Haworth

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For alternate meanings see Haworth (disambiguation)

Haworth is a village and tourist attraction, in the English county of West Yorkshire, best known for its association with the Brontë sisters.

Brontë Country

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

Haworth is a very popular destination for Japanese tourists. (Wuthering Heights has a cult following in Japan.)

Steam railway

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, including The Railway Children (starring Jenny Agutter), Yanks (starring Richard Gere and Vanessa Redgrave), and Alan Parker's film version of Pink Floyd's The Wall (starring Bob Geldof). Every year the village also hosts a very special 1940s weekend where locals and visitors don wartime attire for a host of nostalgic events.

Famous walks

Many public footpaths lead out of the village, and there is much scope for rambling, though perhaps the most famous walk leads past Stanbury Reservoir to the picturesque (but unspectacular) Brontë waterfalls, the Brontë Bridge, and the Brontë 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 Brontë Way) then leads out of the valley and up on the moors to Ponden Hall (reputedly Thrushcross Grange in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights) and Top Withens, a desolate ruin which was (reputedly) the setting for the farmstead Wuthering Heights in the novel. (Top Withens can also be reached by a shorter walking route departing from the nearby village of Stanbury.)

Traditions

Scroggling the Holly is a traditional custom of gathering holly which takes place each November in Haworth. At the start of the Festive season Bands and Morris Men lead a traditional procession of Victorian children, who follow the Holly Queen up the cobbles to her crowning ceremony on the church steps. The newly crowned Holly Queen unlocks the church gates to invite the spirit of Christmas into Haworth. Father Christmas then arrives bringing with him Glad Tidings and Christmas Cheer to all.

In Haworth itself there are many tea rooms such as 'Cobbles and Clay the Art Cafe', souvenir and antiquarian bookshops, restaurants, pubs and hotels (including the Black Bull, where Branwell Brontë's decline into alcoholism and opium addiction allegedly began). As such, Haworth is a good base for exploring the principal attractions of Brontë Country, while still being close to the major cities of Bradford and Leeds. Further afield lies the historic city of York, and the spa towns of Harrogate and Ilkley - popular spa towns on the edge of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales National Park to the north.

Haworth Arts Festival

The first festival took place in 2000 and was repeated in 2001, but then ceased to operate because of the changing circumstances of the organisers. However a new group of Haworth residents took up the baton again in 2005 and began to build a festival which would combine performing arts, visual arts, street performance and a strong community involvement. The use of many of the local professional and semi-professional musicians, artists and performers has been coupled with a larger name for each festival, providing a local stage for the likes of John Cooper-Clark and John Shuttleworth. The festival continues to expand its horizons, slowly encompassing areas of the Worth valley outside of Haworth itself and is always held on the first weekend in September, starting on the preceding Thursday and running until the Sunday night.

Fairtrade

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

Location

Haworth is located in the high Pennine moors, some 3 miles south-west of the larger town of Keighley and 10 miles west of Bradford. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope. Nearby villages include Cross Roads, Stanbury and Lumbfoot.

Twin towns

• Haworth, USA

References

External links

• Haworth Traders' Association
• Haworth village
• Brontë Country
• Haworth Arts Festival
• The BBC's Haworth Cam
• - Details of dates for the 1940s weekend and other events held in Haworth
• Visit Bronte Country - tourist group
• Haworth Online Haworth Online Community Website.
• Website of the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire
• Information and photographs of Haworth

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Last updated on Friday February 29, 2008 at 08:32:38 PST (GMT -0800)
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