Walking up to Haworth

The new Jane Eyre film hits the big screen this month, starring Michael Fassbender. Inspired, Leo Owen goes in search of ‘Brontë Country’

"You can see [the parsonage] for two miles before [you] arrive, for it is situated on the side of a pretty steep hill, with a background of dun and purple moors,” novelist Elizabeth Gaskell wrote in the mid-1800s, describing her friend Charlotte Brontë’s family home. Walking up the hill that Gaskell so perfectly described, it’s easy to imagine the Brontë sisters running errands for their father, Patrick. Still picturesque and unspoilt, Haworth’s Yorkshire stone walls counterpoint the coarse weather-beaten moors that surround it.

The town’s main street may appear relatively unchanged, but closer inspection reveals an impressive array of vintage, retro and antique shops, all tempting avid Brontë fans off their yellow brick road. But most notable are the streams of people braving the steep hill on a literary pilgrimage that is today attracting more and more visitors.

Tragically, Charlotte was the only Brontë sister to have felt the admiration of fame, along with Patrick – who outlived his wife and six children to witness the first influx of Haworth tourists and marvel at souvenir pictures of himself on sale.

Walking past only son Branwell Brontë’s favoured tavern, the haunted Black Bull, I climb the remaining steps towards the churchyard that leads on to the lifelong home of England’s most celebrated literary family.

Entering a small gate, I queue inside a modest square garden. When finally inside, I talk with Andrew McCarthy, the director of the Brontë Parsonage, who has noticed a sizeable buzz in the area as the film's release date draws nearer. “Any kind of new TV or film adaptation of a Brontë work is always of interest, but with this particular adaptation there seems to have been a lot more media attention,” he reveals.

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