Haworth is a village of approximately five thousand people in West Yorkshire, built on a steep hillside above the Worth Valley. It has a main street, a church, a parsonage, a churchyard, several good pubs and cafés, and a cobblestone gradient that has been testing the legs of literary pilgrims for over a century.
It is also, for anyone who cares about English literature, one of the most significant places in the country. The Brontës wrote Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall here, in a house that stands immediately beside the church that Charlotte and Emily are buried in, in a landscape that had a direct and demonstrable influence on the novels they wrote.
By car: Haworth is approximately 9 miles west of Bradford and 8 miles north of Halifax. The A629 is the most direct approach. Parking is available at the top and bottom of Main Street and in several car parks off the main approach roads.
By train: The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway (KWVR) runs heritage steam and diesel services between Keighley on the mainline network and Haworth (and Oxenhope at the valley head). The journey from Keighley to Haworth takes approximately 20 minutes. Keighley is served by Northern Rail services from Leeds (approximately 25 minutes) and Bradford (approximately 20 minutes).
On our tour: We depart from Windermere at 9am and arrive in Haworth mid-morning. Entry to the Parsonage Museum is pre-booked and confirmed.
Haworth's Main Street is steep, narrow and cobbled — the cobblestones are original and have been preserved by the local council, at some inconvenience to wheeled vehicles and high heels. The street climbs from the Black Bull pub at the bottom (where Branwell Brontë spent a significant portion of his adult life) to the church at the top, with a mixture of gift shops, cafés, bookshops and galleries on both sides.
The street is Victorian in character, having been largely rebuilt during the period of Haworth's prosperity as a wool-trading centre in the 19th century. The buildings are in the dark gritstone that defines the character of the West Yorkshire uplands.
St Michael and All Angels Church at the top of Main Street is where Patrick Brontë was perpetual curate from 1820 to his death in 1861, and where Charlotte, Emily and Patrick Brontë Senior are buried in the family vault beneath the floor of the nave. The church was substantially rebuilt in 1879 (the current building dates from this period), but the vault beneath the chancel floor contains the Brontë family remains.
The churchyard is extraordinary — densely packed with graves, many now illegible with age, surrounding the church on all sides. In the Victorian period, the overcrowded churchyard was a significant source of water contamination for the village and contributed to the high mortality rate that the Brontës themselves suffered.
The parsonage immediately north of the church is now the Brontë Parsonage Museum, operated by the Brontë Society. It is the most significant Brontë site in the world and holds the most important Brontë archive outside the Bodleian Library.
Read our complete guide to the Parsonage Museum.
The moorland above and behind Haworth — accessible via the lane that runs north from the top of Main Street past the parsonage and up through the village of Stanbury — is where Emily Brontë walked throughout her life and where the emotional and atmospheric landscape of Wuthering Heights originates.
The path to Top Withens (the ruined farmhouse associated, loosely, with the Earnshaw family home in Wuthering Heights) is approximately three miles from the parsonage. The walk is moderate in difficulty — some uphill sections, moorland path, occasionally boggy — and takes approximately an hour and a half each way.
On our Brontë Country Day Trip, we drive across the moor road between Wycoller and Haworth, so you'll see this landscape from the vehicle. Your expert storyteller will explain what you're looking at and why it matters as you go.
The Black Bull at the bottom of Main Street is the atmospheric choice — Branwell Brontë spent much of his later life here — and serves a good range of food and real ales. The Haworth Old Hall and several cafés along Main Street cater for the day visitor traffic.
The Yorkshire Tea Rooms, off the upper part of Main Street, is one of the more characterful options for afternoon tea.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum shop carries the best range of Brontë-related books, including scholarly editions, biographies and editions of the novels. For general bookshops, Haworth has several good independent options.
The pottery and craftware available in the village reflects the West Yorkshire craft tradition. Much of it is of high quality.
Haworth Parsonage entry is included in our Brontë Country Day Trip. We depart from Windermere at 9am and return approximately 6:30pm. £179 per person.
Planning a Brontë Country day? These go well together:
Via the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, a heritage steam and diesel line running from Keighley, taking about 20 minutes.
A village of approximately five thousand people, built on a steep hillside above the Worth Valley.
Steep and cobbled — it has tested the legs of literary pilgrims for over a century.
