55: At Home with the Brontës

55: At Home with the Brontës

From Slightly Foxed by Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader's Quarterly

October 15, 2025 · 52 min · Episode 55

About this episode

Ann Dinsdale discusses the Brontë family's life and legacy at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

There has never been a literary family quite like the Brontës. In our autumn podcast Ann Dinsdale, Principal Curator of the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth in Yorkshire, joined the Slightly Foxed team to discuss the story of the family’s life there. The Brontës moved to Haworth in 1820 when Patrick Brontë became curate, and the parsonage was established as a museum in 1928 when it was acquired by the Brontë Society . Mrs Brontë and the oldest two daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, died there from tuberculosis, leaving Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell to be educated at home by their widowed father. Ann talks about her work at the Parsonage Museum, a treasure trove of Brontë memorabilia, containing 9,000 items including clothes, letters, first editions and the sisters’ own writing boxes. The Brontës were a close-knit family, sharing their games and creating a rich imaginary world which formed the basis of their later writing. Patrick Brontë was a loving and in many ways an unconventional father, who encouraged the girls’ education and allowed them to read freely. He was a lover of the natural world, and on their daily walks in the wild moorland country around…

People in this episode

Guest: Ann Dinsdale

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Brontë Parsonage Museum

Books & works: Jane Eyre

More episodes of Slightly Foxed

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Slightly Foxed podcast page.