Oh La La, Haworth: ‘I’ve discovered secret doorways in the building where Brontë sisters bought their writing paper in the 1800s’
A Haworth business owner was left amazed after she discovered secret doorways where the Brontë sisters would have bought their writing paper.
While renovating her business in Haworth, Pamela Howorth discovered secret doorways where the Brontë sisters would have bought their writing paper.
In 2003, Pamela Howorth, 59, bought a rundown building on Main Street in Haworth and transformed it into a lingerie store called Oh La La.
The business was rebranded into a vintage shop in 2020 with a change of name to ‘The Original Brontë Stationery’ and Ms Howorth, originally from Bradford, delved deep into the history of the building.
Through her research, Ms Howorth discovered that John Greenwood was the owner of the building in the 1800s when it was a stationery shop; Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë regularly bought their writing papers there.
During the renovation of the shop undertaken by Ms Howorth, she discovered secret doorways that were used to get into the building.
“The more I looked into it and investigated it, talked to local people who have families that have lived here for a long, long time, I learned about the history of this actual shop and next door as well,” Ms Howorth said.
“When we were doing some decorating in the shop, we noticed that there were some blocked up doorways between No. 38 and 36 [Main Street] inside the shop.
“There’s a cellar underneath us; we can’t actually access the cellar from the shop, but we can access it through No. 36, the cellar runs underneath both properties.
“Looking back at some old photographs, I noticed that there were stairs going down into the cellar underneath our shop from Main Street, so I believe the cobbled main street is higher than it used to be.
“It’s little things like that that are super interesting, I find it absolutely fascinating looking at the history of the building itself.”
During the 1800s, John Greenwood was running a general store in No. 36 Main Street.
“He was a tea merchant during the Brontes' time,” Ms Howorth said.
“Haworth Main Street at that time was a main turnpike road that took people from Toller Lane in Bradford through to Colne.
“From 1843 he started selling paper specifically to the Brontë sisters who were asking him for it and it was very expensive at that time so he couldn’t hold a lot of stock of it.
“But they would request him to get some paper for them and he would ride to one of the mills in Halifax, get the paper, bring it back for the Brontës to be able to do their writing.”
It is thought that upstairs in the shop was where people hand combed wool in the Victorian era.
“I’m fascinated by social history, architecture, looking at how buildings have changed because you’ve got so many old properties over here and they’ve all got a story to tell,” Ms Howorth said.
“Based on the type of businesses that were working in Haworth and residents who were living here in the 1800s and Victorian times, we think the upstairs was used as a hand wool combers.
“People would be combing wool and passing it out through the window upstairs.
“About 40 per cent of people who lived in Haworth were working in the mills, combing the wool by hand to make smooth fibres to be weaved.”
Ms Howorth found out that the former owner John Greenwood kept diaries that she tried to find.
“John Greenwood kept some diaries and he kept records of his meetings with Charlotte Brontë and her sisters,” she said.
“When Charlotte died, John contacted Elizabeth Gaskell, who wrote the biography of Charlotte, and provided her with his information of what he knew about the family and a lot of it came from his diaries.
“She looked at his diaries and took excerpts from them but we don’t know where the diaries are, they never came to light. They may well have been destroyed.”
Some customers that visited her shop are descendants of the Brontë family.
“Some people came over from Ireland that came into the shop who were related to the Brontës but through Patrick Bronte’s brother and she showed me a family tree,” Ms Howorth said.
“They were born in Ireland and came over specifically to see the Bronte House because they knew they were related.
“So there are still living relatives of the Brontës but via Patrick’s siblings because obviously none of the Brontë children had their own children.
“Although there are rumours - and this is local hearsay as well - that Branwell Brontë may have fathered a couple of local children illegitimately. But that’s never been proven.”