The Brontes at Cowan Bridge

On our way home from our day out in the Yorkshire Dales, we stopped in Cowan Bridge to look for the Clergy Daughters’ School. This was the school attended by the Bronte sisters, and which Charlotte Bronte later immortalised in Jane Eyre, as Lowood.

There is a stone in the wall immortalising the time the sisters were pupils at the school. The harsh conditions caused the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth Bronte, but gave the remaining sisters a great deal of material for their novels.

The school later moved to Casterton and was the foundation for the current girls school.

As we are currently watching an excellent adaptation of Jane Eyre, it was a good time to explore Cowan Bridge and find the original school.