The parsonage where the Brontë sisters (and brother) grew up in Haworth, Yorkshire, is one of the most atmospheric places in England.
An engraved silver cup on the dining room table holds the subtle colors of hellebore, lily-of-the-valley, flowering currant, and a solitary nodding bell of the snake’s head fritillary.
For the Brontë sisters, the dining room at Haworth Parsonage doubled up as a rather crowded writing room.
The wife of Reverend Brontë died when her six children were young. The parsonage is on the top of the village, close to the fresh air of Haworth Moor, which may have helped them to survive various outbreaks of dysentery, typhus, cholera, and smallpox.
Would Heathcliff like it?
When Sarah and Christie of Simply by Arrangement were asked to decorate the parsonage last week for Charlotte Brontë’s birthday celebrations, they decided to share the privilege with other cut-flower enthusiasts and held a workshop in the schoolroom next door to the parsonage.
Blood-red tulips mix with pale ranunculus in a wide urn, while branches of Amelanchier range around, spreading upward and outward.
Sarah and Christie asked their students to consider each room on its own merits: “We tried to use vessels that worked in harmony with each room; white porcelain for bedrooms, copper for the kitchen, and handcrafted wooden boxes,” says Sarah.
Amelanchier complementing the shape of the tall window in the stairwell. The house was decorated with British flowers, the kind which would be available to someone living in a parsonage in Yorkshire.
Tulips of peach and white are joined by ranunculus, daffodils and crooked branches of catkins.
An asymmetrical arrangement in matching vases. Tulips and daffodils feature on either side of a copy of a drawing of Charlotte, commissioned by her publisher after the runaway success of Jane Eyre.