The former chairman of the world-renowned Brontë Society has slammed plans to close the Red House Museum, labelling them as an “act of vandalism on the local tourist industry”.
According to an online petition to save Red House, in addition to the reduction in the opening times of museums and galleries across Kirklees, the local council’s proposals now include the complete closure of the museum in Gomersal.
If these proposals are passed, Red House will close in September 2012 and the buildings will be sold - not necessarily as a museum.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, Richard Wilcocks, ex-chair of the Brontë Society, said: “A cut like this would cause irreparable damage, and an important part of the heritage of the Spen Valley and the whole country would be lost.
“Red House is of crucial importance not only for those dismissed in the (council’s) official impact statement as Brontë enthusiasts - a choice of words which implies that they make up a minor group in the same league as trainspotters - but for anyone who believes that the most fitting memorial to Mary Taylor, a highly significant historical figure, not only because of her lifelong friendship with Charlotte Brontë, is the museum situated in her house.
“Perhaps that should be national memorial – let’s move beyond the parochial.”
Built in 1660, Red House was the home of cloth merchants and manufacturers the Taylor family until 1920. It was often visited by Charlotte Brontë and featured in her second published novel Shirley, which is set in Yorkshire during the Luddite unrest in the textile industry.
Red House, a winner of an Interpret Britain Award, also includes recreated 1830s gardens, a restored barn that illustrates the numerous Brontë connections in the area and a renovated cartshed, which houses the Spen Valley Stories gallery.
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