Haworth ~ Hard Walk

 

Distance Covered: 7.5 miles Time to Complete Walk 4 hours

Suitable for dog walking: Yes- but  some sheep along the way

This is a brilliant walk in Bronte Country- the world famous sisters who wrote classis such as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Bound to be more popular with an upcoming film of Wuthering Heights, this walk starts in Haworth with its box of delights on Main Street, then take to the moors walking to the Bronte Waterfalls, and onwards to Top Withins and its history with the Wuthering Heights novel itself. Then make your way back to Haworth along the Pennine Way. 

General Safety Tips: You need to have a good level of fitness for this challenging walk. Attempt the walk in dry weather. Wear protection for the feisty cold winds on the moors. 

                                                                The Haworth Walk 

Getting There

Use the postcode BD22 8DA in your Sat Nav. Parking is at the Central Car an Coach car park - this is the one near the Bronte Parsonage Museum car park. Parking is £4.50 for four hours.

Maps of the Haworth walk

The Walk 

From the car park turn right and right again down Changegate.

                                     

When you come to the Kings Arms look for a lane to the left of it signposted to Bronte Parsonage Museum.

Head past the museum and onto a path onto a field.

                                            

Head down the field onto West Lane and turn left and left again at a fork in the road.

Head along Cemetary Way with views on your right of the reservoir. When you come to a road head over and continue on the path ahead.

Follow the moor path for some time until you arrive at the Bronte Bridge and on the other side is the Bronte Seat - a great place for a pitstop.

                                     

Cross over the bridge and up a steep path up to a fingerpost. Head upwards again on a flagged path signposted to Top Withins.

Head along the path which follows a wall at first.

Keep on the moorland path squeezing through a stile with views all around

Coming into view should be Top Withins in the distance which is the old barn. Go over some stepping stones.

Arrive at the Pennine Way junction signpost and then head up left to Top Withins which is great to explore and have a pitstop.

Head back down to the Pennine Way signpost and this time take the left path down To Upper Heights farm.

Follow the path to a signpost and take the left path which passes Lower Heights farm.

Keep heading down until you come to a road. Turn right and head through the village of Stanbury which has a pub called the Wuthering Heights!

When you come to a turning signed to Oxenthorpe, turn left and pass the resorvoir.

Now head climb straight up the road ahead onto Cemetary Way, turn left and head back the way you came back to the car park or is it time to explore the museum or Main Street?

Haworth

Haworth is first mentioned as a settlement in 1209. The name may refer to a "hedged enclosure" or "hawthorn enclosure". The name was recorded as "Howorth" on a 1771 map.

In 1850, local parish priest Patrick Brontë invited Benjamin Herschel Babbage to investigate the village's high early mortality rate, which had led to all but one of his six children, including the writers Emily and Anne Brontë, dying by the age of 31. Babbage's inspection uncovered deeply unsanitary conditions, including there being no sewers, excrement flowing down Haworth's streets, waste from slaughterhouses and pigsties being held for months in fenced-in areas, overcrowded and poorly-ventilated housing, and a poorly-oxygenated and overcrowded graveyard that filtered into the village's water supply. These conditions contributed to an average life expectancy of 25.8 years and 41.6% of the village's residents dying before the age of 6. This report was presented to the General Board of Health and prompted work to improve conditions in the village.

Tourism now accounts for much of the local economy, though the River Worth flowing through the village powered large textile mills providing much employment and later the major attractions being the heritage railway and Brontë Parsonage Museum. In Haworth, there are tea rooms, souvenir and antiquarian bookshops, restaurants, pubs and hotels, including the Black Bull, where Branwell Brontë's decline into alcoholism and opium addiction allegedly began. Haworth is a base for exploring Brontë Country, while still being close to the major cities of Bradford and Leeds.

On 22 November 2002, Haworth was granted Fairtrade Village status. On 21 October 2005, Haworth Fairtrade officially signed an agreement to twin with Machu Picchu in Peru.

Top Withins

Top Withens (also known as Top Withins) is a ruined farmhouse near Haworth, West Yorkshire, England, which is said to have helped inspire Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights. It occupies a high and remote position on Haworth Moor, 1,377 feet (420 metres) above sea level. The name comes from a dialect word meaning "willows".

A plaque affixed to a wall reads:

This farmhouse has been associated with "Wuthering Heights", the Earnshaw home in Emily Brontë's novel. The buildings, even when complete, bore no resemblance to the house she described, but the situation may have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland setting of the Heights.

— Brontë Society 1964. This plaque has been placed here in response to many inquiries.

The popular misconception that Earnshaw's house was styled on Top Withens may have arisen from a series of letters between publisher George Smith and Charlotte Brontë's friend Ellen Nussey, as he sought a list of places that had inspired the novels.

The ruin is east of Withins Height below Delf Hill. It lies on two long-distance paths, the Brontë Way and the Pennine Way. It is a popular walking destination from nearby Haworth and Stanbury. Such is the attraction to Japanese literary tourists that some footpath signs in the area include Japanese text.