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A Love Affair with Cranford - New exhibition opening at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
Following a successful fundraising campaign the Elizabeth Gaskell bedroom project was launched not long before the Covid-19 pandemic, which has added to the challenges faced by the small volunteer team that has carried out the work.
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As volunteer and Trustee Adam Daber, explains, “The starting point for our endeavor was the 1914 auction catalogue, which was produced when the house was sold following the death of Elizabeth’s daughter Meta. This gave us lots of clues of what we should be looking for together with our own extensive research. But even with that we found that we had to take a number of U-turns in a search that became global in its scope. The bed and the carpet created the biggest challenges, but now also help to create the wow factor when you walk in the room.”
The four poster bed is attributed to master makers Gillows of Lancaster and is circa 1785, reflecting of the fact that it is likely that some of Elizabeth’s own furniture may well have been second hand or family heirlooms. Many hours went into the research of this piece and many more into its construction, before a polish of beeswax and a dressing with a range of beautiful bedding fabrics. Finishing touches include two nightstands upon which visitors will be fascinated to see a selection of bedtime reading for both Elizabeth and her husband William. It was also known that Elizabeth’s preference throughout the house was for fitted carpets, and the team were fortunate to find one of the last pieces of Yorkshire made ‘Brussels’ looped carpet, which has been specially hand-stitched in panels just as it would have been in 1860.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s bedroom has been designed in vibrant colours, including vivid shades of cornflower blue and deep rich reds, as was the taste of the Victorian period. It’s a comfortable room, but not the largest bedroom in the house; she saved the largest for guests, which included fellow writer Charlotte Bronte. Known to have favourite writing spots throughout the house, it is thought that Elizabeth’s bedroom would have been one of these, whether for writing short stories or catching up on her correspondence.
Volunteer and Trustee Jane
Baxter has been involved in sourcing much of the fabric that visitors will see in the room, but there is one aspect that has eluded her search. “The fabrics, both in colour and texture, help to make this room and I’m overjoyed at the results. However, I have an ongoing quest for
items that will enable us to illustrate that this was also William Gaskell’s bedroom, so my search continues for suitable Victorian men’s clothing and personal items.”
One of the outcomes of the project was an even greater insight into Elizabeth Gaskell herself. For Louanne
Collins, Vice Chair of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
and a volunteer for the bedroom project, one of the fascinations was the realisation of how knowledgeable Elizabeth was about fashions of the time. Prized pieces that will go on display include an original hooded cape, lace gloves and lace shawls all belonging to Elizabeth and her daughters and which are on loan from the Gaskell Family Collection. Louanne Collins says, “This project has enriched our insight into Elizabeth Gaskell in so many different ways that will add even further to the information that our guides are able to share with visitors to the house.”
But what of Elizabeth’s own family? What do they think of the project? Sarah Prince, Elizabeth Gaskell’s great, great, great Granddaughter and a huge supporter of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, says, “Mrs Gaskell’s bedroom will draw visitors to another dimension of the house. We are treated to not just the public rooms of this wonderful Victorian home, but a private and intimate space that would have nonetheless been at the heart of her home. Whenever I walk up the steps and through the front door, I wonder anew at the lives of my ancestors that were lived in this house. Now the journey up that beautiful staircase under the clerestory window will elevate us to another level, encompassing the essence of Mrs Gaskell into the whole house.”
“Thinking of Mrs Gaskell’s own reaction to the project, in her day I think that she would have been horrified by the thought of visitors to her bedroom, famously known for being a very private person. But I feel that were she a time traveller, and as a forward thinker, she would see the benefit of the conservation, restoration, education and enjoyment that her house gives to others.
“Every element of the Elizabeth Gaskell House project has been hard won; from the initial fundraising, the various set backs during the restoration and now a pandemic to interrupt and impede this new project. Those involved have, with their fortitude, tireless energy and enthusiasm completed another new and exciting project: the bedroom.” Elizabeth Gaskell’s House will be open every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 11:00am to 4:30pm. Entry is £5.50 for adults and £4.50 for concessions (senior citizens and students). Tickets can be pre-booked up to two weeks in advance via www.ticketsource.co.uk/elizabeth-gaskell-house
DEBORAH LILITH HATSWELL is a phenomenonist, writer, podcaster, Investigator and the founding member of the Being Believed Research and Investigations group. Deborah is the UK’s leading expert on the British Bigfoot and Dogman phenomenon and she has taken or researched over 3000 personal witness reports from all across the globe. Deborah is based in Lancashire and has formed a team of volunteer investigators researching the many witness reports that are reported each week to BBR.
Deborah is a witness herself to an impossible creature that she saw in 1982: “It took 30 years for me to find an official body that would take myself and my experience seriously. During those years, I found thousands of people in a similar position. Their experiences were with Reptilian or Cryptid Creatures, Alien Beings and Shadow People, Invisible Entities and all manner of Dimensional Entities. Many of the witnesses are abductees who have had a lifetime of interaction. Some families have had to deal with phenomena for generations. There are cattle mutilations and missing people all across the UK.”
Deborah set up BBR to help those people find somewhere they could report their experiences to and encourages them to investigate the cases and theories for themselves.
Now it is time to bring all of the so-called ‘alternative subjects’ under the same roof and let’s share our knowledge bases in the hopes of answering some of the still unanswered questions...
AN OLD WOMAN AT THE WINDOW - WITNESS REPORT FROM THE MIDLANDS:
“Last Wednesday 14/7/21 around four o’clock in the afternoon. I had to take a visit to my local shops which are only a short walk away from my home. On the way there I had to stop to tie my shoelaces as they had become loose. I bent down to tie them and as I did I had the feeling I was being watched. Which at the time was not that unusual to be honest as I was on a main road. As I stood up and looked around I happened to look up at an old house where there was an old lady who caught my attention from an upstairs window. She was standing there as plain as day and she was calling me with her hands to come to the house. I hesitated as she was a stranger to me and I get quite anxious at times, but what if she needed help? I didn’t know what to do as she kept on calling me, as if to say ‘come here, come to the door’. I decided she probably needed help so I started to walk down her garden path to the front door.
She was an ordinary looking lady, grey, white hair, she looked like someone’s Grandmother or aged Aunt. As I looked back up at the window I noticed her walk away. I expected her to open the door but when I got to the door and knocked on it a different lady came to the door and said ‘yes can I help you?’ I felt really awkward and I was like ‘ermmmm, the old lady from the upstairs window got my attention and asked me to come to the door’. The lady looked horrified as I explained and she said ‘No, not at this house I’m afraid, I think you got the wrong house.’ I felt like I’d been stitched up here, was somebody playing a prank? Was this some kind of TV show thing? I took a few steps back and pointed up at the window in question and explained it was definitely that window there. So she came towards me and looked up and said ‘which window?’ So I pointed up again, and she looked at me and was almost in tears and said, ‘please just go away.’
I apologised and walked away confused. I walked away thinking what!!! I won’t bother again! I had almost gotten to the bottom of the road when I heard a voice shouting ‘excuse me’ coming from behind me. I turned around to see this chap walking towards me and he was gesturing for me to wait. I thought he was going to ‘start on me’ for knocking on the door and upsetting his wife. This wasn’t the case as he first apologised for his wife’s actions and then he went on to explain the situation to me that his motherin-law, his wife’s mother had passed away several weeks ago, the window I pointed at was in fact her bedroom and the one passed away in. This chap asked if I knew this information or knew the family and if it was a prank, I explained to him how I saw the old lady from the street and she called me to the door.
Let’s just say we had a good chat and went on our way.”
- Raymond White I once heard from a lady named Gill Walker, who lives in Grays Essex who had an entire conversation with an elderly chap in the local cafe. They chatted about their love of dogs and how the chap was a little worried as he was waiting for his wife to arrive. She had gone into the hairdressers as she did every week to have her hair set. Gill and the elderly man shared stories of their children, until my friend realised she had been sitting there so long her coffee had gone cold.
Gill looked up in the hopes of catching the owner’s eye for a refill when she realised everyone in the cafe was staring at her table. She turned to see if the chap saw this also and he was gone. He had simply vanished along with his tea cup and saucer. Gill was really confused and thought at first it was some kind of prank. The owner at first thought she was some kind of nut who had been sitting talking to herself for over an hour. Gill explained about the old man who was sitting there when she first sat down. The cafe owner asked her to describe the man she was talking to and what their conversation was about? When she did, the cafe owner explained the chap was called Frank Avis. He had lived along the road from the cafe and would visit most mornings with his wife until she passed away, then he would come alone and if anyone asked if he was waiting for someone he would reply that he was waiting for his wife. He too had passed on a number of years ago
Gill was completely overcome with a wave of sadness, before complete confusion hit. She muttered her apologies and excuses and got out of there as fast as her wobbling legs would allow.
A HAUNTED HOUSE IN THE CALDER VALLEY - WITNESS REPORT:
“In 1970 my family member and her husband bought a large four storey Victorian house. They managed to get it at quite a surprisingly low price for the size and location. The house had small woodlands behind it which dropped down to the river Calder and the Calder Valley.
I spent a lot of my childhood there but I never felt comfortable in the house. I loved spending time with my family. On the first day my eldest sister moved in, strange events started to happen. The first events that I remember happened around a framed picture of an older lady in Victorian attire that had been found in the cellar. My sister thought this might have been the original owner of the house and out of respect she decided to hang the portrait in the entrance hall. No matter how many times my sister hung it up it always ended up on the floor, yet the string and the nail remained intact. Or the picture when hung straight would be found lopsided. No matter how many times it fell, surprisingly the glass never broke.
Once I visited with my younger sister and our mum. I remember mum calling up the stairs for her to come downstairs but she was getting no response. Mum shouted “what are you doing up there”? And the next thing that happened was that my sister came out of a downstairs room. My Mum looked really confused and said ‘I’ve just seen a girl run across the top of the stairs wearing a red skirt. My sister was wearing jeans at the time. My older sister said she’s seen this girl a few times before, just flashes of her out of the corner of her eye and only ever upstairs. At this point I have to mention my oldest sister was always very sensitive to spirit and nothing fazed her. She often spent weeks on her own there as her husband’s work took him out of the country a lot.
They did quite a lot of improvements on the house over the years they lived there. One improvement was raising the floor in the main room, to try and make it warmer by reducing the size, as the room was always so cold. One night my eldest sister was sitting in there reading when she suddenly saw, half? yes’ half a lady who was carrying a tea tray wearing a mop cap as she glided across the floor through the lounge and out into the kitchen. All she could see was this lady’s torso from the waist up. My sister jumped up and followed her into the kitchen but the lady had gone!
My sister reckoned this woman was walking on the level of the old stone floor that was there before the renovation and that’s why she could only see her top half.
Now there were six bedrooms upstairs in the house but only two in use. One was the master bedroom and the other room I stayed in with another of our sisters. I would never sleep in that room on my own! Every night our blankets would be pulled off us by unseen forces. Our feet would be tickled, we even heard a child laughing. At this time nothing bad ever happened, just strangeness. The room at the end of the corridor always scared me the most but when her cat had kittens they were always going into this room so of course I found myself in there more often than not. I’d always put my shoe by the door to make sure it didn’t close on me. There was just something about that room that wasn’t nice. The far corner of the room always seemed darker than the rest of the room. One of the kittens was sitting staring at that corner and as I went to retrieve it the bloody door slammed shut on me. I screamed blue murder as I couldn’t open it. I was shouting and crying to my sister, convinced she was holding the door handle on the other side, when it suddenly opened and I legged it out of there still screaming. As I passed the landing window I saw my sister outside in the garden! My older sister tried telling me that the door was prone to sticking (but years later she admitted she’d lied about that). My shoe that I put in the gap of the door was nowhere to be found and I had to get two buses home with one shoe and one slipper on, we never did find it. Another strange event happened to my sister when she was 16. She was staying at my sister’s house with mum and our mum found her standing at a window which was two floors up and below was a cobbled path leading to the woodlands. She was in some sort of trance with tears rolling down her cheeks. Mum had to shake her to get her to respond. She said she’d had an urge to jump out of the window. My older sister did some research and found out that a young girl HAD killed herself at the house 80 years earlier. She died after leaping out of this very window! So many other things happened at that house. Far too many to list here.
After too many events my sister and her family finally had enough of the house and decided to sell it. A week before they were due to move my sister suffered a slipped disc and was on bed rest for the next 6 weeks, so the sale fell through. The second time they found a buyer once again a week before the move her husband lost control of his car in an accident. He ended up wrapping the car round a lamp post breaking both his legs. As you can imagine the sale fell through. The third time they tried to sell it a pipe burst flooding the master bedroom! My sister reckoned the house refused to let them leave. As the house had servants quarters that were empty and seldom used they decided to have building work done to split it into two houses and sold the upper part whilst they still lived in the bottom half.
...Until next time, Deborah
E debbiehatswell@gmail.com | D debhatswell.wordpress.com | T BbrDeborah
