Wethersfield, Essex with Patrick Bronte.

Cambridge to Wethersfield is not far.

Having spent a day and a night, in July 2018, enjoying the delights of Cambridge, my Bronte travelling friend Alison and I next headed further east to Wethersfield in Essex to where Patrick had his first incumbency as a curate following his graduation in 1806 from Cambridge university. He had spent four years in Cambridge from 1802 to 1806. For us, it was only a 45-minute drive to cover the 28 miles / 45 kilometres to Wethersfield and we noted how agricultural the area was passing through pretty Finchingfield which Patrick probably would have done.

 

The area is very agricultural. A different landscape to the one that Patrick ended up in when he arrived in Haworth, West Yorkshire.

Pretty Finchingfield in Essex. No millstone gritstone cottages here as in Haworth.

Wethersfield is about 8 miles / 13 kilometres from Braintree and many of the redbrick and half-timbered buildings which Patrick would have seen are still standing, along with the village green and the church where he worked in a parish of about 1,200 or so inhabitants, 70% of whom worked locally in agriculture during Patrick’s time there from 1806 to 1809.

The village green in Wethersfield.

Wethersfield.

 

Patrick's first incumbency at St Mary Magdalene Church in Wethersfield. When we visited the tower was being repaired.

St Mary Magdalene Church without the scaffolding.

Built from the pretty flint stone typical of the area. 

Times of services.

We stood outside St George’s House opposite the church of St Mary Magdalene, and where Patrick had lodgings with spinster Miss Mildred Day.

St. George's House  (the peach coloured one) where Patrick lodged with spinster Miss Mildred Day.

 And of course, we visited his first church  and, oh joy of joys, it was open so we could get inside. There was nothing for it, but I had to walk exactly in Patrick’s footsteps all the way up to and into the pulpit!!!  I hope it was the same pulpit from his time there!

The altar at St Mary Magdalene Church, Wethersfield.

Very much in Patrick Bronte's footsteps! But is it the same pulpit? Apparently the church fell into disrepair in the 19th century and stood derelict for some years before being greatly renovated in the 1870s.

                                                     

Patrick’s landlady was often visited by her pretty 18-year-old niece, Mary Burder and, despite the age difference, (Patrick was 30), Mary and Patrick got on rather well and would walk out together and write letters to each other. Parishioners would lend Patrick their dogs to walk as he enjoyed the footpaths around the village with these canine companions and no, doubt Mary would join him too. 

 As Mary’s father had died and she had not yet come of age, her guardian was her uncle, and he noticed the friendship and, of course, wanted to know more about the prospects of this Irish curate. There are indications that Patrick proposed to Mary but later broke off the engagement, possibly because she was a Non-conformist, and he might have thought this could damage his future prospects of promotion within the Church of England.  But, whatever happened between them, Patrick eventually left Wethersfield in 1809 to take up his second incumbency in Wellington near Telford, Shropshire.

 However, 15 years later in Haworth and, after his wife, poor Maria Brontë had died leaving Patrick with 6 children (some commentators have postulated Maria may have died of uterine cancer and others from ovarian cancer...but this, obviously, cannot be confirmed), Patrick was then on the look out for a new wife and a mother for his children.

 He learnt that Mary Burder from Wethersfield was still single and wrote to her expressing his pleasure that she was still a spinster. She replied very curtly to say NO! Whatever had happened in 1809 had deeply embittered Mary and she would not entertain marrying Patrick. He was rejected outright!

On our visit to Wethersfield, I could imagine Patrick striding out along the many footpaths in the area enjoying this gentle, rural and agricultural location. It's a lot flatter in Wethersfield than in Haworth with its steep hills and valleys, where Patrick would later go on to walk whilst out visiting his parishioners. If you are ever in the area, Essex and Wethersfield are well worth a visit.

Cambridge with Patrick Bronte

                                                     

Patrick's family home near to Lisnacreevy, County Down, Ireland which he shared with his 5 sisters, 4 brothers and his mother and father.

In July 1802 Patrick Bronte finally left the family home above in County Down, Ireland and headed off, aged 25, to go to St. John the Evangelist College, Cambridge, registering as an undergraduate on 1st October, 1802. The time between arriving and registering was probably taken up with Patrick reading and preparing for his course. The registrar, possibly struggling to understand Patrick's Irish accent, entered him in the admissions book as Patrick Branty (not Brunty which was his family name).

 And so, in July 2018, my Bronte travelling companion Alison and I also arrived at St John's College just as Patrick had done 216 years earlier - following in his footsteps.

In the summer months, many universities, including Cambridge, offer B&B rooms to visitors, allowing them to stay in college rooms. Alison and I booked into St John's College, so we too could experience what Patrick had experienced all those years ago.

This is the road Patrick would have walked along to get to the grand entrance to his college.

The main gate into St John's College, Cambridge. Imagine Patrick who was born in a two-roomed stone, thatched-roofed cabin in Emdale, County Down, Northern Ireland walking through these gates for the first time! The heavy wooden gates date from 1665.




The coat of arms of Lady Margaret Beaufort are above the main gate at St John's college  which she founded in 15ll.  Margaret Beaufort was Henry VII's mother and grandmother to Henry VIII. Above is a statue of St John the Evangelist.

Approaching St John's College, Cambridge with the new chapel tower that was built after Patrick had left.

It was exciting enough for us to walk through the grand entrance of St John's college and across the quadrangles to climb the stairs to our rooms. Imagine what Patrick must have felt like as he walked through the grand gates having come from such a humble background.

Patrick attended the red brick 16th century chapel to the left of the new stone chapel built after Patrick's time at St John's.

St John's College, Cambridge, inner gate to the quadrangle.

                                              

The inner quadrangle of St John's College with the chapel tower built between 1866 and 1869 after Patrick had graduated.

It really drove it home to us what a fabulous achievement it was for Patrick, bearing in mind he had never benefitted from a formal and private school education many of his fellow students had enjoyed to secure a place at this prestigious university. Purely through his own great diligence and efforts, together with the support and encouragement of Drumballeyroney's vicar - the Reverend Thomas Tighe - himself an old-boy of St John's - Patrick had finally well and truly made it!

Dashing Patrick.

He had come to study Theology under a scholarship for poor boys at Cambridge University.

Let's look at some photos of where he lived and studied. This young man from a poor background had done very well.

Alison in St John's College.

The River Cam flows through  St John's College grounds.

The 'bridge of sighs' at St John's College. Patrick, unfortunately, would not have enjoyed walking across this bridge as it was only constructed in 1831.

St John's college

St John's College

Inside St John's College.

St John's College grounds.

Cambridge street scene.

King's College Cambridge

                                

Would Patrick have admired the wonderful vaulted ceiling in King's College chapel where we enjoyed listening to the world-famous choir?

Punting along the Cam by King's College, Cambridge.

Patrick finally graduated in 1806. I can only imagine he enjoyed his years in beautiful Cambridge as we too enjoyed our visit. I also wonder if he was inspired to change his surname from Brunty, to Bronte to match the grandness of his surroundings?

                                                     

To Northern Ireland and Patrick’s birthplace.

Drumballyroney, County Down where Patrick Bronte and family worshipped.

 In August 2017, my Brontë travelling companion Alison and I left our homes at 4a.m. and arrived at Manchester airport. By 8a.m. Easyjet had deposited us at Belfast airport and by 9a.m we were in our hire car and happily heading off to Patrick Brontë’s birthplace. We were going to follow the “Brontë Homeland Drive” and see the places associated with Patrick, his family and the first 25 years of his life.  

Following the brown signs of the Bronte Homeland Drive

                                

The start of the Brontë Homeland Drive is known as the Brontë Homeland Interpretative Centre comprising of both Drumballyroney Church and Schoolhouse. 

Drumballyroney Schoolhouse where Bronte taught.

Patrick had taught at the schoolhouse and he and his brother William were christened at the Anglican church next to it. 

Drumballyroney church with the schoolhouse next to it.

 It is purported that Patrick may have given his first sermon at Drumballyroney Church after his graduation from Cambridge University. However, Juliet Barker in her biography The Brontes, believes that Patrick probably didn't have enough money to return home to Ireland after graduating and so questions this assertion.

 At the back of the schoolhouse and church, the Brontë family burial plot is situated, where Patrick’s parents and other family members are buried. 

For our journey to Drumballyroney, online research had told us that the Schoolhouse / interpretative centre opened at 10a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. We were there on the Saturday arriving precisely at 10a.m. But when we tried the door, it was locked! We just thought that maybe the person employed to open it up was running a little late. But after 15 minutes - nothing! 

We wondered if someone in one of the bungalows along the road we had arrived on might be a key holder. But which bungalow to enquire at? In the end we just walked around the Schoolhouse, which is a low, single-storey building. We were easily able to look through the windows and could read the many tall information boards and get an idea of its interior. However, at one window we almost jumped out of our skin when we saw what we thought was a human being in there, but it was just a mannequin dressed up in period clothing looking out of the window!  

Surprisingly, we weren’t angry or irritated that we had travelled all that way and failed to get into the Schoolhouse. We chose instead to have a good giggle about it! Only we could have dragged ourselves out of bed at 3.30a.m., left our homes at 4.00a.m. flown from Manchester to Belfast and arrived in Drumballyroney, Northern Ireland at 10.00a.m. to find we couldn’t get in!  

There was a telephone number on a window to phone with any enquiries, so I did. It was the Tourist Information Centre in Belfast. I pretended to be quite cross, telling the lady how we had flown from Manchester to be there, that their website said it would open at the weekends from 10.00a.m. but to contact them if we were a group. I said we were two people and that surely isn’t a group, so we didn’t need to contact them and only needed to turn up at 10a.m. The lady was lovely, and so apologetic. She said she would be contacting her manager and they’d sort out the website.

 Anyway, there was nothing anyone could do, so we decided to go and have a mooch around Drumballyroney Church instead. But yes, you’ve guessed it! That too was locked! We were a bit surprised as it is such a quiet and unpopulated place. Was there a need to lock the church? So, once again we had a giggle, shrugged our shoulders and settled for a stroll around the graveyard noting the Brontë gravestones and looking out across the fields to the mountains of Mourne beyond.

 What really mattered, was that we were able to get – and here are three very important words – “a sense of place”. We certainly did that. It was marvellous to be looking at the same natural views Patrick would have known. It is such a gentle and pleasant land and we felt surprisingly relaxed! 

After a marvellous breakfast in a super café we found in Rathfriland we headed off following the brown book signs to the other Brontë sites. The circuit is 7.3 miles in total. We passed the house  where Patrick’s parents, Hugh and Alice, had gone to live when their family of 10 children outgrew their first house. 

The house the growing Bronte family moved to and the house Patrick's mother was born in.

Our next stop was to see the birthplace of Patrick’s mum Alice Mc Clory, a pretty much tumbledown cottage in Ballynaskeagh which was sprouting bushes and ivy and sadly uncared for.  

We then carried on and really enjoyed seeing the very humble birthplace of Patrick Brontë in Emdale. 

Patrick Brontes two roomed, thatched birthplace in Emdale, County Down.

It is little more than a ruin nowadays, with many of the walls missing as well as the thatched roof of the tiny two roomed stone cottage. But how marvellous to be there to see such a small and humble beginning for a man who is genuinely a giant in my eyes! It really drove it home to me how much Patrick achieved in his long and productive life from such truly humble beginnings. He went far! It felt very special to be there. Little did he or his family know then, how famous he and his talented literary family would later become.  

 The final stop on our Brontë Homeland Drive was to Glascar church and schoolhouse where Patrick had his first teaching job. 

Glascar Church

So, all in all it was a short Brontë themed drive but it was absolutely fantastic to get a feel for the countryside and the views which Patrick knew and enjoyed, both as a boy and a young man, before he finally left Ireland and headed off, aged 25, to St. John’s College, Cambridge arriving there in July 1802. 

The views Patrick Bronte would have grown up with -here looking towards the Mourne Mountains.

                               

Incidentally, our Bronte tours also include none Bronte related places as can be seen below with our trip to The Giants Causeway and Dark Hedges. We also had a day in Belfast which is a fascinating city, even watching an excellent production by the Bristol Old Vic theatre group of Jane Eyre which, quite fortuitously, was playing at the iconic Grand Opera House.

 We also loved travelling up the Antrim coast enjoying the glens then walking on the white sands of Portstewart Strand...breathtaking. 

Our Bronte trips also include visits to other nearby places the Brontes didn't visit but which we can easily enjoy. Here we are at The Giant's Causeway and the Dark Hedges.

                              

So all in all we had a marvellous time in County Down enjoying the views that Patrick would have known and seeing the churches, school house and homes he worshipped, studied and grew up in. 

 What we didn't accomplish though, was a visit to Arthur Bell Nicholl's birthplace in Killead which is not far away from Patrick's birthplace. We shall just have to return to wonderful Northern Ireland and that will be a great joy!