Numbers 1, 2, 3 and the Flat, Bronte Cottage

Numbers 1, 2, 3 and The Flat, at Bronte Cottage are a group of late 18th-century houses that have been altered. They are constructed of “slobbered rubble” and have a slate roof. The houses are two storeys in height. The left-hand part of the facade has two bays, featuring sashed windows with glazing bars and plain reveals; the right-hand window on the first floor is a modern replacement. A door with a cyma-moulded surround is in the right-hand bay, alongside a sashed window with plain reveals. A further door is located to the right, featuring a late 19th-century surround with a segmental head. Above this door is a two-light window with a stone surround, a slight chamfer, and a flat-faced mullion. The main part of the facade has single-storey canted bay windows with sashed windows on each side of the door. Above, on the first floor, are five two-light windows with flat-faced mullions and surrounds with slight chamfers. A plain stone surround frames the door between the bay windows. Chimneys are present on the gables and on each side of the middle doorway. A plaque on the right-hand (north-east) gable commemorates Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Emily Bronte, who lived at the cottage as pupils of the Clergy Daughter’s School from 1824 to 1825; the school relocated to Casterton in 1833. An engraving of the school from 1824 depicts the facade largely as it is today, though with a schoolroom adjoining at a right angle to the left.