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- Brontë Parsonage Museum hosts Royal visit

Brontë Parsonage Museum hosts Royal visit

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall visited Haworth on Friday 16 February as part of the celebrations for the bicentenary of the birth of Emily Brontë.  2018 also marks the 90^th anniversary of the Museum in Haworth Parsonage, the house where the Brontës spent most of their lives and wrote their great novels.

During her visit, Her Royal Highness was guided through the historic rooms of the Parsonage by Principal Curator, Ann Dinsdale.  Her Royal Highness also had a close-up viewing of some of the treasures of the Museum, which houses the largest collection of Bronte material in the world. 
 
Her Royal Highness also met artist Clare Twomey, who created the Wuthering Heights – A Manuscript project, which set out to create a new version of Emily Brontë’s long-lost manuscript by copying it out one line at a time. Over 10,000 visitors have participated in the work, and Her Royal Highness wrote the last line into the newly created manuscript in the very house where Emily wrote the original.

The visit also involved a private reception where Her Royal Highness met museum staff and volunteers and local school children who recently took part in a creative writing competition organised by the Museum.

The Duchess of Cornwall is an avid reader and undertakes a number of engagements to promote the importance of supporting literacy both to children and adults alike. The Duchess has been Patron of the National Literacy Trust since 2010 and is also Patron of other organisations including Book Trust, The Wicked Young Writers Award, Beanstalk, First Story and BBC Radio 2's 500 words competition.

Kitty Wright, Executive Director of The Brontë Society said, “It was an immense honour to welcome Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall to the Museum and we thoroughly enjoyed sharing our world-class collection with her.  The Duchess told us she had always wanted to visit the Parsonage and she was very interested in our work with schools and young people.  The day was the perfect start to Emily Brontë’s bicentenary celebrations.”