As I’ve mentioned previously my dad is a big train enthusiast and in fact this is one of the few steam railways that he’s never travelled on so I knew I would have to be taking a lot of photos to show him in particular. Haworth is conveniently the site of one of the stations and an easy 15 minutes or so walk from Main Street where I was staying, though it is quite a steep walk downwards.
In the afternoon after visiting the Brontë Parsonage and church I decided to further wander in the footsteps of the family by walking the trail that goes from next to the Parsonage to the so called Brontë Waterfall and Bridge where the sisters in particular liked to walk.
After my visit to the Brontë Parsonage I headed next door to St Michael and All Angels, more commonly known as the Brontë church. This is the third church building on the site dating between 1879 and 1881; parts of the older church survives but not as it would have been during the Brontë’s time when their father was the parish priest here.
Back in June I spent just under a week in Haworth in West Yorkshire because visiting the Brontë Parsonage Museum has been on my bucket list for a great many years. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is one of my favourite novels and I wanted to follow in the footsteps of her and her siblings.
Back in the beginning of June I went along to the Open Gardens event in Burton Joyce, a village just outside Nottingham. I’m fairly familiar with the village as a friend grew up there but I’d never been to the Open Gardens event before. 11 gardens were open to the public with the ticket price (£6 if booked in advance) going towards Maggie’s, a cancer charity based at Nottingham City Hospital.
For my birthday back in May I decided that I’d like to go back to Yorkshire Wildlife Park. The last time we went, all the way back in 2016 (!) we were very impressed but we were even more so this time. They’ve expanded greatly and everywhere looks fantastic with a whole shopping area just before the entrance plus larger enclosures for all the animals. I’ve been to a few wildlife parks lately which have cheetahs (my favourite wild animal) but they hadn’t been out and about so I was incredibly happy to see so many here and be able to take photos of them.
The Royal Crescent in Bath is one of the most famous and well photographed areas in the city but until this most recent visit my friend and I hadn’t gone there, usually being too busy with visiting the Christmas market. This trip though we wanted to head over there as though my friend had seen it before I hadn’t. We walked from the centre along the Gravel Walk which takes you past the Georgian Garden (just closing so we only had a quick peek inside) and the backs of some of Bath’s very impressive housing.
On my March trip to Bath I made sure to pop into Persephone Books at 8 Edgware Buildings, not far from the centre of the city. I’d vaguely heard of it before but hadn’t thought to look into actually going there until we went to visit the Royal Crescent on this trip (a later post) and I noted the bookshop was on the way. They reprint fiction and non-fiction, mostly by women, that has been neglected and would be out of print otherwise.
You may remember that my last visit to Bath was cut short due to Storm Darragh. My friend and I had to reschedule our Roman Baths tickets and chose the last weekend in March figuring, quite rightly as it happened, that we would have some nice weather for our return. Driving in Bath is very much not recommended so we parked as usual at the Lansdown Park and Ride and took the bus into Bath – the Roman Baths are only about a 10 minute walk from where the bus drops you off.
On my way to and from Arundel Wetland Centre I passed by Swanbourne Lake. I decided to pop in for a look on the way back but knew I wouldn’t have very long to explore as it was already quite late in the afternoon.
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