Photos and the City

Tag: Yorkshire

Top Withens

Top Withens – the rumoured inspiration for Brontës “Wuthering Heights”. Even so, that might not be true walking there is a wonderful circular walk through Brontë Country.

I started at Haworth Main Street, passed the church and the parsonage and in the direction of the Lower Laithe reservoir, opened in 1925.

Passing through Stanbury – if it wouldn´t have been in the morning I might have stopped in one of the two pubs….

Moorland paths

Emily Brontë loved the moors. They were a playground and an escape. As an adult she walked them regularly, alone or with her sisters and they feature heavily in her writing. Her fictional interpretation of the landscape has become one of the reasons for our own romantic view, but she would have been well aware of the hardship and danger for the people who lived and worked there. (The History Girls)

Originally known as “Top of th’Withens”, Top Withens was probably built in the second half of the 16th century by George Bentley (or his relatives). At the time of the Brontës, it was inhabited by Jonas Sunderland and his wife Ann Crabtree (from 1811) and then their son, Jonas, with Mary Feather (from 1833). It was last inhabited by Ernest Roddy in 1926. (Wuthering Heights.co.uk)

View from Top Withens

Most farms relied on dairy farming for the bulk of their income, but those nearest the moors also kept sheep, while setting aside small tracts of land for pasture and cattle meadows, and to grow oats. The meagre living scratched from the earth by moorland farming families was never enough to thrive, and most would have relied on quarrying and weaving to supplement the family income. The Worth Valley surrounding Top Withens is dotted with old quarry sites. (Britainexpress)

The views from Top Withens over the moors were simply stunning. It´s the perfect place for a little picknick, lying under the trees and just looking around.

From here I simply followed the Brontë Trail to the Brontë Bridge and Waterfall.

Brontë Bridge & Waterfall

“I intended to have written a line yesterday, but just as I was sitting down for that purpose, Arthur called to me to take a walk. We set off, not intending to go far; but though wild and cloudy it was fine in the morning; when we got about half-a-mile on the moors, Arthur suggested the idea of the waterfall; after the melted snow, he said it would be fine. I had often wished to see it in its winter power, so we walked on. It was fine indeed; a perfect torrent racing over the rocks, white and beautiful!” (Charlotte Brontë, November 29th 1854)

I made my way back into Howarth and treated myself to some cream tea – the scones were delicious!

29/08/2019
Haworth Main Street

About half a mile long, going steady up, filled with lovely cottages, shops and cafés – the lively Main Street in Haworth invites you to take a little stroll!

And is also the perfect backdrop for a little photoshoot with actor Ciaron Davis, who was incorporating his inner Heathcliff.

Haworth became famous as the village where the Bronte sisters wrote their classic novels, often inspired by the surrounding moors. But at the time of the Bronte sisters Haworth and most of Yorkshire wasn´t that picturesque village we see today…

Haworth in the mid 1800’s was not the romantic village that one thinks of when reading all those books written by the Bronte sisters, but in reality was quite a grim place to live and had many social problems because of it’s poor water supply and virtual lack of sanitation. (Bancrofts from Yorkshire)

Yorkshire was filled with mills and factories and most of the workers lived in very poor conditions.

Pastor Patrick Bronte, the father of the Bronte sisters, petitioned for clean water and better healthcare. Luckily we don´t have to worry about this today. The BBC movie “To walk invisible” shows how much darker Haworth probably looked during the times of the Bronte and was shoot in and around Haworth.

Today we can enjoy a lovely variety of shops and coffee houses along the main street leading up to the church and the parsonage.

This archway was called “Gauger’s Croft” –

“A Gauger is an old name given to the exciseman whose job it was to put down illicit distillation and smuggling.” (Haworth Village)

This area was probably used to store wine and spirits for the surrounding crofts.

The Cabinet of Curiosities – this was my favourite shop, filled with lovely & funny little things and I just had to go in every time I passed by. During the time of the Brontë family, this used to be the druggist house where Branwell Brontë bought his Laudanum, an opiate.

Haworth has hosted many movies and tv shows in the last centuries, like “The Railway Children”, “Yanks”, “Wild Child” and “To walk invisible”, the BBC movie about the Brontë sisters.

The old schoolhouse on the right and the parsonage on the left.

27/08/2019
Penistone Hill

I followed one of the paths going out from Haworth in direction of Oxenhope – it was quite the spontaneous choice or better said, I wanted to do a quick visit to the supermarket and combine it with a walk there.

Between Haworth and Oxenhope lies the Penistone Hill Country Park – a beautiful open space moorland with views wide into the valley.

Penistone Hill also served as the location for the “Bronte Personage” and actually Haworth for the BBC-production “To Walk Invisible”, a movie about the Bronte family. During the time of the Brontes, there wouldn´t have been any trees around the personage or the cemetery like there are today, so the movie set had to be rebuilt in the moorlands.

it is believed that Penistone Hill derives its name from the gambling game Gamepenny Stone. It is known that men would gather on Penistone Hill to gamble over this game as the quarries afforded the opportunity to gather together easily. Partaking in the game often involved being brought in front of the local magistrates for playing on the local highway or even for playing on a Sunday. (wikipedia)

Sandstone was formerly quarried in the moorland and the quarries are still quite visible.

20/08/2019