The old part of Haworth has a steep, cobbled Main Street leading down from the church, with alleys and courts branching off it, but the village expanded in Victorian times, stretching down the hillside towards the river and railway.
At the time of the Brontë family, this was already a thriving and squalid early industrial town that provided the backbone of Victorian industrial wealth. Many of the older cottages still retain their weaving lofts with multi-paned windows providing maximum light, pre-dating the new water- and steam-powered mills.
Haworth had grown rapidly at the beginning of the 19th century and was overcrowded, lacking sanitation or proper drainage, with refuse left to rot in the streets. Disease, particularly typhoid, was rife; even in the 1850s half the children died before they were six, and average life expectancy was just 25 years — figures that equalled the worst London slums.
This high mortality rate led to overcrowding in the graveyard until finally the old parish church, with its cottage windows, had to be pulled down in 1879 because of the excessive number of bodies in the vaults and graveyard threatening the town's survival (the Brontë Parsonage drew water from a well sunk into the graveyard). The present church, built in 1880, has a chapel in memory of the Brontë family.
Behind the church is the Black Bull Inn, where Branwell Brontë spent much of his time, drinking himself to an early grave with a mixture of Yorkshire ale and opium.
Just outside Haworth is a 17th-century farmhouse that became the setting for 18th-century revivalist meetings led by English Evangelical preacher William Grimshaw. A close friend of John Wesley, his fiery zeal attracted congregations from miles around, and Grimshaw would often leave meetings to bring idlers off the streets and from nearby public houses into his sermons.
Penistone Hill appears in Wuthering Heights as Penistone Crags, a local beauty spot near Thrushcross Grange. The quarry here provided stone for the paving blocks in the High Street and for Haworth's dark buildings; looking at the now-disused gritstone quarries on the edge of the moor, it is hard to imagine that as late as the 1920s a hundred men hewed stone here. Penistone Hill is now a country park, and from the summit there is a spectacular view over the bleak, open Pennines.
Brontë Waterfalls, which tumble into Sladen Beck, was a favourite haunt of the sisters and is described in their poems and letters. A few yards down from the stream is the Brontë Seat, hewn out of a single piece of rock, and high up on the moor is Top Withens — the ruin of a lonely farmhouse said to have been the inspiration for Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights (see my walk to Top Withens here).
Stanbury is a typical Pennine moorland village. It was the home of Timothy Feather, known as "Owd Timmy", the last handloom weaver in Yorkshire; while steam-powered West Riding mills of the 19th century saw the demise of this cottage industry, Owd Timmy pursued his craft until his death in 1910 aged 85 (his loom is on display in Cliffe Castle Museum in nearby Keighley).
Continuing on to the village of Oakworth, one of the highlights is Holden Park, once the home of inventor, manufacturer, and parliamentarian Sir Isaac Holden. Now a delightful and unusual garden laid out in his memory by his grandson Francis Illingworth, it features elaborate stone grottos and walkways surrounding the bowling green that are a delight to explore.
Oakworth Railway Station on the Keighley and Worth Valley line has been beautifully restored as a Victorian country halt with a 1950s flavour. Old advertisements, genteel waiting rooms, ticket machines, and gaslights add to the atmosphere, while milk churns and old-fashioned leather luggage wait on the platform and staff dress in immaculate period costume (this was the station used for the film The Railway Children).
The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway is one of the finest restored steam railways in the country, running regular daily steam services in summer and at weekends during winter. Originally opened in 1867 to carry passengers and bring raw materials to valley mills like Vale Mill — which lies close to Oakworth Station and dates from the 1780s — the line is deeply tied to the industrial heritage of the area. Vale Mill spun cotton before turning to worsted manufacturing in the 19th century under the strict Methodist Sugden family, who forbade workers from drinking, gambling, or stepping out of line under penalty of ostracisation. From the mill it is a short walk back to Haworth, which can be shortened by catching the train from Oakworth Station to Haworth Station.
Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.
