West Yorkshire in England is something of a walker’s paradise, being close to both the Yorkshire Dales to the north and the Peak District to the south. While the attractions of both of these national parks are well documented, West Yorkshire itself boasts some smaller but no less impressive areas ideal for walking and rambling.
One of my personal favourites for its sheer diversity is the nineteen mile circular walk which connects Hebden Bridge to Haworth.
Our walk begins at Hebden Bridge, a small town founded in a steep sided valley during the Industrial Revolution. Much of the town you see today was built during the period 1750-1850. Like many of the towns in West Yorkshire, Hebden Bridge was created by the growth of the textile industry, and large solid stone mills were built along the valley bottom.
Today, most of the textile mills have closed – in the recessions of the late 70’s and 80’s English textile companies found that they could not compete with foreign competition, and folded. In many towns in the north of England, recovery has been slow and patchy, but Hebden Bridge has recovered well due in no small part to its beautiful location and its attractive stone town centre.
Today, Hebden Bridge has an unusually relaxed and cosmopolitan air while many of its neighbouring towns are dour, depressed and industrial. Hebden Bridge has a flourishing tourist industry, and is a town where those seeking an “alternative lifestyle” can live and flourish with little comment. House prices are booming, and are amongst the most expensive in the region.
As a result the smallest corner shops in Hebden Bridge contain extensive shelving space dedicated to organic wines and vegan cheese. There are private surgeries offering treatments in children’s homeopathy and organic, traditional butcher’s shops. In the streets, it seems that every other person you see wears their hair long and in dreads. For a small northern town the size of Hebden Bridge, these are remarkable sights indeed!
Tourists are also well served in Hebden Bridge; there are plenty of independent shops dotted along the towns relaxed streets selling all kinds of beautiful ornaments, jewellery, and clothing. To cater for the hippy contingent, other shops sell bright batiks, incense burners, and offer books on mystical issues – tarot card reading and the like.
There is also a range of restaurants – from Greek to Italian, from small coffee shops and tea rooms, to formal linen table clothed restaurants. One of my favourite places to eat is at “Hebdens”, on the edge of town – it is a delightfully relaxed Italian Restaurant with a large and friendly open plan dining area and a large choice of Pizzas and salads to die for, together with an extensive wine list all at reasonable cost. Arrive early; it gets very busy almost every evening.
Hebden Bridge is also well known as the final resting place of troubled poet Sylvia Plath. She is buried in Heptonstall, a steep half mile climb up a cobbled lane from the original old Packhorse bridge, which gave Hebden Bridge its name. Her husband, the poet Ted Hughes was born a couple of miles away at Mythomroyd.
Our hike takes us through the town, so that you get a good view of the old mill buildings, and the rows of terraced stone houses which snake up the hillside. As the hillside is so steep, some of the terraces are built four stories high – at the front you can see all four stories, but at the back of the house, only the top two stories are above the ground. The well built stone construction means that the bottom two stories are seldom damp despite being “under dwellings”.
Leaving Hebden Bridge, we took a short detour through the beech woods at Pecket Well. The steep climb out of Hebden Bridge is rewarded by a sweeping view down across the trees down the valley. I just adore the woods at early spring time. The russet leaves from last autumn are now completely crisp and in the strong spring breeze take on a life of their own as they hurtle through the trees and bushes making that rustling sound.
Under these swirling leaves, new plant growth is visible; the vigorous bright green growth of the bluebells promised a particularly spectacular show later that spring after my visit, and the wild garlic had also made a growth spurt in the past few weeks. In a wind sheltered spot, I discovered a hardy Coltsfoot with four cheerful yellow daisy like flowers in full bloom. I even located some new lime green growth of Sorrel, and of course I just had to eat a little of that refreshing sour tangy clover shaped leaf. Alongside the stream, bright and bushy green mosses cling onto rock sides.
We continued our climb through the woods to Hardcastle Crags an interesting area of rock and weathered boulders, set in 400 acres of woodland, and another tourist attraction in its own right. I understand that 87 species of bird have been spotted here. Having a long walk ahead, I rarely have time to linger here long, and given that there is a large car park near by, it is always fairly busy with families taking in the gusty air.
After Hardcastle Crags we found and followed the route of Haworth Old Road, a packhorse route dating from at least 1600. Haworth Old Road was a route created for the hardy folk who transported goods (mainly home made textiles) from town to town before the advent of canals, steam train and road. Today, some of the hefty stone flags that formed this route remain in place, to serve as a reminder of just how tough life was in those days leading the laden packhorses over the moors. Just how perverse life is that four hundred years later we choose to walk along these routes for pleasure!
As you move out of the woods, you pass through hill farming country first, which in this region is most notable for its dry stone wall field boundaries. The steep valley sides are glacial, and as the ice retreated at the end of the last ice age, many small rocks and boulders were strewn across the valley sides and bottom. Farmers collected these rocks and created their boundaries from them, improving the land in the process. Some of these walls stretch for miles up in symmetry over the rolling countryside – walking through this area always makes me wonder just how many hours of hard labour had been invested into creating this scenery.
As you continue your slow hard slog up the hillside, the land suddenly becomes moor land. Once farmed, this marginal hilltop has now been abandoned to return to open moor land. The boggy peaty land holds the considerable rainfall well; you squelch through the moors, passing through the occasional dry patch to keep your spirits up. As we passed by we discovered frogs spawn in the muddy pools.
The views from the top of the hill is spectacular – in the foreground the moors with its grasses bleached of colour through the ice and wind of winter, and the bell heather, that most spectacular of moor land plants. In early spring, a hint of green strays through its purple-brown base colour. The flowers, which are the most glorious purple in late summer, have been bleached to a dull grey. Further afield, the Yorkshire Moors stretch out before you and giant wind turbines rotate in the distance, generating non polluting electricity. This is a popular region for windmills, winds are rarely severe, but it is also rarely still.
After the yomp over the moor land, we finally drop down to the pretty village of Haworth. If you thought that Hebden Bridge was busy with tourists, just wait till you step foot in the pretty cobbled market square at Haworth! Although the village is quite tiny, with one main cobbled street, snaking down the hillside, the attractions of the Bronte sisters make this a very popular spot.
The Bronte family lived in Haworth between 1820 and 1861. Old man Bronte was the village rector, and lived in the parsonage next to the church. Today the parsonage is a Bronte museum, but like many a local, I have never actually visited it! It was here that Charlotte, Emily and Anne composed many of their so memorable books.
Much of the village as the Bronte’s saw it is still around today – you can visit the church and church yard, and the local pub where Branwell Bronte spent his days in an Opium stupor. I personally prefer the village at dusk – the shops down the main street selling their tourist souvenirs have put them back out of sight, making the shops look more like ordinary residences again, and many of the tourists have also left leaving a quiet deserted and beautiful village. Don’t let my words put you off visiting Haworth, tourists and all, this is a beautiful old village to visit – I just have the luxury of seeing it in a different light as my sister in law lives just three miles away!
One of the amusing aspects of the town is the way that local traders always try to get a Bronte connection in their name – hence you have “Bronte Water” and “Bronte Ice creams” etc. My favourite name has to belong to the hairdresser who goes by the name of “Jane Hair”!
Also at Howarth is the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, one of the last steam train lines left in England, and operated by steam train enthusiasts. The film, “The Railway Children” was filmed here in the late 60’s, and if you have time, a short trip down the tracks on the lovingly restored steam train and carriages is well worth while.
Our return to Hebden Bridge is via a different route, via part of the Pennine Way one of the most popular long distance trails in Britain, and in total some 220 miles long! This route takes us past Top Withens, a derelict farm house on top of the moors, reputed to be the inspiration of the Earnshaw’s house in Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights”. The route here is well used, and new stone flags have been put in place to protect against the erosion of the moor land, by the thousands of feet that stomp up the hill. This is perhaps the only place in West Yorkshire where the signposts are in Japanese as well as English! The story of the Bronte’s must be very popular in Japan; we never fail to see Japanese tourists on this part of the trail. The farmhouse itself must have been little more than a small cottage, it would appear that Emily used the site of the farmhouse for her inspiration, but the house in her novel is quite different.
After visiting Top Withens, our trail takes us back over the moors, and eventually back to Hardcastle Crags, where you can walk through the ruins of what must have originally been a formal Victorian garden. Sprawling Rhododendrons and unusual tree species line your route alongside a small babbling stream, down into the estate itself. We followed the stream back into Hebden Bridge.
Details
Tourist Information Offices in Hebden Bridge and Howarth both hold stocks of a leaflet called “Two Walks linking Haworth and Hebden Bridge”. This costs about 30 pence. The map on the leaflet is rather poor and hard to follow, so I would suggest you hunt down the Ordinance Survey – Outdoor leisure map 21: “South Pennines”, which offers a detailed route map at scale 1:25,000. Most bookshops in the area will stock Ordinance Survey maps – there will be a variety of choices, all showing the route.
Our nineteen mile walk with limited stops (we have seen it all before!) took us about seven and a half hours. If you are less used to walking the distance, there are options to shorten the walk, or perhaps allow ten hours for it to be completed with a few breaks. There are two long stretches of persistent and steady climbing, and the terrain underneath your feet demand stout and strong footwear.
The weather can change very quickly on the moors, and the foreground of the moors is pretty featureless if the mists descend. I would recommend that you check the weather forecasts, and also carry waterproofs, a supply of water and food and a compass. A small first aid kit containing at least a bandage for twisted ankles, plasters for blisters, and in the summer sun block should also be carried.
If my review has whetted your appetite for the region, then you can see some photos and get some more information by visiting the following web address:
http://www.bronte-country.com/hebden-bridge.html
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