The Tamesis
If the sight of Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie cavorting on the Yorkshire moors has you craving a dramatic break, look no further: here’s your stylish guide to the Brontë countryside (optional for the moody Heathcliff).
For those keen on accuracy, head to Holdsworth House, where Elodie, Robbie and the crew stayed during filming Wuthering Heightsjust outside of Halifax. The hotel is a beautiful Grade II listed stone 17th-century Jacobean manor house (the hotel even offers a ‘Bronte Rest’, which includes breakfast, admission to the Bronte Parsonage and a hand-painted Haworth walking guide). When you’re done with the heart-pounding sightseeing, you can indulge in the kind of downtime that would make Cathy cry. Its new Farmhouse treatment rooms feature Irish luxury skincare brand Ground Wellbeing, whose formulas are 100% vegan and plant-based. Then, dine like Earnshaws with an eight-course tasting menu (featuring foraged wild mushrooms and Yorkshire venison) by a roaring fire under the cozy restaurant’s original low-beamed ceiling.
Haworth is a 20-minute drive from the Pennines. The Bronte Parsonage is at the top of the cobbled High Street, where Charlotte, Anne and Emily lived with their brother Branwell. Next door is the Church of St. Michael and All Angels (where their father Patrick was pastor) and its atmospheric cemetery. Charlotte and Emily were buried in the family vault in the church, which displays Charlotte’s marriage certificate; even though she was the famous Jane Eyre.
The house itself is strikingly similar to how it looked when the family lived in it. The front room was arranged as if they had just had tea, and the small dining table where they worked was strewn with writing desks, ink, newspapers, cups and saucers. But tragedy is not far away. The sofa against the wall is where Emily died of tuberculosis at the age of 30.
Upstairs there are daily ephemera, letters, Emily’s christening cup and diary; Charlotte’s small writing desk, dress and hat; and a model of Bramwell’s messy, untidy bedroom, as if he had just happened to get drunk at the Black Bull (a pub he frequented that still stands in the town). The museum also displays movie posters and paraphernalia from each of the on-screen depictions of the sister works – it’s interesting to see the various interpretations based on the debate over Emerald Fennell’s version.
