Real Places in...JAne Eyre

Cowan Bridge School

​There are several important settings in Jane Eyre and although Charlotte Brontë never uses actual place names, we can draw some clues from the author's own life experiences. The novel begins with Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall and Lowood School, which was based on Charlotte Brontë's experiences at the Clergy Daughter's School in Cowan Bridge in Yorkshire. 
  

Moorseats Hall

After Jane leaves Thornfield, she wanders the moors until she comes to the town of Morton, a place she based on Hathersage in Derbyshire. She stays with her cousins, the Rivers, at Moor House (Moorseats Hall).

Norton Conyers

One of the novel's most important settings is Thornfield Hall, Mr Rochester's estate, where Jane comes to be governess to his young ward, Adèle. Both North Lees Hall in Hathersage and Norton Conyers in Yorkshire lay claim to being the original Thornfield. ​

Wycoller Hall

When Jane finally returns to Thornfield Hall, she finds that it has burnt down and that Mr Rochester (now maimed and blind) is living at Fearndean Manor , which Brontë  modelled after  Wycoller Hall near Colne in Lancashire.