Christmas Time at Oakwell Hall, Birstall, West Yorkshire

Being a stalwart Brontëite, I am lucky to live near quite a few Brontë landmarks, one of the most beautiful being the 17th century Oakwell Hall. Charlotte Brontë visited here when the hall was a girls' school as she was considering setting up a school in Haworth with her sisters. The Hall is featured in her last novel "Shirley" under the name "Fieldhead". Even if it had nothing to do with the Brontës this place would still be one of my most cherished haunts being a fascinating historic house with beautiful landscaped gardens, surrounded with hundreds of acres of woodland and nature trails.
I've visited Oakwell Hall twice this month, both times mainly to experience traditional Christmas atmosphere as there were Christmas events taking place on both days. On both occasions it was a beautiful winter day, cold but filled with low glowing sunlight.

Sunday 1st December - Deck The Halls

On arrival I took some pics of the back of the house from the gardens and a few around the charming Oak Tree cafe. The low winter sunlight made the place look magic, but it also made for rather tricky lighting conditions for photography. To tone done the contrast between light and shadows I used some Snapseed presets in editing.







Inside there were stalls with local crafts people selling their lovely Christmas decor creations.






Sunday, 15 December - 17th Century Christmas

Before going in to the event I took a couple of photos of the front of the Hall. It was a bit later in the day than the previous visit and the contrast between the light and shade wasn't quite so stark.



Inside the house I found more decorations had been added around the place ....




Small table with festive snacks set up for Mr Batt, the historic owner of Oakwell Hall

The entertainment on the day was provided by The Leeds Waits, who recreated a 17th century Christmas playing seasonal music and enacting historic events. Here are a few snippets of their fascinating olde worlde music.








After the show the players talked to the audience about the instruments they used - harp, hurdy gurdy, recorder, cornett, crumhorn and bagpipes.







It was a lovely day in the runner up to Christmas; in fact, both days were right up my street; I enjoyed every minute of them.





Comments

  1. Jacquie20 December 2019 at 14:21

    What a beautiful place Vesna. I loved your excellent photos.
    Ooooh and congratulations on your retirement too :0)
    Jacquie x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Louise8 January 2020 at 09:37

    That is a beautiful building and I love how natural the decorations are.

    ReplyDelete

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