It is south-east of the town of Kirkby Lonsdale where the main A65 road crosses the Leck Beck.

Charlotte described the abuses, the typhus epidemic in which seven pupils died, the scandal which followed, and subsequent reform of the school in Jane Eyre.

Reverend Brocklehurst is a portrait of William Carus Wilson, who managed the school in the Brontës' time.

Williams, Charlotte describes overhearing an elderly clergyman talk about reading Jane Eyre and saying "Why, they have got Cowan Bridge School, and Mr. Wilson here, I declare!

When the Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell came out, Beale began to write her own unfavorable impressions of the religious education handed out there.