Station to station: a walk in Brontë country | United Kingdom holidays

In 1861, civil engineer John McLandsborough paid a trip to Haworth, declaring himself a “pilgrim at the shrine of Charlotte Brontë”. The author had died six years earlier and people were curious to see where she and her sisters had been born, raised and so profoundly inspired. McLandsborough was astonished to find there was no railway line so, although he was a specialist in sewers and drains, he proposed a branch line connecting Haworth with the Midland Railway at Keighley. Six years later, a line was opened through the beautiful Worth Valley.

The line closed in 1961, just before Beeching slashed hundreds of local services, but thanks to the efforts of an army of volunteers, the Keighley & Worth Valley line still operates every weekend and on some weekdays in summer, connecting six rural stations in a little under five miles.

I can’t think of a more fitting ride to begin this new series of car-free walks. Despite the justified controversy around rail prices, there’s still no better way to plan a hike: you can see two places, perhaps overnighting in them; you don’t need to retrace your steps to collect a vehicle; and there’s something satisfying in walking freely from station to station.

This walk, from Haworth to Hebden Bridge, is an absolute cracker. It’s 13 miles long, but involves mainly gentle inclines and lots of high, level, moorland walking. Anyone reasonably fit can undertake it – I met lots of retirement-age ramblers en route – and there’s little navigating involved. Much of the path is flagged or consolidated to protect the surrounding peat bogs.

I hadn’t been to Haworth in years – decades, in fact. I expected gentrification. It always was too pretty to be gritty and, for sure, steep, Hovis-ad-picturesque Main Street is lined with cafes, delis, bookshops, craft outlets, galleries (“Wuthering Arts”) and gift shops. I needed a coffee so popped in to Fairtrade cafe-bakery Hunters of Haworth, where chef-patron Nick made me a perfect brew. I’d packed a ham sandwich, but couldn’t resist stashing one of his towering veggie pies in my backpack. I asked Nick if the town was very smart these days. “The curtains may have changed, but not the furniture,” he said. Second-homers haven’t spoiled things – not yet, anyway.

I went on up the hill, taking the path behind the church – not any church, of course, but the one where Reverend Patrick Brontë preached. It was early Sunday morning and there were already people milling around the Brontë Parsonage Museum – a secular church of sorts. I took in the sturdy facade of the house through the lovely graveyard – it’s an evocative setting – before setting off through Penistone Hill country park.

Even without the waymarkers in English and Japanese, the path to Top Withens is easy to find. It’s four miles each way, and a popular outing for those parking and lunching in Haworth. But it’s nonetheless lovely. As soon as you leave Haworth, you’re on heather-clad moorland, which makes for a…