Guide · Heritage Brontë
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The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway is a five-mile heritage steam railway running through the Worth Valley from Keighley on the main Bradford-Skipton line to Oxenhope at the valley head, passing through Ingrow, Damems, Oakworth and Haworth. It has been operated by volunteers since 1968, when BR closed the line and the local community raised the money to buy and reopen it.
Taking the steam train to Haworth — if your itinerary allows it — adds a dimension to the visit that the drive cannot provide. The Worth Valley is the valley that the Brontë family knew, and arriving in Haworth by the same route (though not the same steam train) that the family's visitors and the first literary pilgrims used in the Victorian period is a different beginning to the day.
The Worth Valley Railway was built in 1867, funded largely by Titus Salt Junior (son of the great Bradford industrialist) and other local businessmen who needed a rail connection for the valley's textile mills. It opened in April 1867, twenty-two years after Charlotte Brontë published Jane Eyre and nine years after her death. It was never a major railway — it served a single industrial valley — and British Rail closed it in 1962 as part of the Beeching rationalisation.
The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway Preservation Society was formed in 1962, immediately after the closure was announced. It took six years of fundraising and preparation before the line reopened as a heritage operation in 1968 — making it one of the earliest and longest-running volunteer-operated heritage railways in Britain.
Oakworth station on the KWVR is one of the most filmed railway stations in Britain. The station — preserved in its 1910 Edwardian condition, with gas lighting, original furniture and period signage — was the location for the station scenes in The Railway Children (1970), directed by Lionel Jeffries and starring Jenny Agutter. The film has been consistently popular since its release and Oakworth station receives a steady stream of visitors specifically because of its connection to it.
Other film and television productions filmed at Oakworth or on the KWVR include Yanks (1979), Peaky Blinders and Downton Abbey.
The journey from Keighley to Haworth takes approximately 20 minutes by steam or heritage diesel train. The line climbs through the Worth Valley, with views of the millstone grit upland on both sides — the dark stone villages, the old mill chimneys, the sheep pastures climbing towards the moorland edge.
Haworth station is at the bottom of the village, about a ten-minute walk from the parsonage. The station building is original (though not of the same period as the current railway operation) and has a small refreshment facility.
Services: The KWVR operates on weekends year-round and daily during summer holidays and school holidays. Service frequency varies by season — check the KWVR website for the current timetable.
Fares: Return adult fare between Keighley and Haworth is approximately £14 (check current prices). Day Rover tickets covering the whole line are available and give better value if you want to stop at Oakworth or Oxenhope.
Keighley connections: Keighley is served by Northern Rail trains from Leeds (approximately 25 minutes) and Bradford Interchange (approximately 20 minutes). The KWVR station is adjacent to the main Keighley station.
On our tour: Our Brontë Country Day Trip travels by road. If you want to travel to Haworth by steam train and join us there, please contact us to discuss the logistics.
The Brontë Country Day Trip departs from Windermere at 9am and includes Haworth Parsonage entry. Book here.
Planning a Brontë Country day? These go well together:
Five miles, from Keighley to Oxenhope, passing through Ingrow, Damems, Oakworth and Haworth.
Volunteers, since 1968, when the local community raised the money to buy and reopen the line after British Rail closed it.
In 1867, funded largely by Titus Salt Junior and other local businessmen who needed a rail connection for the valley's textile mills.