'A row of potatoes was placed on the uppermost range rib to roast...'
For much of the time this room would have been used as a bedroom. At one period it served as a studio for Branwell, who had trained with the Leeds artist William Robinson, and who hoped to become a professional portrait painter. During Elizabeth Gaskell's visit to the Parsonage in 1853 this room was used as a bedroom by Charlotte. In the 1870s, when Wade extended the house, the window of this room was blocked up, so that the room became a passageway to the new wing.
Patrick Branwell Brontë occupied the privileged position of only boy in the family, with all expectations centred on him. His weakness of character and lack of application meant that he failed first in his chosen profession of artist, and eventually proved himself to be unemployable. In 1843 Branwell became tutor to the son of Mr and Mrs Robinson at Thorp Green Hall, near York, where his sister Anne was employed as governess. In July 1845 Branwell was dismissed from his post, apparently because of a love affair with Mrs Lydia Robinson. Branwell could not recover from this final blow, and turned increasingly to alcohol and opium. Inevitably his addiction ruined his health and contributed to his death from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-one in September 1848.
Following his funeral service, Branwell's life and death were summed up by his sister Charlotte: 'Branwell was his father's and his sisters' pride and hope in boyhood, but since manhood the case has been otherwise. It has been our lot to see him take a wrong bent... and now to behold the sudden early obscure close of what might have been a noble career.'