I’ve been immersed in Brontë history since my many childhood family visits to Haworth – mum, dad, my brother and I all crammed into my auntie and uncle’s little orange mini. These visits created so many happy family memories, and continue to do so as I’ve regularly visited the village ever since. I’ve explored the surrounding moors, with the highlight being my walks to Top Withens, with its association with Emily Brontë’s dark and tortured novel, Wuthering Heights. If you’d to ask me my all-time favourite novel, without hesitation I would say it was this one.
The parsonage holds such a special significance that not only do I feel compelled to take a photograph of it each visit, I’ve even stitched it.
I thought I’d seen everything Brontë-linked in my Haworth visits. But today, totally unexpectedly, I came across an absolute gem.
After my usual visit to the church of St Michael and All Angels, where Patrick Brontë (father of Charlotte, Emily and Anne) was vicar from 1820-1861, back on Main Street I spied a new café, Haworth Old Post Office. Nestled next to the church it seemed the perfect place for a sit down in the – all to rare this summer – sun with a coffee, watching the world go by.
There was a real sense of being surrounded by Haworth history. Fronting onto Main Street, the old stocks were adjacent to our table.
Just the other side of the church steps was the Black Bull pub. This millstone grit inn at the top of the steeply-cobbled hill of Main Street is a place intrinsically linked to (Patrick) Branwell Brontë, the wayward brother of Charlotte, Emily and Anne.
But, as I discovered, Haworth Old Post Office has its own unique place in Brontë literary history. It was the Post Office during the time the famous literary sisters lived in Haworth, and from then up until its sale in 2022 it was owned by generations of the Hartley family.
As I discovered, the building has close associations with the Brontë family too. Branwell Brontë was reputed to have used the upstairs back room as a refuge to sleep off the excesses of his sessions of over-indulgence, waiting for Emily to light a candle in a parsonage window to signal the coast was clear for him to avoid his father and sneak back home.
But even more significantly, it was from this Post Office that the sisters posted their manuscripts to their London publishers, writing under their Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell writing pseudonyms. It was to here that their literary correspondence – and any related payments – were sent for them to pick up. And, amazingly, the old mellowed wooden counter in the café, stripped back and lovingly returned to its original state, is the very same Post Office counter at which the Brontë sisters stood almost 180 years ago.
It even has the original drawer where those precious manuscripts would have been placed prior to collection and onward transportation to their publishing house destinations: manuscripts which would ultimately contribute towards transforming the literary world, and eventually the place of female writers in it. What’s more, the café owners have an immense appreciation for the history of the building and are only too willing to share it, as I found out when I asked if I could have a look and take a photo.
Earlier this year, whilst on an Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) visit to the Leeds Library, I had the immense privilege of handling a 1st edition of Charlotte Brontë’s posthumously-published novel, The Professor. Completed in 1846 it was her first novel. Rejected by many publishing houses in her lifetime, I now wonder was this a manuscript sent from Haworth Old Post Office?
You really can picture the trailblazing sisters standing before the counter, clutching their precious manuscripts, entrusting them to the postmaster and hoping against hope that the tales they had weaved, and poetry they had crafted, would be recognised as worthy of publication.
The place is a must for those on the Brontë heritage trail. And even if you’ve absolutely zero interest in the Brontë sisters (a rarity), the café serves a superb cappuccino and mocha coffee along with some fantastic food.
For more about the Haworth Old Post Office, their website is here.
I’ll leave you with a final couple of images from the café’s specially designed bookmark with the words from their Blue Plaque, and some of the building’s history as a Post Office.
Past To Present Genealogy 