A Cup Of Tea With The Bronte Sisters

We love our hot drinks in England, from morning coffee to a mug of cocoa before bed (or even Ovaltine), but there’s one drink that has become synonymous with England: tea. The Brontë sisters loved cups of tea too, which is probably a good thing given how cold and wuthering it often is around Haworth Parsonage! In today’s new Brontë blog post we’re going to look at just how we know that the Brontës were tea drinkers.

Our first evidence comes from the Brontë childhood, but it wasn’t discovered until the mid-Twentieth century when renovation was being done on the parsonage floorboards. When the original floorboards were lifted up, workers were astonished to find toys which had once belonged to the Brontë siblings and this rather charming miniature tea set. It bears the inscription: “Ladies all I pray make free, and tell me how you like your tea?”. It also features three sisters drinking tea together who look not unlike the Brontës, which is possibly why their father, or more likely Aunt Branwell, bought it for them. Certainly we can imagine Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë playing with this tea set, perhaps pretending to serve drinks to their toy dolls (we know they had dolls, and that Patrick brought Anne a “dancing doll” back from Leeds with him on one occasion).

Aunt Branwell herself was a tea drinker, and she had a very special tea pot which says a lot about her personal journey. Elizabeth Branwell came to Haworth, after a 400 mile trip from Penzance, in 1821 to nurse her ill sister Maria. When Maria died, Elizabeth could have returned home to the warm climes of Cornwall, but instead she remained in Haworth for the rest of her life and became like a second mother to the Brontës, her nephew and nieces.

Aunt Branwell was a devout Christian, and she would have known of Haworth because of its connection to William Grimshaw. Reverend Grimshaw was, along with the Wesleys, one of the founding fathers of what we now know as Methodism, and he was parish priest of Haworth for 21 years until his death in 1763. During his lifetime vast crowds would flock to Haworth to hear his sermons, sometimes so many that he had to hold his services on the moors outside his church. Grimshaw’s fame endured into the 19th century, and Aunt Branwell had a William Grimshaw commemorative teapot. On the front it says “Wm Grimshaw, Haworth” and on the reverse it has a quote from Grimshaw himself: “To me, to live is Christ, to die is Gain.”

In adulthood, the Brontë sisters had their own tea service, and here it is, as well as being pictured in situ at the Brontë Parsonage Museum at the head of this post:

Ever practical, Charlotte also made this rather beautiful red tea cosy – a device which was designed to keep tea warm and ready for pouring long after it had been brewed in the pot: 

Tea was clearly a delight for the family, and perhaps for Charlotte especially as it features in her novel Jane Eyre. Young Jane has been sent to Lowood school by her uncaring Aunt Reed but Mrs Temple of the school has called the new arrival to her, and presented with a cup of tea that soon lifts the young girl’s spirits:

“A tray was soon brought. How pretty, to my eyes, did the china cups and bright teapot look, placed on the little round table near the fire! How fragrant was the steam of the beverage, and the scent of the toast!”

I’m just popping off to make a brew for myself, but I want to thank you all again for your support and kind comments at what has been a difficult time personally for me and my family. I raise my cup to you all, and hope you can join me again next week for another new Brontë blog post when we will begin a Brontë countdown to (yes, it’s that time again) Christmas.