See Britain’s first long green trail from the air on a stretch across the Pennines from Middleton in Teesdale to the jaw-dropping HIgh Cup Nick.

If their books offer a view of love darker than Jane Austen’s, their lives fared far worse. While Austen struggled with writing and failed at love, the Brontes endured short, brutish lives and early deaths, with all but one never knowing their work was a success.

Their sweeping stories were penned in a two-story parish house surrounded by a graveyard in the bleak, claustrophobic village of Haworth in the Pennine moors of North West Yorkshire.

Most of the places that shaped the sad arc of the sisters’ lives are just steps apart in the tiny cobblestone center of Haworth. The Church of St. Michael dates from 1881, a replacement for the one where their father, the Rev. Patrick Bronte, took to the pulpit in the 1820s. Behind it is the tiny parish house ringed by gravestones that, as the novelist Mrs. Gaskell described it, were “round house and garden, on all sides but one.”

Tragedy was a staple of Bronte life in Haworth. The authors’ mother, Maria Bronte, and two eldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died soon after the family arrived. Their passing was not deemed unusual in a time and place where many people did not live past age 30. Life in Haworth could be difficult, especially during the severe winters.

It was only many decades later that it was learned that the high mortality rate in Haworth was linked to poisonous runoff from the St. Michael’s graveyard into the town’s water wells. The church where all the Brontes except Anne are buried sits across from the Black Bull pub, where the sisters’ beloved brother, Branwell, was a regular. Branwell was the reverend’s lone son. He showed promise as a painter and was admitted to the London Academy. But he didn’t last in London and returned home to binge on booze and opium until he died in 1842.

The three sisters wrote at a time when it was difficult for women to get published. They submitted their joint collection of poems under the pseudonym of the Bell brothers — Acton, Currer and Ellis. Despite the gender ploy, the collection was a commercial flop. All changed with Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” published in 1847. Soon after, Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” was a success — the drunkard Hindley Earnshaw clearly inspired by her brother Bramwell. Anne wrote the mildly successful “Agnes Grey” before her best work, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.” Success was literally short-lived. Charlotte could enjoy her success with “Jane Eyre,” but Emily died in 1848 before “Wuthering Heights” had received much acclaim. Anne died six months later. Charlotte wrote two more novels, “Shirley” and “Villette.” She struggled for more than two years to convince her father to let her marry the church curate in 1854. She was finally wed in 1854, only to die nine months later.

A small baby’s cap that she knitted for a family friend is on display at Bronte parsonage. It is all the more poignant because Charlotte was pregnant at the time of her death. The Bronte Parsonage with crows in nests overhead is now owned by the Bronte Society. The exhibits try to re-create the look and feel of a 19th-century parsonage.

Near Haworth is the Bronte Stone Chair, a smooth-topped boulder said to be where the young women liked to escape to read and write.
Visitors can cross Bronte Bridge and hike to Bronte Falls. Local tourist offices tout the 40-mile Bronte Way, which takes in locales drawn from the sister’s books. The ruined Top Withins is believed to be the setting for “Wuthering Heights,” while Ponden Hall was the model for Thrushcross Grange in the same book. Ferndean Manor in “Jane Eyre” is based on Wycoller Hall in nearby East Lancastershire. Fans flock to Cowan Bridge in the Yorkshire Dales, the inspiration for the dismal Lowood School in “Jane Eyre.”

On a starkly cold, sleet-driven winter day, Cowan Bridge is a long way — physically and spiritually — from the blooming love of a warm afternoon at Jane Austen’s imaginary Netherfield.

Holmfirth – Last of the Summer Wine, the world’s longest running TV comedy is filmed in the picturesque town of Holmfirth. Visit the exhibition inside Compo’s House, where there’s a collection of photographs and memorabilia and a tea room next door, or opt for a guided 10 mile tour of the area with Last of the Summer Wine tours.

Keighley & Worth Valley Railway near Haworth was used as the setting for the film adaptation of Edith Nesbit’s Railway Children. The Railway has appeared in other TV and film productions including Yanks, Sherlock Holmes, Last of the Summer Wine, Treasure Hunt, Sons and Lovers, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, Poirot, Born and Bred, The Royal, Where The Heart Is, A Touch Of Frost, Songs Of Praise and Pink Floyd’s The Wall.

Slaithwaite and Marsden together became the fictional village of “Skelthwaite” in  Where the Heart Is, a popular heart-warming drama series about the lives and loves of a small Yorkshire community.

The infamous “local shop” which featured in the comedy series League of Gentlemen was constructed as an artificial set on the hills above Marsden.

The nearby wooded valley is home to a number of wildlife, including red deer, as well as having river walks and waterfalls that nature lovers will easily fall in love with.

Eleven bedrooms make Walshaw Lodge excellent for large parties, with visitors able to enjoy an exquisite drawing room and a music room, as well as modern entertainments including a DVD library and games consoles. The Lodge is located in Wuthering Heights country and also close to the Hardcastle Crags.

Music at Walshaw presents a weekend of classical concerts at Walshaw Lodge coming up on the 26th and 27th June 2010. This year, we are having two events, both featuring Moshe Friedman (cello) and Margaret Bruce (piano). Moshe and Margaret are two of the most popular performers that we have had in previous years and this year’s event is sure to be just as successful.

The artists have compiled a demanding programme of work including pieces by Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Liszt, Chopin, Tučapský and Martinu. This year the great modern composers, Antonín Tučapský, will be joining us in person and his work will be celebrated as part of the programme.

The concerts are being held at the time of the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival so there are plenty of other great cultural events happening in and around Hebden Bridge at the same time. In the past these concerts were officially part of the festival but this year they may be considered part of the ‘fringe’. Tickets for each event are £15.

Saturday 26th June at 3.oo pm  & Sunday 27th June at 11.00 am

MUSICAL PROGRAM AND REFRESHMENTS

• Brahms Sonata for cello and piano no.1 in E minor
• Debussy: Cello Sonate
• Antonín Tučapský: Moto Appassionato for cello and
  piano (written for Moshe Friedman, first performance)
• Martinu: Sonata no. 1 for cello and piano

How T0 Book

Tickets for both events are limited and are offered on a strictly first come, first served basis and are £15 each, including refreshments. Please call 08432 896570 for bookings and additional information.

Make a Weekend of It

We are also pleased to offer for the first time a VIP package which includes:

• Reserved seating for the Saturday afternoon concert and tea
  Saturday dinner with the musicians and the great living composer – Antonín Tučapský
  Overnight accommodation at Walshaw Lodge
  Sunday breakfast
  Reserved seating for the Sunday morning concert and refreshments
  Sunday lunch at Walshaw Lodge

The cost for the VIP package is £200 per person (sharing) or £250 per person (single room), with strictly limited availability.

Walshaw Lodge – A Beautiful Country House to Rent

So if it’s a country house rent that you’re after to help celebrate that special occasion – a wedding anniversary, a birthday, an engagement party or even the ultimate romantic honeymoon destination, Walshaw Lodge demands consideration. Despite its position in one of the most isolated and peaceful areas of countryside in the UK, the lodge is within an hour’s drive of both Leeds and Manchester