We left the Bingley Five Rise behind and set off with the not very ambitious plan of getting to the moorings for East Riddlesden Hall. The hall itself is closed on Fridays but we want to make the most of our National Trust membership so have planned to visit tomorrow (Saturday).
The first swing bridge we came to (Micklethwaite Swing Bridge 199) has been broken for a while and the Canal & Rivers Trust have been trying to fix it. Some boats had come through it yesterday afternoon and this morning so whilst it was officially still closed we figured it would be ok to operate it. As expected it was fine and actually the official stoppage was withdrawn this afternoon. Just after we had passed through the bridge and were closing closing it NB Jessica Boo came along. But they were too late and we had to continue on, leaving them to operate the bridge themselves. At Morton swing bridge we waited for Jessica Boo to catch up then opened the bridge for both of us to go through. This put them in front for the next swing bridge. As it happened they wanted to moor up just before that bridge which they did but then went and operated the bridge for us anyway. Thanks Jessica Boo.
We moored up just after the bridge anyway as we had reached our aim for the day. We decided to have an afternoon off from boating and walked into Keighley to catch a steam train on the Worth Valley Railway to Haworth.
An American Steam Engine
Keighley Station
Train Leaving Haworth
We got off at Haworth and watched the train continue its journey to to Oxenhope whilst we waited for the rain to stop.
Haworth Main Street
We walked up the hill through the very twee village to the Brontë Parsonage. We had a good look round there (no photos allowed). I didn’t realise how young they all were when they died. None of them reached 40. Their father outlived all his 6 children and lived to the age of 84.
Brontë Parsonage
We then headed back to catch the last train of the day at 4:15 back to Keighley.
2.3 miles, 3 swing bridges, 1 steam train, 1 parsonage, same steam train back, 1 bus.
NB Lillyanne 