What was the name of the school at Cowan Bridge attended by Charlotte and Emily?

The school at Cowan Bridge attended by Charlotte and Emily Brontë was Cowan Bridge School, formally known as the Clergy Daughters’ School. It opened in 1824 in Lancashire for daughters of less prosperous members of the clergy, and Patrick Brontë sent four of his daughters there: Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily.

Charlotte and Emily arrived in September 1824, after their two older sisters. The school’s harsh discipline, poor food, inadequate heating and outbreaks of disease became a defining trauma in the family’s history. Maria and Elizabeth fell ill in 1825 and died after being brought home, prompting Patrick to withdraw Charlotte and Emily.

Charlotte later transformed her memories of the school into Lowood Institution in Jane Eyre. The fictional school’s cold rooms, hunger, illness and severe authority figures echo accounts of Cowan Bridge, although historians caution that Charlotte’s literary portrayal also reflects her interpretation and later artistic shaping of events. The school subsequently moved to Casterton in the 1830s.