Brontë lovers gather for grave ceremony

Anne’s blossoming literary career was cut short in 1849 when she was struck down by tuberculosis aged 29. She travelled to Scarborough hoping the sea air would help cure her illness but never returned.

She was the only child not be laid to rest at the family vault in Haworth. Instead, her final resting place is in St Mary’s Churchyard overlooking Scarborough’s South Bay.

It is believed that having already lost Branwell and Emily the same year, surviving daughter Charlotte wanted to spare father Patrick from attending another funeral.

Charlotte made the burial arrangements from Haworth and while she attended the service, it is thought she must have failed to check the headstone’s inscription, resulting in her sister’s age appearing as 28.

The Brontë Society had grown increasingly concerned about both the error and weather damage which has left the headstone’s writing almost unreadable. On Saturday, a service of dedication was held at the graveside to mark the official unveiling of the plaque, laid without publicity in 2011.

Brontë Society chairman Sally McDonald said: “This was a place Anne very much loved. I do not ever think of this as a tourist destination. I think of it as a place of pilgrimage and it is right Anne’s resting place is properly identified for those who arrive here.”