Author Alan Titterington holds book-signing session at Pyramid Gallery

Pyramid Gallery has occupied a 15th century building at 43 Stonegate since 1992. “Before that it was a guest house for university students with a tiny shop at the front that sold Christian postcards and pamphlets,” recalls gallery owner Terry Brett. “But in 1848 and 1849 it was rented out to a family named Titterington, who had escaped from the shame of bankruptcy and public vilification in the West Riding.

“They were friends of the Brontes and John Titterington was a close friend and patron of artist and poet Branwell Bronte, who had sadly passed away before the dramatic events that forced the Titterington family into exile in York.”

Alan Titterington, a great great grandson of John Titterington, first came to 43 Stonegate eight years ago while researching the story behind his novel, which follows the misfortunes that lead John Titterington into debtors’ prison in York.

“Alan approached me and asked permission to see all the nooks and crannies of this mysterious building,” says Terry. “I showed him the old servants’ quarters, complete with a cooking range and copper sink in the cellar, and the door that leads to a passageway under the street.

“We looked in the attic with its old floorboards, iron-framed skylight and door that leads to an eight-foot drop on to the stairwell. John told me about his ancestor who had resided here and said that he would show me the finished book.

"All these years later, I am now reading the book with fascination. The story is one of calamitous business decisions, bad behaviour and deceit on the part of his dashing, wealthy and very clever ancestor who was a pioneer in the business of weaving and design of high-quality worsted cloth. And some of the story happened right here in the building in which I run my business every day.”

As well as holding a book-signing session, Alan Titterington will be displaying paintings by Branwell Bronte relevant to the tale he has told, one being the famous Three Sisters painting of the Brontes, the other portraying the Titteringtons.

In addition, Andres Jaroslavsky, the Argentinean figurative painter who lives in York, will be demonstrating the art of portraiture, and as well as working on a portrait at the opening, he will have some of his portraits on the walls too.

Alan Titterington at St Mary’s Church, Luddenden, Halifax, standing by his ancestor's grave

“’I have always felt some emotional draw towards the Bronte story, and here I am working in the location that played its part in John and Mary Titterington’s revival back into society,” says Terry Brett. “I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Yorkshire life and history. I have pledged to donate a percentage of any sales at the book signing to the Bronte society, and profits from sales of the books will be donated too.”

Published by Austin Macauley of London, the book’s cover features an infamous “Hell-fire Club” meeting sketched by Branwell at The Talbot public house in Woolshops, Halifax, in January 1848. In that sketch is the club’s president “Saint” John Titterington, complete with devil’s forked tail, at the heart of this creative, some would say debauched, circle of writers, poets, musicians, and craftsmen.

Controversially in his book, Alan claims that Branwell was a contributor to sister Emily’s epic Wuthering Heights, writing some of the darker, more dramatic scenes he claims were far beyond the imagination of a parson’s daughter sheltered within the confines of a genteel rural Yorkshire parsonage. Before its publication, Branwell was said to have been reading extracts from Emily’s work from his diary in the pubs around Halifax and just such a scene is described in the novel at The White Lion in Mytholmroyd, near Halifax.

Going against previous historians’ beliefs, not least those of Daphne Du Maurier, the author claims even more controversially that Branwell’s dismissal from his tutor’s position at Thorp Green, near York, was not due to a known affair with his employer’s wife Lydia Robinson.

At the heart of the book, the flamboyant, extrovert John Titterington suffers severe deprivation, especially his imprisonment in the notorious debtors’ prison at York Castle from 1848 to 1850 after being publicly disowned on the front pages of The Halifax Guardian by his own father.

Yet he still managed to recover respectability and stand later as agent for his friend Sir Frances Sharp Powell in his successful bid to become the Yorkshire Northern Area’s Member of Parliament.

During his time in York, and in a vain attempt to escape his debtors, he moved with his wife Mary and five children, all under ten years of age, to live at 43 Stonegate, only to be arrested within a month and transferred to the harsh regime of York Castle debtors’ prison.

Charlotte Bronte and her sister Anne, in her dying days, together with their friend Ellen Nussey, made one last visit to York Minster en route to Scarborough, shortly to become the final resting place of Anne, the only Bronte to be buried away from Haworth.

The author claims they made a visit to 43 Stonegate to have tea with their friend Mary Titterington and her children, later to be joined by John, by then on restricted day-release from the prison.

In return for friendship and financial assistance, brother Branwell, an aspiring portrait painter, repaid John’s kindnesses by painting oil portraits of him and his wife Mary. The paintings’ passage over 150 years from origination in their home at Higgin Chamber in Boulderclough, near Sowerby, Halifax, into the author’s possession is carefully recorded in the book.

John relates his fall from grace in Halifax to a clergyman cellmate during his confinement in debtors’ prison and his early release is aided by a surprise visitor: his own illegitimate and enterprising son William, who establishes himself working and lodging in a butcher’s shop in The Shambles, York.

Now the Titterington story comes alive anew in a book available in hard or paperback from bookstores or online from Amazon, who offer it in ebook form too.