One of Britain's oldest literary societies faces uproar at its annual meeting today over a charity commission investigation and the unexplained suspension of its director.
Members of the Bronte Society will challenge the ruling council over fears of bankruptcy at the celebrated Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, where the legacy of Charlotte, Emily and Anne has been a source of turmoil for a decade.
The society has been warned by charity commission auditors that its financial problems are "most urgent and pressing" after successive annual deficits of more than £70,000 that have eaten into capital reserves.
Members will also protest at what one yesterday called "getting the mushroom treatment over the director's suspension - being kept in the dark and fed on you know what".
The society's difficulties involve a series of subplots worthy of the Bronte sisters, following a furore eight years ago over a planned underground extension of the parsonage financed by an anonymous gift of £1m.
The donation was withdrawn after bitter divisions between the society's 3,000 members and the voting-out of the old council that had fostered the scheme. "The new arrivals presented themselves as the 'listening council' but I'm afraid that they seem to have made exactly the same mistakes," said Kathy Geldard, a vice-president of the society and its former honorary secretary.
"Because the old council were bound to confidentiality by the would-be benefactor, they were caught in the trap of seeming to be secretive. Now things seem to have gone the same way again."
Director Mike Hill resigned last month after a two-months suspension, with no comment from either side on what lay behind what the society called "a private internal matter." Respected in the northern arts world, Mr Hill is thought to have ruffled some society feathers by cooperating in a local newspaper's April Fool joke last year, praising a fictitious plan for a 30-acre Bronte theme park as "welcome, because the parsonage needs livening up".
Once Britain's second literary shrine after Stratford-upon-Avon, the former home of the Brontes in the Pennine village of Haworth has seen visitor numbers drop from 200,000 10 years ago to 80,000 last year. The loss in income has worsened the squeeze on resources, with some 20 staff to be paid and regular maintenance bills for the historic building.
The charity commission report specifies that "from information available, it is clear that on present trends the charity will not survive for very many years".
The commission's audit also warns that the 21-member council of trustees may be too large and unwieldy to make critical decisions effectively.
The council chairman, Margaret McCarthy, was travelling to Haworth from her London home yesterday and was not available for comment. But she said earlier: "In 100 years' time the Bronte Society will be as strong as we are now and people will still be able to visit the beautiful Bronte Parsonage Museum."
