Luckily, my sister is a Bronte fan so I knew she'd be a much more willing participant in the day out, which definitely proved to be the case. Unfortunately, I didn't have my trusty pink car at the time, which meant dealing with the joy of public transport to get there, although this worked out the best in the end as navigating some of the windy streets looked liked it'd be an absolute nightmare. Plus, I obviously needed a cider in the afternoon.
We weren't sure where to get off the bus, but the top of the massive hill seemed like a good bet so we could walk down it instead of up. A lot of other people opted to do this too, so we mostly just followed the crowd and wandered along to the main "high street" area. Here there are loads of tiny shops and cafes, with a few really interesting places, like a vintage shop and another that makes 1950s-style dresses.
Even though it is well signposted, we still walked too far and had to double back to get to the Bronte Museum, which is housed in the former Bronte house. What isn't well signposted is that you actually need to go to the back entrance of the museum in order to buy tickets in order to be admitted through the front door.
Once we had our tickets, we went back to the front entrance of the museum and could start looking around. The museum features a self-guided tour, which is easy to follow as each of the rooms are numbered. They also contain a lot of information,, period costumes from a BBC Bronte series and items that did belong to the family.
What I found really interesting was the fact that a lot of effort had gone into restoring the rooms as much as possible, including matching the paint to that which was used when the Brontes lived there. Any furniture that was not used by the family was matched as closely as possible to the time period, which resulted in a real sense of history when we were walking around.
We were both left feeling a bit sad at the end, as the family didn't have the best of luck and seeing all their misfortunes laid out in one place was a bit much. However, if you have an interest in the Brontes, I definitely suggest heading to the museum for a visit.
As soon as we walked in, we were made to feel welcome by the two members of staff who were serving. They were really friendly, dressed in vintage clothing and incredibly helpful when it came to advising us on some of the food and drink. My sister ended up getting a full meal, which was priced at around £15 for a nice sized lamb shank. I opted for two sides as the vegetarian options were a bit thin on the ground and I can't eat much anyway.
Other than a slight bit of confusion over my order of douphinoise potato - the chef put it under my sister's lamb, which she was happy about but I wasn't - the food arrived in really good time. Everything was obviously cooked fresh to order and my homemade onion rings were some of the best I've ever had. The only downside was that we didn't have enough room for dessert!
If you do go to Haworth, it really is worth popping into The Kings Arms, even if it's just for a drink as they have worked really hard to make it welcoming and the staff were absolutely fantastic.
Both of us got plenty of photos - even though my camera ran out of battery part way through the museum - and were tempted by some of the curiosities in the local shops. The area is basically perfect if you want a relaxed day of pottering about and we were tempted to walk a bit further but moving house had tired us out. However, it would be pretty easy to make a full day out of visiting Bronte Country, so it's worth giving yourself some time to explore.
I actually enjoyed the day so much, I'm already thinking about who I can rope into going back with me - as well as looking for my ticket to the museum!