Haworth to Keighley linear walk 8.5 miles - return by KWVR

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!!!

This walk/event is open to anyone who has paid their annual membership fee and therefore guests are not permitted on this one.

NEW WALK!! A hilly but delightful & varied walk with constantly changing terrain, switching from urban to countryside several times. I have to say this was a particularly enjoyable walk to recce in an area we don’t frequent very often.

This is a linear walk, we will be boarding the KWVR (hopefully steam) train at Keighley for our return trip to Haworth. Cost £9, purchase tickets on the day. NB: We will pass through Oakworth station, the one you see in The Railway Children film!

Terrain: pavements, quiet roads, riverside & woodland trails. We take in Haworth, Oakworth, Holden Park, Newsholme, Newsholme Dean, Dean Wood & Goose Eye with other interesting features along the way.

The walk will be led at a steady pace: not too fast, not too slow. Please be ready to start walking at the advertised time.

Walk fee: £3. No dogs please. Bring packed lunch/drink/snacks with you.

Start point: Haworth train station. Postcode is BD22 8NJ. There are toilets on the platform but you are supposed to purchase a platform ticket (£1) to use them.

Parking options:
(1) Haworth Station. Cost £3. This is not a very big car park so it is highly likely that quite a few will have to park elsewhere. Car sharing is strongly recommended.
(2) Gas Street car park. Cost £3. Drive past the station (on your left-hand side), go around the corner and just as you start to climb, the car park entrance will be on your right. If travelling from Keighley, the entrance will be on your left near the bottom of the hill just before arriving at Haworth station. This is a bigger car park than the station one.
(3) If parking is busy on the day, the third option would be the Bronte Village car park around the back of the Haworth Old Hall pub (drive past the pub car park entrance then next right). Cost £4. Park on the entrance level where you will also find the ticket machine. Then, the nicest way to walk to the station is to take the path sp Main Street just over from the ticket machine. Then, cross the main road into Central Park. Note the direction of the signpost to the railway and walk down, passing just to the left of the bandstand. Then turn left and you will see another signpost a little further on, pointing to the park exit. Reaching here, turn right down the cobbled street, turning left at the bottom to go over a pedestrian bridge dropping down into the station cp. Allow 15 mins to walk this. (Postcode of this car park is BD22 8BW/8QN depending on which website you look at!).

Early Birds
The station has a gift shop but no café. On the opposite side of the road, The Buffet Car Café opens at 9am on a Sunday where you can purchase a bacon butty with some excellent coffee. Another option would be a slice of chocolate fudge cake, not something I would normally choose but the café does a good one which goes very well with the coffee!
Train tickets
Remember, we are doing the walk first, then getting the train back from Keighley so we will purchase our tickets when arriving at Keighley station. Cost £9.

PLEASE NOTE: We have a train to catch on the way back so if you do not arrive at the start point of the walk ready to set off at the advertised time, we won’t be waiting for you!!

Start Time
It’s a fair old trip out to Haworth so please ensure you give yourselves plenty of time to get there. With this in mind, the start time is 10am for 10.30am so please aim for the earlier time. Parking is not going to cost any more if you arrive in good time, regardless of which of the above parking options you land with.

After-walk refreshment
If all the excitement of the day has got you thirsty for more, we will patronise the Haworth Old Hall Inn c.1621 afterwards! The pub has a reasonable amount of private parking on two levels but we won’t be able to get lots of cars parked up so again, car sharing would be a very good idea for this one. Alternatively, you could pay for parking in the Bronte Village car park which is located just behind the pub – take the next right after the entrance to the pub car park. (Cost £1 for one hour, £2 for two hours).

Background info
Keighley & Worth Valley Railway opened in April 1867 as a single-track branch line, funded initially by local businessmen but soon becoming part of Midland Railway. As well as a passenger service, it provided an invaluable link with the mainline in Keighley bringing coal to the valley’s mills and sending finished products the other way. Despite local opposition, it was closed in 1962 following the Beeching Report but a preservation society was quickly formed and set about saving the railway. After six years a sale was agreed with British Rail payable in instalments over 25 years, the first rail privatisation in Britain. The line reopened as a heritage railway on 29th June 1968, ironically a day of strikes elsewhere on the railways. Several steam locomotives were used on the line and it was used as a location for Lionel Jefferies 1970 film of The Railway Children.

I have no formal walk leader or first-aid qualifications and the Group does not have insurance. When you RSVP for any walk/event, you accept that you remain responsible for your own safety at all times. You are required to respect the walk leader and be mindful of the safety of others. Please keep to the pace of the group and don’t go off ahead even if you think you know the route.