Yorkshire Road Trip: Day 7 – Best Things to Do in Haworth

Last Updated on September 8, 2026 by Tavernier’s Travels

Set in the Pennines, Haworth is a little village in the Bradford district of West Yorkshire, famous for its literary history and Yorkshire charm. It was undoubtedly one of the highlights of our recent trip to Yorkshire, and definitely one of the ones we were most looking forward to!

Cher:

I have always liked Haworth; we first visited around 20 years ago when our cousin, Diane, took us there, and it was this same cousin who brought us back on this visit. The village is so cute, with its cobbled streets, old stone buildings and unmistakable Yorkshire charm. Of course, Haworth is best known as the village where the Brontë sisters were brought up, after the family previously lived in the nearby village of Thornton. With its strong links to the Brontë family and literary history, Haworth is a lovely place to visit in West Yorkshire.

A Brief History of Haworth

It’s hard to imagine that this lovely, quaint village was once a highly undesirable place to live. Life expectancy was low, averaging about 25 years of age, while many children didn’t survive past the age of six. The village was overcrowded and unsanitary, with excrement flowing through the streets, including waste from slaughterhouses and the graveyard. The latter, in particular, contaminated the local water supply.

Beyond the family’s literary legacy, it was Patrick Brontë, the father of the Brontë siblings and local curate for the area, who commissioned a report into the water supply in Haworth. The report found serious issues with the village’s water, although, as with most bureaucratic things to this day, change wasn’t affected until a while later.

Today, however, Haworth is a very different story. Nowhere on the cobblestoned Main Street can waste water be found gushing down the hill; instead, your eyes are drawn to rows of cute houses and the lovely, whimsical independent shops the village has to offer.

A Day Trip to Haworth

We parked a short walk from the centre, after marvelling at how cheap parking was there compared to London. From the moment you begin the walk to Main Street, it feels like you have entered the epitome of Yorkshire in the olden days. It isn’t long before you’re charmed enough to whip out your camera and start snapping away, especially when you reach the top and see the views of the stunning countryside around.

Main Street has a steep incline, which can be especially difficult to climb back up if you have mobility issues. To make it easier on us, we thought it best to walk to the bottom of the street first before climbing back up, breaking up the climb while browsing the interesting shops along the way.

Some of our favourites included The Cabinet of Curiosities, a refurbished Victorian apothecary selling everything from soaps and bath salts to books (of course, including beautiful editions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, among other classics) and beautifully-scented wax melts. We made a total of four visits to the shop in the space of us visiting that day! It’s truly enchanting, with a bewitching gothic vibe, and an absolute must-visit when exploring the village.

Where we eat

Entering one of the many eateries for lunch is also a great way, in my opinion, to drift your way back to the top of the hill. We ate in Cobbles and Clay, a café serving fresh, healthy food, including gluten-free, dairy-free and plant-based options. I recommend the steak sandwich, which was absolutely delicious.

The café also offers the opportunity to paint your own piece of pottery at your table, so it’s a great option if you have children who need to be kept entertained. There’s also the option of outdoor seating, which was lovely on a warm summer’s day such as that one.

If you’re looking for somewhere to eat in Haworth during a day trip, Cobbles and Clay is a great option, particularly if you’re visiting with children or have specific dietary requirements.

St Michael’s and All Angels’ Church

Another must-visit for a Brontë fan is St Michael’s and All Angels’ Church in Haworth. Just a short walk from the parsonage, most of the Brontë family (bar Anne) are buried beneath the church.

While the church has been rebuilt since the Brontës’ deaths, there’s a chapel dedicated to the family, and the family vault is situated close to where the family pew would have been. There’s also a wealth of Brontë memorabilia to explore, making it a fascinating stop for anyone interested in the Brontë family and Haworth’s literary history.

Karis:

Haworth Parsonage Museum

For any Brontë fan, a visit to the Parsonage – once the home of the Brontë sisters – is often a major draw to Haworth in and of itself. I’d visited the parsonage many years prior, but that was when I was a young child, not yet a reader of the Brontës and therefore very unappreciative of just where I was. On this visit, however, I was no such novice and was busy snapping away at every piece of memorabilia – perhaps a bit too much, if my camera roll has anything to say about it.

The Brontës lived in the parsonage from 1820 to 1861 until the death of Patrick, who outlived his wife and all of their children. Today, Haworth Parsonage has been transformed into the Brontë Parsonage Museum, where the Brontë Society cares for the world’s largest collection of Brontë items.

The rooms have been designed to explore various aspects of the Brontës’ daily lives, from the very table where their famous novels were written to the kitchen where Emily is believed to have done domestic chores after returning home to support her family. From there, it’s a climb up the stairs to what would have once been their bedrooms, although it’s a bit of a guessing game as to where the sisters slept at any one point as, with deaths and declining health, room changes would have been common enough. The museum has recreated some rooms that were used by Patrick and their brother Branwell; at one point, Branwell would have shared a room with his father due to safety fears after he accidentally set his room on fire.

A helpful visitor guide pointed out to me that, since the days the Brontës lived there, an extension had been built by the curate who took over from Patrick Brontë. The extension boxed in one of the windows that I believe (in my expert opinion) was the very window Emily Brontë described Heathcliff as calling out to Cathy at one point in the book. While it has been staged to show it as it was used when Branwell used the bedroom, I believe it may have at one point been Emily’s bedroom, or certainly served as inspiration.

There are also artefacts belonging to the various Brontës on display. Especially interesting was the exhibition exploring the idea that Heathcliff was a person of colour, as some have suggested he was from Emily Brontë’s fairly ambiguous descriptions of him. It highlights various figures of Black heritage who lived and worked in and around Yorkshire during the same period in which Wuthering Heights is set.

Top Withens

There are also the ruins of Top Withens to explore. It’s speculated that the ruins served as inspiration for Wuthering Heights, and even from pictures, it’s not difficult to see why. Surrounded by the wild Yorkshire landscape, it’s easy to imagine how Emily could have drawn inspiration from the area for her famous novel.

As the Haworth of the Brontës’ day would have been overcrowded and largely unsanitary, it’s little wonder that the family would take walks out onto the open moors. Today, walking across the moors to Top Withens is a popular addition to a visit to Haworth for Brontë fans and anyone wanting to experience this part of the Yorkshire landscape.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time (or energy!) to do the three-hour trek across the moors to reach it, but it’s definitely on my bucket list for another time. I’ll just have to save the walk to Top Withens for my next visit to Haworth.

The Black Bull, Haworth

There are a number of pubs in Haworth on Main Street alone, although one of the ones you might be most tempted to try after a visit to the parsonage is The Black Bull. In many ways, a stop here is simply a continuation of touring the Brontës’ lives, as the pub was known to be a favourite of Branwell’s.

For Brontë fans, it’s an interesting place to stop for a drink and soak up a little more of Haworth’s literary history. After all, what better way to continue exploring the world of the Brontës than by visiting one of the places Branwell himself was known to frequent?

Haworth is a lovely little Yorkshire village with so much literary history to explore, especially if you’re a Brontë fan. I’m already looking forward to returning – and finally making that walk to Top Withens!