362 September Walks from Haworth

Our next walking will be on

Saturday 12th September 2015

and will be from 

Haworth and Brontë Country

Haworth is a hilltop village not far from Bradford

in the heart of West Yorkshire's Bronte Country.

Heather covered moors with great expansive views

Situated above the Worth Valley amid the bleak Pennine moors, Haworth is internationally famous for its connection with the Bronte sisters, who were born in Thornton (near Bradford), but who wrote most of their famous works while living at the Haworth Parsonage (which is now a museum owned and maintained by the Bronte Society), while their father was incumbent parson at the adjacent Haworth church.

Other attractions include the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway,  
an authentic preserved steam railway which has been used as a setting for numerous period films and TV series, and which also plays a starring role in the village's annual 1940s weekend where locals and visitors alike don wartime attire for a host of nostalgic events. 

 Several public footpaths lead out of the village, and there is much scope for rambling, though perhaps the most famous walk leads past Lower Laithe Reservoir to the picturesque (but unspectacular) Bronte Falls, the Bronte Bridge, and the Bronte Stone Chair in which (it is said) the sisters took turns to sit and write their first stories. This path (which forms part of the 64 km (40 mile) long Bronte Way) then leads out of the valley and up on the moors to Top Withens, a desolate ruin which was (reputedly) the setting for Heathcliff's farmstead in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights". [N.B. Top Withens can also be reached by a shorter walking route departing from the nearby village of Stanbury.] Also nearby is Ponden Hall (which is believed to be the house called Thrushcross Grange in "Wuthering Heights").

                           

Back in the village of Haworth itself there are many good tea rooms, souvenir and antiquarian bookshops, restaurants, pubs and hotels (including the "Black Bull" - where Branwell Bronte's demise into alcoholism and opium addiction allegedly began). As such, Haworth makes an ideal base for exploring the principal attractions of Bronte Country, while still being close to the major cities of Bradford and Leeds.

 There will be 3 walks;

• A Walk led by; Steve Edwards
• B Walk led by; Beverley Kelly
• C Walk led by; Terry Simmons

The heather is in full bloom now and covers the hill sides