Anne Bronte grave (17^th January 1920 to 28^th May 1849)

Anne Bronte was the youngest member of the literary Bronte family and her novels are still selling. I won’t bore you with her life story but tragedy engulfed the Bronte family and all Bronte children died before their dad. In December 1848 Anne was deeply affected when she watched her 30-year-old sister Emily die on the couch at home at the parsonage in Haworth. Her own health was poor and she probably knew she was suffering from the same ailment (she'd be dead within six months.) She was determined to stay well but medication failed and she got so weak she could hair climb the stairs to her bedroom. The next month - January 1849 - marked her 29th birthday but it was not a time for celebration. She travelled to Leeds to see a physician who diagnosed advanced tuberculosis with no hope of recovery.

The following month Anne felt a little better and wanted to visit Scarborough on the east coast, a place she loved. Her only remaining sibling Charlotte thought it would be too stressful but, knowing it would be for the last time, agreed to take her. Three months later in May they set off from Haworth with their beloved friend Ellen Nussey. On route they spent a day and night in York shopping and visiting the Minster. Anne was so weak she had to be pushed around in a wheelchair. They arrived at Scarborough on a Thursday and booked into Wood's Lodgings in St Nicholas Square overlooking the south bay (since demolished and replaced by The Grand Hotel.)

Within four days Anne was dead. On the Sunday Charlotte asked Anne if it would be better for her to return home to Haworth to die. They asked a doctor to examine her but he said the end was near. Conscious and calm Anne died the following afternoon at about two o'clock in the afternoon. The dinner bell rang as Charlotte closed her dead sister's eyes. Strangely her body wasn't returned to Haworth to be placed into the Bronte vault for Charlotte decided to "lay the flower where it had fallen". The funeral was two days later and their dad was too far away to travel 70 miles for the burial. She was lowered into the earth in St Mary's churchyard below the castle walls.

Here I am by the grave which receives a steady stream of visitors. Different objects adorn the grave every time I visit it - flowers, pens, coins, books, ink pots, necklaces, cards. St Mary's is a beautiful church however building work was being done so the funeral service couldn't be held here - it was held at Christ Church in central Scarborough which has been demolished (Wacker's fish & chip shop and an Iceland store back onto the area where it once stood.) Anne's old teacher and friend Miss Wooler was in Scarborough and attended the burial.

That Wednesday evening I had a stroll around and took some footage. It was about 9pm and still visitors arrived: a hippy woman with a 17-year-old dog, a couple from Hull were "desperate to get away for a couple of nights" and a family from Cornwall hoping the sea air would knock the kids out for 12 hours. The grave had a few items on it. I doubt there was little bury in 1849; Anne was so thin when she died she must have weighed as much as a greyhound. It was a sad life: her mum died when she was one and as the years passed she saw another four siblings get sick and then die. Moreover she died in obscurity without a clue of the legacy she left. What would she think of people reading her work 170+ years on? I did a salute and left.