I came up by train from London yesterday, changing at Leeds, although I had to use Plan B and go to Bradford Interchange rather than Plan A to Bradford Forster Square (which is next door to the hotel) due to a signal failure. However, it is only a short walk from Bradford Interchange.
Always lovely to meet old friends and make new ones on the Friday evening, and today was the planned excursions.
In the morning we went to Saltaire, the model village created by Titus Salt, and specifically the New Mill,
as they call it, now a Venue with an art gallery, café, and various shops - antique, jewellery, expensive outdoor wear, books and stationery, that sort of thing. I had a cup of coffee and then went up to the top floor where there was a history of the place, and also a film about Sir Titus, as he became, and how he really did try to make his workers' lives better! Mind you, he was very against drunkenness, and did not allow a pub in the village (the one on the main drag is called "Don't tell Titus"!), but did build an Institute where people could go in the evenings for classes or to socialise and play games, etc.
All very interesting, but I wanted to go to a craft shop that was just near where we were to get the coach, and time was getting on, so I came away and went to the craft shop, where I got what I wanted. The woman running the shop was lovely, but very slow, and I was nearly late back!
We ate our packed lunches on the bus, like a pack of schoolgirls rather than the pensioners that a majority of us are, and soon arrived in Haworth. It was a long, hard pull up to the village from the coach park, but I managed far better than I expected!
First port of call was the church, which was lovely, and there was a memorial poster about Patrick Brontë, the father, who seems to have been a lovely person! You get the impression that he was a strict, joyless type, but not at all - he campaigned for better conditions for those in the workhouses, etc, and preached a God of love, not fear.
But the church was lovely anyway! I loved the Communion table and the mosaic thing of the Madonna and child near the font (apparently made out of toast!).
Then it was time to visit the Old Parsonage Museum, which was pretty much as you might expect it to be, but still interesting. And then I walked down to look at the rather twee shops and found some of our party having a cream tea in a café, so treated myself to one, too,
and then, as we were all tired, went back to the coach to await the rest of the party.
Back to Bradford, and I nipped into the mall across the street from the hotel as I needed to go to Superdrug - gf course went in the wrong entrance for it and had to walk all round before I found it. Now back at the hotel and resting before changing for our formal dinner. Tomorrow is the AGM and Book Sale, and then back to London before heading off again on Monday morning!
