A Grand Day Out

Since our last post, we moved along to Silsden for shopping and then headed to the top of the Bingley Five Rise to use the facilities. Along the way, we were a little horrified to see reports of an incident that had just occurred on the canal ahead of us at the Granby Swing Bridge, Riddlesden (near Keithley). A local bus ignored the flashing warning lights and tried to dash across the bridge as it was being operated.

The boater continued to open the bridge with the bus and its occupants sat on it. Now here’s the question, what would you have done when the bus drove onto the bridge and the barriers descended?
 Continued with the operation of opening the bridge, risking the bridge failing and the bus becoming stranded with the road closed for a longer period?
 Stop the bridge operation with the bus trapped by the barriers and call the police and the maintenance people for advice?
 Stop and try the close button to reverse the barrier action and allow the bus to drive away, possibly causing the bridge to fail? (They are very temperamental and don’t like to be interrupted)
My personal choice is I’ve no idea, I will find out if it ever happens to me! The nearest I’ve had to this is someone having to reverse their car as the barrier began to drop onto their bonnet! Thankfully when we got to that bridge, I saw the local bus drive over it just before we arrived.

Having completed chores, we decided to treat ourselves by heading back along the canal to Riddlesden. The visitor moorings are only a mile (or so) from the railway station at Keithley, where you can also catch a Heritage Train. The Keithley and Worth Railway Line passes through Brontë Country at Haworth and has featured in multiple TV and films such as The Great Train Robbery (2013), Last of the Summer Wine (2006), The Railway Children (1970 and 2022) and Yanks (1979) to name but a few. We took a ride on the steam train and on the return hopped off at Haworth to investigate the town and the Parsonage where the Brontë family lived.

As it was a Bank Holiday, Haworth and the parsonage were busy and the walk from the station is quite steep in places, but it was well worth the visit. This experience has proven (yet again) how mixed up I get with literature and who wrote what. I basically thought that all the Brontë books had been written by Emily! But no, there were three Brontë sisters, who all published under male pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Emily did write Wuthering Heights, but her older sister Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre and the younger sister, Anne wrote Agnes Grey and The Tennent of Wildfell Hall. Sadly, I also learnt that the Brontë siblings (including their younger brother) died comparatively young, primarily due to poor sanitation in the town.

We got back to the railway station just in time to stand on the foot bridge and get “smoked and steamed” by one of the engines pulling away. The smell reminded me of my Grandmother’s coal fires, it was a lovely moment and completed my grand day out perfectly.