Through the Eyes of the Brontes.: Climbing into the porch room

St John the Baptist Church, Tunstall

On a rare, blue-sky, English summer day, my husband and I set off to Tunstall in Lancashire to be at the church of St John the Baptist for 11.00a.m. Having made earlier enquiries with the church warden, we had been informed that one of their team would be in the church doing some jobs at that time, and he would be more than happy to help us achieve our mission which was to gain entry to the room above the church's porch where the Bronte sisters - Maria, Elizabeth and then Charlotte and Emily would have all had their lunch in between the Sunday morning service and the afternoon service when they used to walk the two and a half miles each way every Sunday, in all weathers, to attend both church services from their boarding school at Cowan Bridge. (Charlotte calculated it as a two mile walk.) Maria aged ten and Elizabeth aged eight were enrolled at the school on 21st July 1824. Charlotte was enrolled aged eight on 10th August 1824 and Emily came along later being enrolled on 25th November 1824 aged just six.

The porch at Tunstall Church with the small window in the porch room above it.

Standing at Tunstall Church entrance.

The founder of their school was the Reverend William Carus Wilson who was also the vicar at St John the Baptist Church in Tunstall from 18th April 1816 until his resignation in 1828.

The Reverend William Carus Wilson possibly the man Charlotte modelled Mr Brocklehurst on - the autocratic head of Lowood School.

The four Bronte sisters all attended the 'School for Clergymens' Daughters' as it was advertised in the 'Leeds Intelligencer' on 4th December 1823. The school was the one that went on to be associated with Lowood School in Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre, with Tunstall church being called Brocklebridge Church.

When we arrived at the church the warden had kindly opened the door to the porch room and I knew the only way up into it was to climb the vertical ladder bolted to the wall.

The ladder bolted to the church wall at the porch door leading to the porch room above.

The ladder by the porch door.

Another lady climbing the ladder from an article in an exhibition in the church

For someone still with the remnants of vertigo to deal with, this was one of those grit your teeth and be careful moments. My husband, with mountain-goat propensities, easily climbed the ladder and ducked through the door hanging above the church's porch door giving me a cheerful wave.

My husband in the porch room doorway.

A fearless wave!

Next it was my turn to climb the ladder and be guided off the ladder at the top onto the ledge and into the porch room. One mis-step and I would have crashed down to the stone-flagged floor below.

Telling myself just to go slowly, concentrate and obey my husband's instructions about where best to place my feet and hands, I made it into the room. I think my heart rate was slightly elevated!

My turn next!

The room is fairly small with one leaded window for light and slim wooden beams on the ceiling. A storage cupboard housing the electricity box is now up there.

The door is fairly small

The ceiling has slim beams on it.

A small leaded window lets light and air in. The mannequin in a bonnet is used by the church if they have an exhibition. The church occasionally organises Brontë events including guided walks between Cowan Bridge school and the church with tea and cakes served in the porch room for which they erect a temporary staircase. The funds raised are to help maintain the church.

We thought about the Bronte sisters sitting in the room with their school fellows eating their lunch. Here is what Charlotte wrote in Jane Eyre:

Sundays were dreary days in that wintry season. We had to walk two miles to Brocklebridge Church, where our patron officiated. We set out cold, we arrived at church colder: during the morning service we became almost paralysed. It was too far to return to dinner, and an allowance of cold meat and bread, in the same penurious proportion observed in our ordinary meals, was served round between the services.

A video to show the porch room interior.

After photographing and videoing the room, my husband deftly swung himself back onto the ladder but kindly only descended a few rungs to be able to guide me back onto the ladder to descend. Holding on for grim death, and not looking down at the distance to the floor below, slowly but surely I got back to terra firma.

We got chatting to the wife of the warden who had arrived and I asked if she knew how the school children might have got into the room above the porch. It would have been very dangerous for young ladies, some as young as six years of age, as Emily was when she attended Cowan Bridge, to climb a vertical ladder in their long dresses and swing themselves into the room. They might have also been wearing pattens too - the wooden outer shoes - which would have made it even more perilous. She said there was probably a gallery there at some time with proper stairs. My husband and I discussed this afterwards and thought maybe the stairs were wooden ones as we couldn't see any evidence in the stone walls of a gallery having been there. Whatever, the reality, it was fascinating to be in the beautiful church and special to be able to gain access to the porch room which is normally locked.

On a rainy and windy day, we could imagine how cold and damp the school girls would have been after their walk from Cowan Bridge to the church. We also undertook this walk and measured it as two and a half miles on one route (the one we think they would have probably taken) and two and three quarters of a mile on another route we tried. We imagined them sitting shivering in the porch room chewing on their bread and meat. We thought of the children from the age of six years upwards, Charlotte was eight years old at the time, walking the five miles round trip to attend their patron's two Sunday services.

I wonder if, when Patrick heard the news from his daughters of their long Sunday walks to church at Tunstall, would he later go on to think about his parishioners living in Stanbury and would he, with Arthur Bell Nicholls, his young Irish curate, decide that it would be easier for them to have their own chapel-of-ease, which both men did indeed go on to raise subscriptions for and eventually build? St Gabriel's opened for their Stanbury parishioners in 1848 to save them having to walk the steep, hilly road to Haworth and maybe his inspiration to help his Stanbury flock living 1.3 miles away came from hearing about his young daughters' Sunday expeditions. Who knows?

St Gabriel’s chapel-of-ease and schoolhouse, Stanbury.

Interior of St Gabriel’s chapel-of-ease and schoolhouse.

Thanks to Arthur Bell Nicholls and Patrick Brontë this chapel and schoolhouse were opened in 1848.

In another post I will write about our walk to and from Cowan Bridge to Tunstall Church. On a beautiful day it is stunning, which even Charlotte acknowledged when writing about the location of Cowan Bridge / Lowood School in Jayne Eyre. However, this will all be for another post. For now here are some photographs of the church’s interior where the Brontë girls and their school friends would have sat.