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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/aug/03/bronte-sisters-old-school-room-haworth-teachers-restored
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| School where Brontë sisters worked as teachers is to be restored | School where Brontë sisters worked as teachers is to be restored |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| It was built nearly two centuries ago by the clergyman father of Yorkshire’s most famous literary daughters. Now work has begun on a near-£100,000 project to restore the 184-year-old school where Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë all worked as teachers. | |
| The Old School Room is a cherished Grade II-listed building in Haworth, West Yorkshire, the village where the Brontë sisters wrote some of the best-loved books in the English language, including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. | |
| But nearly 200 years in the weather-beaten Pennine valley have taken their toll on the historic school building and its Victorian-era roofs have begun to leak. | But nearly 200 years in the weather-beaten Pennine valley have taken their toll on the historic school building and its Victorian-era roofs have begun to leak. |
| The renovation comes after eight years of fundraising by Brontë Spirit, the charity dedicated to repairing and refurbishing the property. About £70,000 came from grant money and nearly £30,000 from community fundraising. | |
| The Rev Peter Mayo-Smith, the rector of Haworth parish church, said that once the property was made watertight its custodians would be able to make improvements to other parts of the building. | The Rev Peter Mayo-Smith, the rector of Haworth parish church, said that once the property was made watertight its custodians would be able to make improvements to other parts of the building. |
| He said he was delighted that the main part of the renovation was under way. “I congratulate the trustees of Brontë Spirit for the extremely hard work they have put into making this possible,” he added. | |
| “This is excellent news. The Old School Room is a very valuable building not just for Haworth but also for the nation. It is one of two properties Patrick Brontë was responsible for building, the other being St Gabriel’s church in Stanbury. | |
| “He was a great believer in education being a way out of poverty – something still very relevant today – and he wanted the children of local mill workers to have an education so they could escape the deprivation of the surrounding area.” | “He was a great believer in education being a way out of poverty – something still very relevant today – and he wanted the children of local mill workers to have an education so they could escape the deprivation of the surrounding area.” |
| The Grade II-listed Old School Room was built by Patrick Brontë in 1832 and was extended in 1850 and 1871. It was replaced as a school in 1903, and was then used as a gymnasium, a library, a youth hostel and even an army billet during the second world war. | |
| As part of the renovation, expected to take two and a half months, the roof will be fixed and six of the windows replaced with new, timber-frame replicas. | |