Bronte fans in uproar after council fails to buy home where sisters grew up before it was sold

It is feared the house where the Bronte sisters were born could be turned into a bistro after Bradford Council failed to buy it before it was sold. 
Members of the Bronte Birthplace Trust tried to persuade the authority to buy the four-bedroom terrace in Market Street, Thornton, West Yorkshire, so it could be turned into a museum with book shop and cafe.
But they have now discovered the house has already been sold.

 

Sold: The house in Market Street in Thornton, West Yorkshire, where the Bronte sisters were born

Steve Stanworth, chairman of the Trust, said members were 'upset and very disappointed' because they had spent months trying to get support for their proposal.
He said: 'We were hoping to be pushing on with our fund seeking mission with Heritage Lottery Fund.

'It is indicative of our local council that they see history as something to be ignored and local communities left without libraries, pools, or youth facilities.'
Patrick Bronte's children were all born in the house on Market Street and baptised in the Old Bell Chapel, which the villagers have also been painstakingly restoring.

 

Historic: It is feared the house where the Bronte sisters were born could be turned into bistro

 

Remembered: A plaque can be found on the outside wall of the house where the Brontes were born

Patrick once described his years in Thornton as 'the happiest in his life', before the family was torn apart by the premature deaths of its literary prodigies.
Councillor Valerie Binney begged the council to snap up the property as a cultural asset.
She said: 'I was extremely disappointed with the council's response especially the Tourism and Cultural department, who said they did not want the Bronte birthplace.
'We get lots of tourists from Japan and America and local walkers visiting Thornton to see the house on Market Street where the famous sisters were born and to visit the Old Bell Chapel where Patrick Bronte preached.

 

A TRAGIC FAMILY OF LITERARY PRODIGIES

 

The Brontes are one of the most important families in English literary history.
Sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne all began to write at an early age at their home in Haworth, West Yorkshire.
Their stories started as a game based around brother Patrick Branwell's toy soldiers.
Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights are regarded as classics of English literature.
Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall remains a huge bestseller.
Emily and Anne both died of tuberculosis in 1848-9 aged 30 and 29 respectively.
Branwell and Charlotte were also killed by the disease.
Their deaths added to the heartbreak of clergyman father Patrick Bronte, who had already lost two younger children to tuberculosis and his wife to cancer.

'Patrick said that the five years he spent in Thornton were some of the happiest of his life.
'It is very short-sighted of the council when the Government has just announced a fund for keeping our history alive.
'We could have offered a Bronte Visitor Package tour beginning with the birthplace and the Bell Chapel then up to the Parsonage at Haworth - not just for coach parties but for walkers on the Bronte Way.
'There are a lot of disappointed Thornton residents and associates about this.'
But Councillor Andrew Thornton, Bradford Council's executive member for environment, said it was not in a position to buy the house due to Government cuts.
He said: 'We explored a number of ways in which we might offer assistance for the Bronte Birthplace Trust to make an offer for the property.
'However, as the council is not in a position to acquire the building for itself, we were not satisfied that this was a justifiable use of public money or a reasonable intervention for us to make in competition with any private individual seeking to purchase the property.
'Government cuts to the council's budget together with a national and local contraction in public grant aid continues to put severe pressure on our existing cultural assets.
'Adding to those pressures with an open ended commitment to an unquantified scheme cannot be justified.'
The house, which has a plaque on the outside wall naming the four Bronte children who were born there, already attracts fans of the literary siblings.

 

 

Literary genius: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (left) and Wuthering Heights by Emily (right) are two of the greatest works of nineteenth-century English literature

 

 

Family: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (left) is still popular today. Patrick Bronte (right) was parson in Thornton between 1815 and 1820

It is not clear what the buyer of the Thornton property intends to do with the building but Mr Stanworth said he believes it could eventually be turned into a bistro.
'I understand it's a local businessman and I think he's going to turn it into a bistro. I don't know his full plans at the moment,' he said.
But Mr Stanworth is not giving up yet on the Trust's dream.
'We have decided, as a Trust, we are going to carry on with our work and hope that some time in the future it will come on the market.
'We are going to try and get a professional business plan done and raise money to buy it.'