Oakworth back to Haworth

The Railway Children Walk #4

Our route then took us down to Oakworth Station, which is the focal point for a lot of the 'railway' elements of the Railway Children film. Mr Perks, the station porter who befriends the children, lived in the cottage right beside the level crossing. (Now white painted. The adjacent cottage is a more recent addition.)  

Oakworth Station itself featured in many scenes, most notably the tear-jerking bit where the children's father returns from wrongful imprisonment as a spy, and Bobbie (played by Jenny Agutter) runs to him shouting 'Daddy, my Daddy!'  It always makes me cry! (Watch the clip HERE - oh, do watch it!) 

We walked along Station Road, past Vale Mill, the former cotton spinning mill. The road passes under part of the mill and has some sharp, narrow bends. Vehicles are instructed to 'Hoot!' at the worst corner - which I'm sure is an ongoing delight to those still working in the mill's business units! The steps in my photo lead up and under the railway. 

The attractive row of cottages called Vale Fold Cottages, which I assume once belonged to the mill, also featured in the film, during the 'paper chase' scene. 

At this point we found ourselves alongside Bridgehouse Beck again, with some obvious relics from the time when it powered the mills. 

We were just alongside the railway line when we heard a train coming. It was a steam locomotive, though for some reason it was hitched to the carriages backwards (probably because there is no turntable at Oxenhope Station?) Unfortunately we were in deep shade from the surrounding trees, peering through a small gap in the foliage. I didn't have time to reset my camera so I didn't capture the movement sharply but I was pleased nevertheless to have seen the train and got a picture of it, albeit imperfect. It being a hot day, there wasn't much steam! There's something about steam trains that I love though, and to see one when we were doing this iconic walk was 'the icing on the cake'. 

On the way back into Haworth we walked past Ebor Mills, now converted into a residential complex.

The beck in front of the mill might once have been a mill dam and now it is a nature reserve, though currently overgrown by our old friend, the Himalayan Balsam. 

From here it was uphill and then a slow downhill back to Haworth Railway Station where we had started our walk. It had been about six miles of interesting walking through a variety of landscapes - but very hot and humid walking. My shower when I got home was a blissful experience!

Haworth to Oakworth

The Railway Children Walk #3

The next stretch of the walk took us through Haworth village - which was quite busy with visitors - and down Mytholmes Lane towards Oakworth.

Along the way we passed this interesting little cottage, with a sign saying Toll Bar House. I have not been able to find much information online but the stone plaque on the wall says: 

'CAUTION AND PUBLIC NOTICE
This is a private occupation (?)  road to  (?) Oakworth Hall and Ebor Lane Top and is the private freehold of John Craven of Berridge House in Bingley.
No person can lawfully pass here without his leave. Except persons going on ordinary business to and from the estate of the late Hiram Craven of Dockroyd, deceased and of the said John Craven. And persons going on like purposes between Oakworth Hall and Lower Laithe, the Lodge and Oakworth Corn Mill Farm the property of John Wright of Lower Laith and between Oakworth and the Lower Providence Mill the property of Caleb Leach of Halifax. All other persons passing here on after this NOTICE will be treated as Wilful Trespassers.
Borridge House Bingley
July 1843 John Craven.'

So it seems it marks the end of a private road associated with some mills. 

The route turned off the road eventually and led us up leafy lanes, past old mills still tucked into the landscape. 

Vale Mills was an early 19th century water-powered cotton spinning mill, apparently employing a lot of children sent up from London. It still houses various businesses (without the child labour!) 

The chimney of Ebor Mills, a 19th century worsted spinning mill, still rises high above the trees. The mill complex suffered a major fire in 2010. What remains has been converted to residential dwellings with several new blocks also constructed on the site. I think the distinctively-shaped hill on the horizon is Pendle Hill. 

Oxenhope to Haworth

The Railway Children Walk #2

From the rail crossing near Oxenhope Station (see yesterday) we climbed steeply uphill away from the railway, to Bents House (above), which in the film is called 'Three Chimneys' and is where the Railway Children lived. It looked rather different from the 1970s, having (it seems) had two extensions added - though what you see in the film may well be the other side of the house.

Next to it is an old stone stile, which, in the film, Perks has difficulty negotiating whilst carrying a large basket.

We went slightly off track at this point (luckily my friend soon noticed and we retraced our steps) but it did give me chance to take a photo overlooking Oxenhope village. 

Rejoining the correct path towards Marsh Lane, we passed a house name carved into a lintel. I love the elaborate fonts they used in those days; you see them on old gravestones too. 

We skirted the farmyard at Old Oxenhope Farm. It had an old drinking trough and this little trickling pipe, with rather an ancient duck sitting there! 

Up a farm track over the brow of the hill we passed a beacon that said it had been erected as part of the celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. When burning, it must have been visible for miles. Poignant now, as we know she died just a few months later, in September 2022. 

We had circled back to Haworth again and there were good views over the village from up on the hill. 

Another ancient trackway led us right through to Haworth church, with the old schoolhouse in the background. The Parsonage where the Brontës lived is over to the left beyond the graveyard (but not shown in my photo).  

Hot and thirsty, we were able to stop in Haworth for a much needed drink and a brief rest, before completing the final 2.5 miles of the walk. 

Ticking off a walk!

 

The Railway Children Walk #1

I finally managed to complete a walk that I've been meaning to do for a good ten years, as a friend and I arranged to do it together. It's always really good to tick something off my 'bucket list' but these days I'm a bit nervous about trying new walks on my own, especially if they are slightly longer. The walk in question is a 6 mile circuit around Haworth, Oakworth and Oxenhope, visiting various locations seen in the 1970s film 'The Railway Children'.                                                                                                                                                  We started just beyond Haworth station, walking up the Worth valley towards Oxenhope, following the line of the railway and the stream called Bridgehouse Beck. It was a very warm and humid day; the promised showers barely materialised. We felt about ten drops of rain! The heat made it in some ways quite hard going and I was a sweaty mess by the time we finished

The first stretch was a gentle incline, along a well-defined path that has obviously existed for years. Despite passing a new housing estate in Haworth right at the start, and then a few much older dwellings and a water treatment works en route, it all felt very rural - and surprisingly green, given the very dry weather we've had. 

We passed through several 'kissing gates' (see top photo) and over a rather attractive iron bridge. They don't make them like that anymore! 

There was at one point a graceful but very narrow stone packhorse bridge over the beck. It must have been there for centuries, a reminder that these well-trodden pathways existed long before railways and motor transport. 

I'm not sure I'd trust the 'thin blue line' holding the little swing... 

I was a little disappointed that we didn't see more wildlife. I have seen deer in the area when I've been on the train travelling up the valley. There were a few small birds, and a grey heron flew across and landed by the beck. He took off again as we approached, keeping a safe distance from unpredictable humans! I think it was simply too warm for anything to be exerting any energy. 

Nearing Oxenhope, we had to cross the railway line - we stopped, looked, listened... We had heard trains and a little earlier we saw one of the vintage diesel locomotives that the Keighley and Worth Valley heritage Railway keeps in service. Nevertheless we crossed safely. 

Looking up the line into Oxenhope station, we could see the diesel train sitting beside the platform. 

Mass Wuthering

Why, you might ask, was there a steady stream of people dressed in red climbing to Penistone Hill, above the Brontë family home in Haworth? 

It was what is known as 'The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever', held in July each year, which sees thousands of people across the world recreate the video to Kate Bush's 1978 song Wuthering Heights, inspired by Emily Brontë's novel. Dancers pay an entry fee, which raises money for charity. 

My daughter, son-in-law and younger granddaughter (all of whom simply LOVE 'dressing up') were participants so I and my older granddaughter (we don't love dressing up!) went along to watch.  

There were a few practice runs first. Though the 500 dancers were supposed to have learned the moves beforehand, the extent to which that had happened (or not) was abundantly clear!

Then - the dance. Given that it hasn't rained here for weeks, the fact that it was very windy, quite cold and very wet was ironic. They all got soaked to the skin. It was certainly 'wuthering' (definition: blustering, stormy, or roaring loudly like a heavy wind)! Remarkably, it didn't seem to dampen anyone's enthusiasm. 

There were quite a few men in frocks and dogs in frocks. The men were allowed to dance, the dogs weren't!

BBC and ITV News were there and there’s a video HERE.

The 'stream' home again was more literally that, very damp indeed. Aw. We went for a pub lunch to warm up and dry off. I'd like to say it was good fun...  

Wild Uplands #3

Here's my own 'take' on the 'Wild Uplands' above Haworth. Honestly, who needs artworks when you have all this beauty? There are layers and folds in the landscape, gradually assuming a purplish hue as the heather starts to bud. 

Tumbled chunks of gritstone lie in the hollows, felled by some unseen force. Ferns push their way resolutely upwards through the thin soil.

The moors that the Brontë sisters trod are gradually being tamed. The heather, once prevalent, is gradually dying back as grass, bracken and bilberries march across the land. 

In the far distance on the mid-right in the photo below, you can perhaps just discern the ruined farmhouse and the lone tree at Top Withens, reputedly an inspiration for Emily Brontë's 'Wuthering Heights'. (See HERE for more detail.) 

Lower Laithe Reservoir (below), like all our watercourses, is somewhat low in water due to our very dry spring weather. 

As I was exploring, I stumbled - almost literally - across another artwork, this time rather older. It consisted of various embedded stones carved to look like books. It's entitled 'Literary Landscape' by Martin Heron and was installed in 2003. There are apparently ten of these sandstone carvings scattered across the moorland, the books not titled, but prompting us to recall our own favourite 'literary landscapes'. Gradually the moor is reclaiming them so they look 'planted' in the soil.  

Wild Uplands #2

The third sculptural installation on Penistone Hill, above Haworth, was '99 Butterflies' by Meherunnisa Asad, Studio Lél. I didn't count if there were 99 but they were certainly butterflies, created from a material that looked like marble, in different colours and textures, all pressed together in the manner of marquetry. (I think it was all natural stone rather than paint.) In themselves, each piece was really beautiful. It says the work was 'inspired by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s haunting question: 'Where will we go after the last frontiers? Where will the birds fly after the last sky?' The work explores displacement, sanctuary and longing.'

I thought it 'nice' rather than breathtaking.  I wanted them all to be facing the same way and to look as though they might be somehow rising up to fly.  As it was, they looked to me a bit scrappy and disjointed. 

Finally I came to 'Muamba Posy' by Vanessa da Silva, 'a series of interactive sculptures that reflect on the ever-changing cycles of nature on Penistone Hill, where life has adapted and transformed over time. Each sculpture invites us to explore the connections between sculpture, the human body and the natural world. They draw on this landscape’s long-distant past – some 300 million years ago, when Penistone Hill was a tropical paradise. The sculptures evoke the oversized plants and vibrant wildlife that once thrived here, while also taking inspiration from heather, bilberries, tomentils, damselflies and other plants and creatures that define this landscape today. '

Well, they were colourful and fun, quite appealing for children perhaps but, again, seemed totally incongruous in this setting. I'd have preferred to see them in an ordinary town park. 

So, not my favourite of the City of Culture offerings but I'm glad I went to see them and I'm glad these bold ventures are being commissioned. It's good to be pushed a bit outside your comfort zone. 

 

Wild Uplands #1

One bright, dry but windy day, I decided the time had come to visit the moorland above Haworth to see a series of sculptures exhibited as part of the Bradford City of Culture. Four artists have been invited to create site-specific artworks, 'taking inspiration both from this natural landscape and from our shared industrial heritage; from true stories and imagined fables; and from the history of this countryside and its potential future in light of the climate crisis.' Wild Uplands also includes Earth and Sky, an immersive sound walk created with Opera North that people can listen to as they explore the landscape - though of course (deaf) I wasn't able to enjoy that.  Maybe I would have appreciated it all more had I been able to. 

I could just about relate to 'Tower' by Steve Messam. This is a monumental work, clad in raw sheep fleece from local breeds, that obviously references the wool textile heritage of Bradford. It had some resonance with the bales of hay that you might at one time have seen in the fields (nowadays shrink-wrapped in plastic!), with the outcrops of gritstone that rise through the moors, and perhaps with the follies and monuments that dot our landscape. 

But then I came to 'The Children of Smokeless Fire' by Monira Al Qadiri - and here, I'm afraid, she lost me. It says it is 'a work of mystery and magic with two distinct inspirations: the famous ‘Cottingley Fairies’, created by two Bradford girls in 1917, and the Djinns, mythical beings depicted in a 13th-century Islamic manuscript by Zakariya al-Qazwini.'  No doubt there's a cultural barrier for me but I couldn't feel the link to this wild moorland, even though it is famous as a result of the writings of the Brontë sisters' novels, equally mythical stories in a way. They just looked totally incongruous in this setting, though I could perhaps have warmed to them more had they been in a town park. 

Never mind. I don't have to like all the art I see and not liking the art didn't spoil a good, breezy yomp around the moor!