The Brontes, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre

We start the day with a scenic drive through Cumbria, past the market town of Kirkby Lonsdale and into the Yorkshire Dales National Park

To see the buildings which were once the Clergy Daughter's School attended by four Brontë sisters, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily

Our drive continues amidst beautiful scenery into the County of Lancashire. Following in the footsteps of Charlotte Bronte, our next stop is at the tiny village of Wycoller with its ruinous hall, the model for Ferndean Manor in Jane Eyre. The village is full of character and atmosphere with two ancient bridges and a ford crossing Wycoller Beck. Your guide will show you around the Gothically romantic ruined hall and explain the history of this sleepy little village

As we move through the towns and villages, your guide will put the surrounding countryside and the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the area into context. We see one of the local mills, a survivor from the time of the Brontë's, up close on the way to Ponden Hall. As our time is limited, we only have time to view the hall from the outside. It is famous for reputedly being the inspiration for Thrushcross Grange, the home of the Linton family, Edgar, Isabella, and Cathy, in Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights

Our journey takes us across the brooding Pennine Moors, a bleak and beautiful place where the sisters would wander to escape the industrial fumes from the chimneys of nearby Keighley and the emotionally charged atmosphere of the Parsonage in Haworth

You will be free to explore the Brontë Parsonage, where Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell lived with their father Rev. Patrick Brontë. You will see where they sat and wrote, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and The Tennant of Wildfell Hall and discover how they lived and what their lives were like in Industrial Yorkshire where death was on the doorstep and freedom was on the moors. Your guide will be with you throughout the visit to the Parsonage, ready to answer any questions that you may have. You will also have the opportunity to visit the Parsonage Museum gift shop, where any books bought are eligible for the souvenir Parsonage stamp

Your guide will take you on a tour of the graveyard and the village where you will wander down the High Street of Haworth, hardly changed since the Brontë's walked here 150 years ago. You will see the Black Bull Inn where Branwell drank himself to death and the Apothecary where he bought laudanum, his other deadly addiction. Throughout the village, your guide will take you back in time to the places and people that the Brontë's knew, walking in their footsteps to bring the place alive for them again. You will also visit the church to see the family vault where all but Anne are buried