A NEW project is celebrating the area's landscape.
The Bronte Parsonage Museum at Haworth has joined forces with Ilkley Literature Festival to commission SOUNDLANDSCAPE: The Wild Hauntings on the Moor.
Obscura Theatre has created an audio piece and accompanying illustrated maps exploring the landscapes and supernatural themes that run through many Bronte stories.
Produced to tie in with the parsonage museum's Year of the Wild initiative and as part of Ilkley Literature Festival's 50th anniversary celebrations, the piece is in two parts, set across different time periods and landscapes. A Dream of Death is set in Haworth in 1823, and Shadows on Shadows in Ilkley 150 years later.
Both stories have been developed by director Beth Knight with Obscura's writer, composer and sound designer Patch Middleton and director and producer Emily Oulton.
The audio is designed to be downloaded and listened to while walking in the relevant landscape.
Using headphones and a map, people can listen to and be guided by narrative performed by actors Riana Duce and Olivia Sweeney.
Sassy Holmes, programme officer at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, says: "SOUNDLANDSCAPE is a mysterious and thrilling audio experience.
"Gothic in tone to mirror the Brontes’ work, the commission ties in brilliantly with our Year of the Wild, tapping into local folklore and venturing out into our stunning Yorkshire landscape.
"Working with Obscura and Ilkley Literature Festival has been a really enriching experience and we are excited to be able to share these wonderful, atmospheric pieces."
Erica Morris, director of Ilkley Literature Festival, says: "Since the very first festival in 1973, it has championed new writing, brought literature into conversations with other art forms, and celebrated links between language and the natural world.
"Now, 50 years on, we're delighted to have co-commissioned SOUNDLANDSCAPE, which perfectly encapsulates so many elements of what has made Ilkley Literature Festival such an enduring part of Yorkshire’s literary landscape.
"It has been a privilege to work on this commission."
The project – funded by Arts Council England and Ilkley Town Council – will be launched on Saturday (July 29), Emily Bronte's birth date, and will continue until the literature festival in October.
Listeners will be sent a link to access the audio when they buy a ticket, on a pay-what-you-decide basis, online – at bronte.org.uk or ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk/whats-on – or in person from the parsonage museum or The Grove Bookshop, Ilkley.
Headsets will be available to borrow from the outlets.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here