PROGRAMME 1 BRONTE COUNTRY WEST YORKSHIRE Introduction

We’re walking through West Yorkshire moorland - the backdrop to both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Venturing out on a four day hike, we’ll discover how these moors inspired England’s greatest literary family and two of the finest novels ever written. The Brontes’ books have been translated into almost every language on earth and turned into over a hundred films, plays and dramas. Yet the lives of the three tragic but brilliant sisters and their wayward brother, Branwell, read like one of their books. This landscape gives us a sense of what inspired the Bronte sisters. It offers insight into their lives and those of the lesser known, but no less remarkable, Branwell, and father Patrick, Bronte.

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Day 1. From their birthplace, Thornton, on the outskirts of Bradford, we head for the countryside where so many of their stories were set. We end our first day at the family home in Haworth.

Thornton to Haworth via Black Moor Distance: 7 miles

Day 2. We’re back onto the moors to discover how their storytelling evolved from innocent childhood fantasies. Over Penistone Hill and onto Haworth Moor, where the Bronte children let their imaginations run wild, we then follow the Bronte Way to Wycoller Hall. This ruin in Lancashire is

supposedly the inspiration for Jane Eyre’s final chapter. Haworth to Wycoller, via the Bronte Waterfall, Ponden Hall and Wycoller Hall ruin. Distance: 7.5 miles

Day 3. We’re crossing moors and taking the Pennine Way to Top Withens - setting for the most passionate and controversial Bronte novel of all. Soaking up the eerie atmosphere at the nearby Alcomden Stones, we then drop down into Hardcastle Crags. Here we’ll find out what the talented Branwell Bronte was up to, before ending the day in gentrified Hebden Bridge.

Wycoller to Hebden Bridge via: Top Withens, Alcomden Stones and Gibson Mill. Distance: 15 miles

Day 4.

The final leg of our journey takes us to the pretty village of Luddenden to finish the tale of Branwell Bronte before we head north across our final stretch of moorland. A short train ride from Oxenhope brings us full circle back to the Brontes’ home in Haworth.

Hebden Bridge to Haworth via: Luddenden, Thornton Moor Reservoir and Oxenhope Distance: 12.5 miles

Please use OS Explorer Maps 288 and OL21 (1:25k) or OS Landranger Maps 103 and 104 (1:50k). All distances

approx.

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Now the real walk starts as we head west out of Thornton along the Bronte Way. After a few miles the path passes the Thornton Moor Reservoir on our left. Then we cross Black Moor: the thick carpet of heather and rough grass means only hardy souls like North Country Cheviots are found up here. A glorious view soon reveals our next location ahead. The Bronte Way leads us to St Michael and All Angels' Church in the village of Haworth.

Our walk across Bronte Country begins in Thornton, just outside Bradford. From the centre of Thornton we head up the steep cobbled streets to 77 Market Street.

Day 1 – Places of Interest.s

Thornton to Haworth via Black Moor Distance: 7 miles

The Birth of Genius

In 1815, Reverend Patrick Bronte arrived in the country village of Thornton to set up home with his wife Maria. Today 77 Market Street is a cozy literary café but the plaque on the front reads, “In this house were born the following members of the Bronte family…Charlotte 1816, Patrick Branwell 1817, Emily Jane 1818 and Anne 1820.” Patrick Bronte complained that it was ‘ill constructed and inconvenient’ but it was a happy home for his growing family. The original fireplace - in front of which the Bronte children were born – still survives.

Haworth: A Killer Village

It’s just seven miles from Thornton but for the Brontes, and their two flat wagons, the journey to Haworth would have been hard work. What they found was a far cry from the quaint village we see today. New machines, powered by water and steam, were transforming the cloth making industry. When the Brontes arrived in 1820, Haworth was an expanding township of eighteen textile mills spread out across the valley, employing 4500 men, women and children. Haworth was one of the unhealthiest places to live in Victorian England. Tuberculosis flourished and decaying matter from the graveyard seeped down into the stream that was used for drinking water. Forty percent of children didn’t reach their fifth birthday. The average life expectancy was just 25 years old.

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Great Imaginations

Run by the Bronte Society, the library of the Parsonage Museum contains the world's most comprehensive collection of Brontë manuscripts, letters and early editions of their novels and poetry. Shortly after moving into the Parsonage, the death of Patrick’s wife, Maria, was followed by those of their two eldest daughters, Maria and Elizabeth. They had caught tuberculosis at a nearby boarding school and a devastated Patrick decided to bring up Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne at home. It created a lifelong bond between the four children. To escape the grim realities of life, Charlotte and Branwell created make-believe heroes such as the Duke of Zamorna who ruled imaginary kingdoms called Glass Town, Angria and Gondal. Their tiny handwritten magazines, held at the Parsonage Museum, chronicle these fantasy worlds. Mini adverts attest to their Monty Python and Goon Show styled humour: “To be sold 100 horses by Gerald Dreadful; To be lent the unprecedented sum of six pence by Private Candlestick who dwells between the gates of the wall of Jericho and the wall of China; Grand proposal by Sergeant Shuffle which if put into effect will allow men to go to prison for nothing!”.

At the top of the road we find the Bronte Parsonage Museum, once Patrick’s rather grand parsonage.

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Walking westwards, Balcony Lane takes us to Penistone Hill. After a short invigorating climb we’re blessed with spectacular panoramic views, including Haworth down behind us. Great chunks of stone from old sandstone quarries lie on the hillside. Much of it was supposedly used to pave the streets of London. The path from Penistone leads us onto Haworth Moor and into a hidden valley. Continue across the moor on the Bronte Way past ‘Bronte Bridge’. Just off the main path a short push up the valley brings us to the ‘Bronte Waterfall’.

Back to Bronte Bridge and we’re on the main footpath again. First it’s a lung busting climb up the steep sided valley. Then it’s down towards Ponden Reservoir. Alongside the reservoir is Ponden Hall where the Bronte children once found shelter after an almost fatal walk across the moors.

Day 2 – Places of Interest.s

Haworth to Wycoller via: Ponden Hall and the Bronte Waterfall. Distance: 7.5 miles

Bronte Waterfall

Local legend says these falls were popular with the Bronte girls who used to come here to compose stories. We know Charlotte came here at least once, describing in a letter “a perfect torrent racing over the rocks, white and beautiful”. Just short of the falls is a seat shaped rock, known locally as the ‘Bronte Chair’.

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Ponden Hall: Dicing with Death

In 1824, Branwell, Emily and Anne discovered just how wild these moors could be. They were out walking near a peat bog, which had dried up after a long hot summer. A sudden thunderstorm turned the peat into a rapidly expanding quagmire, creating what’s known as a ‘bog burst’. Patrick Bronte described it as an earthquake but it was more like a landslide with torrents of mud; everything in its way was carried down the valley. The children were rescued and it is believed they were brought to Ponden Hall for shelter. Now a B&B, the children knew Ponden Hall farm well. Indeed, it’s thought some of Angria’s characters were modelled on the Heaton family who lived here.

Mr Rochester

Whilst a teacher in Brussels, Charlotte fell in love with headmaster, Constantin Heger. He was married and made it clear he could never share her feelings. Charlotte came home and poured her frustrations out onto paper. Using the male sounding name, Currer Bell, she created Jane Eyre. It is one of the most passionate love stories of English literature with its brooding hero, Mr Rochester. “His figure was enveloped in a riding cloak, fur collared and steel clasped; its details were not apparent, but I traced the general points of middle height and considerable breadth of chest. He had a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow; his eyes and gathered eyebrows looked ireful and thwarted just now...”

Wycoller Hall Ruin

This late sixteenth century manor house, now a listed ruin, was the inspiration for Ferndean Manor. This is where the lovers, Jane and Mr Rochester, finally come together at the end of the novel. Wycoller Hall was even used to illustrate the cover of the 1898 edition. "The manor-house of Ferndean was a building of considerable antiquity, moderate size, and no architectural pretensions, deep buried in a wood… Even when within a very short distance of the manor-house, you could see nothing of it, so thick and dark grew the timber of the gloomy wood about it.”

Now on the Pennine Way, we’re heading west across (you guessed it!) moorland. Wycoller and the Lancashire border is our target. At Coombe Hill Cross a right hand fork off the Bronte Way leads us through Wycoller Country Park. The path comes to a crumbling ruin. Set amongst thick woodland and a charming brook, this ruin was immortalized in Jane Eyre.

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We step off the well-beaten track in a westerly direction to the highest point on our walk. It’s crowned by a mysterious group of rocks made from millstone grit; they are the Alcomden stones. Although they’re only half a mile from Top Withens, few tourists come here.

Day 3 – Places of Interest.s

Wycoller to Hebden Bridge via: Top Withens, Alcomden Stones and Gibson Mill. Distance: 15 miles

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights was Emily’s only novel. Like Jane Eyre, it’s become a classic love story but it’s a much darker tale set almost entirely on the moors. It’s a savage, supernatural saga of a doomed and tangled romance, between a girl called Cathy, her foster brother Heathcliff and Cathy’s husband, Edgar. The book gets its name from an isolated farmhouse on the moors, where Heathcliff descends into madness. The house Wuthering Heights is of course fictional but that hasn’t stopped legions of fans from around the world trying to find it. The reason so many are convinced Emily had Top Withens in mind is that this picture illustrated the 1872 edition.

Once again on the Bronte Way, we’re walking back through Wycoller Country Park. Passing through becks, cloughs and fords we’re on route to a moortop ruin. The path runs alongside Watersheddles Reservoir and the River Worth towards Ponden Hall. Passing Ponden Hall once again we then fork off south towards Lower Slack. Eventually we meet the Pennine Way climbing its way up to the world famous – and thoroughly well sign-posted – ruins at Top Withens.

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Picking up the Pennine Way south from Top Withens, we’re going in search of the elusive Branwell Bronte. We’re powering four miles south, off the moor, and into the shade of Hardcastle Crags. More reservoirs pass us by before we enter this wooded valley teeming with waterfalls and wildlife. At its heart lies Gibson Mill.

Alcomden Stones

The moor in Emily’s novel is not just untamed; it’s a mythical realm and local legend says that ancient druids used these stones as sacrificial altars. “I sought and soon discovered the three headstones out on the moor. I lingered round them under the benign sky, lingered round the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass and wondered how anyone could imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in this quiet earth.”

Branwell Bronte: The Enigmatic Artist

Branwell was social and outgoing, the complete opposite of his sisters. In the space of twelve months from the age of eleven, he produced a two-volume travel book, at least 34 poems, a verse drama, and at least four (possibly seven) magazine issues. He left home in 1838 to try his hand as a painter. He lacked focus, however, and wasn’t quite the artist he hoped to be. When he was seventeen, he created the famous family portrait from which he later painted himself out. By the start of the 1840s he was living here in the Calder Valley, near Halifax. Calderdale was up and coming and Gibson Mill was one of the first to be built during the Industrial Revolution. In 1839 the valley got a shiny new railway and Branwell became a railway clerk. It was mundane work but well paid allowing him to continue writing poetry. Victorian Halifax was renowned as a centre of art and culture and Branwell was mixing with big names. Liszt, Mendelssohn and Paganini all performed at nearby Halifax, as did poets and sculptors like JB Leyland. In these artistic and literary circles, Branwell’s talent was noted and he started getting published. Long before his sisters got a thing in print, Branwell had poems in the Halifax Guardian, the Leeds Mercury and the Bradford Observer.

Following the stream south for a few miles we arrive at Hebden Bridge. Today it is filled with the sort of artistic types Branwell might well have got along with. Indeed, this former mill town was once voted the 4th funkiest place to live in the UK. In the 1970s and 80s, musicians, artists and New Agers helped revive a town

hit by industrial decline. It also brings us to the end of day 3.

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From funky Hebden Bridge follow the Calder River east. After a short way we veer north east towards Hebden Bridge Golf Club. Take in a cracking view point near Raw Farm. Pick up the Calderdale Way towards Luddenden village, which lies a few miles to the east. Branwell worked at nearby Luddenden Foot and lodged at Brearley Hall. If you fancy a small diversion it is just south of our route along the Calderdale Way.

We’re trekking north across our final stretch of moorland passing wind turbines, a golf course and several huge reservoirs. Heading north out of Luddenden village via Luddenden Dean, we pick up the Calderdale Way again. Shortly after, we take a left hand path towards Ogden Reservoir. The moors round here are littered

with reservoirs, none of which existed in the late 1840’s.

Day 4 – Places of Interest.s

Hebden Bridge to Haworth via: Luddenden, Leeming Reservoir and Oxenhope Distance: 12.5 miles

Branwell Bronte: Despair and Destruction

The traditional view of Branwell is that he was a drunken hell raiser, who neglected his job as railway clerk at Luddenden Foot. In 1842 he found himself in hot water when auditors checked his station’s books. They found eleven pounds, one shilling and sixpence had gone missing. Whatever the truth, Branwell was blamed and got the sack. Devastated by his dismissal, Anne got him a post as a tutor working alongside her for a family at Thorp Green. From here, however, things only got worse. Branwell fell in love with his employer’s wife – an older woman appropriately named Mrs Robinson. She led him on only to spurn his advances. Sacked again, a broken Branwell returned to Haworth to live with his elderly father and three sisters. But he was now on a path to self-destruction. Some believe he was also an opium addict but certainly he suffered from shaking fits brought on by excessive drinking and his alcoholism masked the killer symptoms of tuberculosis. In 1848 he died aged just 31, in the arms of his father who’d had such high hopes for his only son.

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From Haworth station we’re completing our loop of Bronte Country by following the well-marked footpath

back to the family’s home.

The Reverend Patrick Bronte: Social Campaigner

Before a supply of constant and clean water arrived, the local towns were filthy, overcrowded and disease ridden. Soon after Branwell’s death in 1848, Patrick Bronte kick started a campaign to clean up his parish. It would eventually lead to the first reservoirs being built. Born in a poor farm worker’s cottage in Ireland, Patrick fought his way to Cambridge and believed that education was the key to escaping poverty. Whilst his children were excelling in literature, the Reverend engaged in some writing of his own. It took three letters to the Board of Health before they finally sent an inspector to assess conditions in Haworth. The report pointed to a severe lack of clean water and the recommendations – which came after continuous prodding from Patrick – called for water to be stored up and piped down from the moors. Reverend Bronte’s efforts had a huge impact on Haworth and his legacy lives on in the landscape today. It came too late, however, for his own family. Soon after Branwell, he lost Emily and Anne from tuberculosis. By 1849, Charlotte was the only one of his children still alive.

Charlotte Bronte: Revealing the Great Mystery

Now the sole surviving child, Charlotte was persuaded to break her promise to keep the sisters’ identities secret. Her publishers invited her to London where she mixed with the capital’s literary elite and revealed that these three male authors were in fact sisters. The response was harsh. First reviews of Jane Eyre had been positive but when people realized it was written by a woman there was a sharp turnaround. It was considered inappropriate and controversial. Charlotte’s response was to try and create a modest persona for her sisters to protect their memory. In 1850 she wrote a brief biographical notice that was published with a reissue of Wuthering Heights. In it she claimed they were uneducated country girls blissfully unaware of what they were doing when they wrote their shocking novels.

Millions flock from all over the world to visit the Parsonage Museum where this extraordinary yet tragic family once lived. In the 1850s – when Charlotte found fame - the first two Bronte tourists arrived in Haworth. They were sent away from the Parsonage with a flea in their ear. In 1854 Charlotte, aged 38, married her father’s assistant curate and became pregnant. Sadly this tragic story had one more chapter. Charlotte soon fell ill and died at home from dehydration and exhaustion. She is buried next door with Emily and the rest of her family in her father’s church.

Continue north alongside Ogden Reservoir, over Thornton Moor and past two more reservoirs on route to Oxenhope. Near the village museum we pick up the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, an authentic steam railway that runs along the valley to Haworth.