“Oh look a public footpath! That’s good, because we’re the public, we have feet, and we like paths!”
The peaceful town of Haworth didn’t know what had hit it when on the 26th September 2008, 20 Sixth Form English Literature students and 4 rowdy teachers embarked on an adventure to explore the home of The Brontës. With half of the packed lunches already been eaten before we left the school car park, it was obvious the trip was going to be…mischievous. Within 2 hours we were already spooked by the haunted youth hostel which was to be our place of residence for the evening and, as quick as we could, we departed for a jolly jaunt around the town. Once there, after getting some strange but very complimentary comments from the locals, “they can’t be English! They’re far too attractive!”, we went to the Parsonage for an introductory talk on the Brontë family and the background to Wuthering Heights (which we are currently studying).
Following this we had an eventful tour around the Parsonage itself, with one student (naming no-one in particular, Peter Bradley), setting off the laser triggered alarms, by leaning a little too far over the barriers. Next on the agenda was a guided tour around Haworth, taking in some of the places related to the Brontës. To many of the students’ disgust, this entailed a rather long lecture whilst standing in a cold, overflowing graveyard. However, the Year 12’s spirits were quickly lifted after finding out that the last lecture of the day, “Interpretations of Wuthering Heights”, was only for Year 13 and, therefore, they could enjoy the shops and cafes. A favourite café of ours from the trip included a rather lovely sign on the door stating “DON’T SLAM THE DOOR! anyone who can’t read this sign should go to specsavers!”
After a long day we went back to the youth hostel, and tried (in some cases) to make our beds, before “glamming” up to go out to the Haworth Tandoori, for a well earned meal, and a lot of banter. All was enjoyed for a bargain of £7.95, all credit to Mrs Bradley and her quick witted negotiations.
Back to the youth hostel once again, for a gruesome session of ghost stories and tales from the dales, however the group greatly missed Miss Richards, as her ghost stories are usually top notch! In place of them though, we had an amusing story from Mrs Bradley, where she enthusiastically told us about one of her family members (mentioning no names, David Bradley), getting attacked in his sleep, by a horse. Mentioning horses, one was found in a field next to the parsonage by Jonathon Holland, and due to its distinctive hair cut, was affectionately named “Heath-Quiff”.
We were all up early the next morning for a quick breakfast, before packing all our stuff, and sadly waving goodbye to our rooms. We embarked on a short bus journey just out of Haworth, and from this point, began a rather competitive walk up to Top Withins, one of the Brontës’ inspirational writing locations. Once there, we were entertained by Jonathon Holland running down the moors shouting “Cathy”, his own re-enactment of Wuthering Heights. After a quick Twix break, and a few group pictures, we descended from the moors, almost in record time, although the teachers were slightly lagging by the end of the trek. The last adventure of the trip, was an eagerly anticipated McDonalds stop; however, after quickly purchasing our food and getting back to the bus, we realised our bus driver didn’t appreciate McDonalds, and had gone for a sit-in meal in KFC. Eventually we got back on the bus, and after a slight detour through Giggleswick, due to Settle Cycling Festival, we arrived back at Settle College, with a few headaches and lost voices, after a great karaoke session by the backseat crew.
By Lucy Carr & Jennie Moor (the backseat crew).