West Yorkshire Guides

The view from the Parsonage...

It's been said that around one million visitors come to Haworth every year. Some of them even arrive in style aboard a steam train run by the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (KWVR).

Situated on a hillside above the valleys cut by the River Worth and Bridgehouse Beck, the upper and lower parts of the village are linked by the cobbled Main Street with all its nostalgic appeal. Small alleyways run at right angles off the street, leading to cottages which were once the homes of handloom weavers. But it's tourism, not textiles, which is now the main local industry. Postcards and guidebooks are even produced in Japanese!

Bronte biscuits, Bronte fleeces, Bronte flagstones... As Tricia Tillotson, Bradford Tourist Information Centre Manager, comments: "No matter what, you can't get away from the Brontes in Haworth."

The best way to arrive in Haworth?

People come from all over the world to visit the Bronte Parsonage Museum - this, after all, is where all the poems and novels were written. Even today the moors, reached by a path through the churchyard, start just beyond the Parsonage.

A stone marks the site of the gate which the Brontes would have used to reach the church and through which "they were carried to their final resting place." They are buried in a family vault inside the church which is not the one the family knew - it was rebuilt in 1879. There is a Bronte Memorial Chapel in the church with a commemorative plaque to the family.

Thirty-thousand people are believed to have been interred in Haworth churchyard. Today this may be a romantic place but, in the Bronte's time, methods of burial here contributed to a death rate which was estimated to be over 40% higher than in neighbouring villages.

At home with the Brontes in the Parsonage...

The village water supply passed through the graveyard . The high mortality figure was partly due to the custom of covering graves with flat stones which slowed down the rate of decomposition. After a time the bodies would be taken out of their graves and slung into a common pit.

But the Brontes are not the only remarkable women to be buried in Haworth. In 1906 Lily Cove, Britain's first female balloonist and parachutist, was killed after becoming detached from her parachute. Her grave can be seen in the cemetery near Penistone Hill. Lily's ghost is said to haunt the Old White Lion where she was laid out after her accident!

The Tourist information Centre is housed in the distinctively shaped building at the top of Main Street. It was in this building, then a Yorkshire Penny Bank, that the Bronte Society first opened its museum.

Sweets, jewellery, textiles, antiques (not to mention the odd bit of junk), books, furniture, paintings, potteries, toys and souvenirs of every variety can be found in the small shops in Main Street. The old apothecary shop, where Betty Hardacre was in the habit of supplying Branwell Bronte with his laudanum (a derivative of opium), is now a gift shop and guest house. Further down the hill a shop even has everything for witches and New Age enthusiasts but would Patrick Bronte have approved?

Branwell's chair in the Black Bull!

Every second shop appears to be a tearooom. One of these has a well-stocked bakers' counter with many Yorkshire delicacies - treat yourself to a Fatty Rascal. Nearby is a delightfully old-fashioned sweetshop full of mouth-watering jars with names like Yorkshire Mix and Soor Plooms.

And, of course, there are the pubs. Branwell Bronte is known to have frequented the Black Bull where his chair is still on display.

No doubt Branwell drank in most of the village hostelries. The Fleece, towards the bottom of the hill, is the only place in the country that sells all six of Timothy Taylor's locally-brewed beers. There has been many a walker who sets off for the moors but never gets beyond the village pubs.

Walking is the only way to reach Top Withins, the most famous and romantic of the buildings associated with the Bronte novels. Those who feel like stretching their legs can follow our circular walk from Penistone Hill to the ruined farmhouse via the Bronte Waterfalls.

It's a short walk to the Moor from the churchyard!

Ponden Hall, believed to be the model for Thrushcross Grange in Wuthering Heights, can be reached from the road between Stanbury and Wycoller. Now a private residence, Ponden Hall is remembered fondly by many a walker as a place to get a cup of tea or a bed for the night.

For more Bronte associations venture further along this road and across the Lancashire border to visit the picturesque hamlet of Wycoller. The now-ruined Wycoller Hall may have been the setting for Ferndean Manor where Jane Eyre finally found happiness with her Mr Rochester.

Those with young children may prefer to take the Railway Children Walk, a circular route passing many of the locations used in the 1970 film. You can run alongside the steam trains, waving as they pass, just as Jenny Agutter and the other children did in the movie.

Relive the best of the 1940s in Haworth...

Haworth is certainly a place that exploits the past. Wander into Haworth in May and you may just see GIs dancing in the streets to the strains of Glen Miller. It's the annual World War Two weekend so don't be surprised if you hear a sudden roar in the sky heralding the arrival of one of the planes from the Battle of Britain flight. Airmen, tanks, spivs and evacuees - you'll find them all in Haworth!

Come in December and you could find the village children "scroggling the holly."

Best of all, go on a foggy winter's morning when there are few other tourists and you might just get a sense of the village that the Brontes knew - then head for a bright and welcoming cafe.