Ponden Hall

Introduction

The 14ft 7 in x 11 ft 6 inch room that was once the Ponden Hall library where the Brontes and other area residents perused the stacks is now a bedroom in an elegant bed and breakfast. It is believed that the stately home situated on the Yorkshire moors inspired parts of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights as the homes of the Linton family of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, the home to the Earnshaws. It also fits the description of Wildfell Hall in Anne Bronte's Tennant of Wildfell Hall, and the library itself may be the model for the library in which Charlotte Bronte's titular character in Jane Eyre finds solace as a child. Dr. Bob Duckett, who has done extensive work on this subject and others related to the locality observes, "Ponden Hall...is relatively unconetested by Bronte scholars as the model for Emily's Thruscross Grange, library included (Duckett.)"

History

The Heaton family of Ponden Hall occupided the location from the thirteenth century until almost the beginning of the twentieth century. Eventually rising to the status of landowning gentry, they also became industrialists in the nineteenth century, owning a cotton mill, a coal mine, and a quarry. By the time of the Brontes in the 1830's, they had become one of the two leading families of the area. Robert Heaton V (1726-1794) founded the family library, with his purchases comprising 2/3 of the collection at the time of its sale in 1899 (Duckett.) He kept copious notes in his day book, a journal where he recorded financial transactions, business meetings, and other work related social interactions, as well as notes on booksellers and books he wished to buy. He often jotted down passages of poetry, or commented on authors and various works as well. (For example, he took notes on the different attitudes towards vice and folly in satire held by Alexander Pople and Jeremiah Collier.) The collection assembled by Robert Heaton V included Emerson's Mechanics, A Tour from Bengal to Pesia in the Years 1789 &9 by Wm Franklin and Sylvester's Poems. Heaton utilized mutliple prominent area booksellers lists and catalogs, as well as a host of critical literature magazines to research and accumulate his books through careful effort over many years. For non-fiction works, he most likely traveled to larger city booksellers in places such as nearby Leeds. Robert Heaton VII (1787-1847) also contributed to the collection, mostly in areas of his own interst, such as farming, hunting, shooting, and industrial entreprenuriship. His five sons were contemporaries of the Bronte children, their father the Rev. Patrick Bronte having baptized the Heaton boys in his capacity as the Anglican minister of the area.

18th Century Gentleman's Library

The typical eighteenth century gentleman's library reflected his activities as prominent member of his community. As a property owner in a society that placed his class at the top of the social heirarchy he occupied many key social locations in law, religious life and the overall community. Men in this position often acted as local judges or magistrates, presiding over inquests and trials. As a patron of the church, he had a say in the hiring of clergy; as a trustee he may have patronized many charities or schools. In short, most collections of this type were utilitarian and pragmatic. Duckett writes, "As a landowner and magistrate he needed books on law. As a patron of church livings he needed books on theology. His interest in local history was largely a landowner's interest. General history was ethics: you learnt from the past how to behave in the world to your own best advantage. And even the acquistion of literature, belle letter, was partly utilitarian."

Connection to Brontes

"In September 1824, six-year-old Emily and four-year-old Anne Brontë were walking across the moors of Yorkshire, accompanied by their brother, Branwell, and a servant, when an ominous storm began to rumble. The group ran toward a grand estate called Ponden Hall, reaching the house just as a tremendous mudslide rushed across the moor, brought on by days of rain. This narrow escape marked the Brontes first visit to Ponden, but the family would continue to frequentn the home-under happier circumstances-in the years to come." - Brigit Katz, Smithsonian.com

As the Anglican minister in the community, Rev. Patrick Bronte was known to all. The Heaton family would have been his most prominent parishoners. Over time the families became friendly, and with the library open to any in the community with an interest to use it, it was only natural that Patrick's bookish children would have been drawn to it. The current owner, Julie Akhurst has said, “It’s incredible to think Emily would have sat here reading.” She continues,

“We have a catalogue of the books that were here then and they probably influenced her. There were gothic novels and books on necromancy and dark magic.”

Catalog

The library's contents were listed in a catalog from the 1899 estate sale of Heaton books; The thirty-nine page catalog is titled, Catalogue of Books Contained in the Library of Ponden House, near Haworth, in the County of York, to be Sold by Auction, by Mr. William Watherhead" (Duckett.) The entries are often inadequate, "mostly one-liners, giving author, short title, number of volumes, and date". Titles number between 1385 and 1365, either from careless record keeping, a chaotic library or "sharp" estate sale practices designed to conceal information for whatever reason. (The Shakespeare First Folio from 1623 for example, is not listed in the estate sale catalog.) The list is plagued with spelling errors, missing author names, mislabled titles (translator's name in place of title), lack of logical order, multiple copies of same title appearing in various places etc, with many lacking dates as well. The collection was fifty percent literature and fifty percent pratical topics, titles useful to the family of "landowners, famers, mill owners, magistrates, and trustees. (Duckett). A multi-year project by Duckett to reconcile the list with corrections, detailed descriptions, and logical order has produced a more user friendly, accurate, version of the collection.

The subject categories in the original 1899 catalog are as follows: