A Visit to the Parsonage

Dr Diane Duffy heads across the Pennines to visit a very special library. On 15th July 2022 I visited the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth. The visit had been planned back […]
Tea at Cranford II – Our Daily Bread

Following my last ‘Tea at Cranford’ post, I will now consider the dangers which may have been lurking in those dainty sandwiches, ‘cut to the imaginary pattern of excellence that […]
Tea at Cranford I – Charlotte Brontë and the Great Victorian Tea Fraud

Tea plays an integral role in Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Cranford. Grown in India, a British colony, and imported by the East India Company, it became a national beverage found in […]
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House – the final chapter

Meta and Julia Gaskell purchased 84 Plymouth Grove 16 years after their father’s death [see my previous blog] and remained there until their own deaths Julia in 1908 and Meta […]
To Buy or Not to Buy?
That is the question! Volunteers at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House are often asked whether Elizabeth ever bought 84 Plymouth Grove. The answer is definitely not, but her daughters, Meta and Julia, […]
Cranford for Beginners – a talk by Libby Tempest (video)

https://vimeo.com/522747640 Libby Tempest, Chair of the Gaskell Society, tells us about how she came to know and love the work of Elizabeth Gaskell and the ‘excellent women’ of Cranford in particular. […]
Meet the Neighbours
After moving into a new house, it is always useful to know your neighbours. I am sure Elizabeth would have already known many of her new neighbours in Plymouth Grove, […]