saltaire: Conservation," 13). Here, he carried on Sir Titus Salt's ideals and eventually presented the park to the people of Saltaire. This was reported by The Times of 15 January 1921 in a short notice entitled "Gift of Land to Yorkshire Town": "Recently Sir James Roberts gave Saltaire Park, established 50 years ago by the late Sir Titus Salt, to the Bradford Corporation" (5). By then, Sir James had already been created a baronet (1909), and had been awarded an honorary LL.D by the University of Leeds, where he had established a chair in Russian in 1916. It was also Sir James who in 1928 bought the Brontës' Haworth Parsonage for the nation (see Holloway for many more details of his eventful life)".
Please see http://www.victorianweb.org/art/parks/20.html for more information and pictures about the park.
For those of you who would like a bit of contextual information, please look at the Saltaire Village website (www.saltairevillage.info). Pamela Reynolds of Saltaire village info says; " James Roberts is such an impressive figure. There’s a wonderful Saltaire Journal dedicated to James Roberts and his family available for free download on the Saltaire website. I design and typeset these documents and they are printed as limited editions and lodged with the British Library – and we publish them online too. Here’s the link to the Journals – have a look at Issue 5 – The Second Lord of Saltaire. http://www..saltairevillage.info/saltairejournals.html
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To find out more or to reserve a place please call 01535 640195, or email here. For further information about the West Yorkshire Brontë Society Group please email charlotte.derry@bronte.org.uk.