THIS ANCIENT-LOOKING clapper bridge isn’t as old as it appears. It was rebuilt following a flash flood in May 1989 and rebuilt in March 1990 according to the inscription on a plaque donated by the Brontë Society. I’m sorry that I never hiked up here to see the original which would have been a familiar landmark to the Brontë children on their walks from the Parsonage two miles away in Howarth.
The Brontë Falls lie a short distance upstream but I’m going to have to come back when there’s a bit more water in South Dean Beck to see them at their best.
This was drawn from a photograph taken on my initial walk up to Top Withins last week. I’ll add watercolour tomorrow.
Charming sketch! As a Bronte fan I would love to visit this area. I love English place names: Top Withins. So much intriguing history in this drawing! 🙂
When I’d been drawing at Carl Wark for my ‘High Peak Drifter’ book I drove past a group of caravans and a catering unit in a nearby lay-by and walking by were two women who looked as if they had just stepped out of a Bronte novel. They looked exactly as I would have imagined people from 1830, I should have stopped and sketched them. I found out later that they were filming Jane Eyre and I’d spotted Parson Rivers’ sisters Diana and Mary.