Planning a relaxing and culturally enriching getaway to the UK this year? Well, you don’t need to look any further than the county of Yorkshire. Famed for the incredible landscapes and stunning architecture dotted across its many historic cities, here, we’re actually taking you on more of a literary journey. Many all-time great authors and writers have their roots in Yorkshire, and touring the literary hotspots that they’ve left behind can be a great way to explore some of the best parts of the land.
Flying to Yorkshire and Beyond
Not everyone is lucky enough to live in and around Yorkshire, but luckily, one of the most popular budget airlines in the world uses the Leeds Bradford Airport as a base. Ryanair flies into Yorkshire regularly from all around the world and from within the UK. What makes the airline so prevalent, aside from its prices, is its streamlined passenger process. Before you fly, you’ll get an email prompting you to check in, and then, you can do the online check-in with Ryanair on their website or mobile app.
At many airports, you can weigh and drop your bags off yourself with Ryanair. Importantly for this look at going on a literary adventure around Yorkshire, flying into Leeds Bradford Airport keeps your options open. It’s a very well-connected airport to the rest of Yorkshire, but as you could do a lot on this list in a day or two, it could also just be your pit stop. You could depart the airport, explore Yorkshire, and then fly out to continue your holiday anywhere else in the world.
For your time in Yorkshire, be it a swift stay or a more relaxed holiday for a good week or so, these are the top five literary hotspots to visit based on some of the county’s finest writers.
Haworth
Haworth has become a hub of tourist activity for one reason more than most: it was the working home of the Brontë Sisters. You’ll recognize the works of Anne Brontë in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (which was made into a performance piece for Theatre Royal) and Agnes Grey, Emily Brontë for Wuthering Heights, and Charlotte Brontë, the eldest of the three, for Shirley, Villette, and Jane Eyre. All are literary classics, with the Brontë Sisters rising to fame, as many 19th Century female authors had to, under a pen name. Now, their names are among the most instantly recognizable in all of British writing.
Across Haworth, you’ll be spotting a whole bunch of Bronte, but the main attraction is certainly Bronte Parsonage. The museum in West Yorkshire houses a tremendous literary collection and several exhibits in honor of the Brontee Sisters in the very building they used to write so many of their novels. The building has even been restored to reflect, as closely as possible, the way the writing trio would have experienced it. Along with this centerpiece building, Haworth is just a beautiful part of the country, with its winding uphill roads offering clear views of the fields in the background.
Manningham
Born in Manningham of Bradford, John Boynton Priestly, better known as J.B. Priestley, built an incredible career spanning many different disciplines of writing. The playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and broadcaster would often call back to his roots in Yorkshire, particularly in his 1929 novel The Good Companions, which was published when he was only 35 years old. As a broadcaster, he’s been credited as a morale-boosting force during World War II, when he’d run propaganda radio talks around the Battle of Britain. Still, it was after World War II that he penned what would become his most famous work: An Inspector Calls.
Priestley once described his home, which resides at 34 Mannheim Road, as being in a very respectable part of Bradford. You can even spot a plaque by the door commemorating the playwright’s former home. More impressive is his very own statue.
In front of the National Media Museum on Princes Way, atop a small grassy mound and behind a beautiful, flowered rockery, you’ll spot the J.B. Priestley statue by Ian Judd, with his overcoat flapping away in the all-too-common Yorkshire breeze. The University of Bradford’s library was also named after Priestley if you want to add another stop on your literary journey around West Yorkshire city.
Shibden
A famed diarist born in 1791, Anne Lister loved to travel and write about her experiences of the world. She may have only lived to 49, but in that time, she’d explored Paris, northern Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Spain, up the Pyrenees, the Netherlands, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Georgia, where she succumbed to a fever. Thanks to her extensive writings, many now hail Lister as the first modern lesbian, although in her time, due to her preferred attire and high level of education, she was referred to as ‘Gentleman Jack.’
Hailing from a small outsider community in Shibden, which is in Calderdale, Lister’s diaries continue to be of tremendous interest to literary enthusiasts and British historians as they masterfully recounted life in West Yorkshire at the time – particularly because they were written in code. Along with her writings, she also oversaw the development of Shibden Estate, which makes for a fine place in Calderdale to visit. You could also spot her plaque at the Holy Trinity Church in York, or read her decrypted diaries online via the West Yorkshire Archive Service.
Mytholmroyd
Ted Hughes is certainly praised for his work in Devon, where there’s the Ted Hughes Poetry Trail, among other places and activities named after the famed poet. However, the roots of the OBE are right here in Yorkshire.
Born in Mytholmroyd, among his many achievements include being made the Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998 and being hailed as one of the best post-war writers of Britain. Perhaps he was most famed, however, for his works pertaining to his marriage with fellow poet Sylvia Plath. He penned Song of a Rat and The Howling of Wolves after Plath’s death, but it was Last Letter that offered such a dark read of their relationship.
As noted, there’s a lot of love for Hughes in Devon, but there’s also much to explore in Yorkshire. There have been the Ted Hughes Poetry Festivals, which were held in Mytholmroyd, the Ted Hughes’ Paper Trail through Mexborough, and you can find the Ted Hughes plaque at Lumb Bridge in Calderdale. The plaque is commemorative of the poem Six Young Men, inspired by a First World War photo. Of course, the annual festival that Hughes founded himself, Poetry International, often takes place in the capital.
Leeds
Alan Bennett boasts two novelties on this list: not only is he still an active writer, but he’s also very much a city boy. His career has taken the man born in the Armley part of Leeds from the stage to the screen, from lecturing to penning novels. His credits list is colossal, and for his efforts, he’s won two BAFTA Awards, a couple of Tony Awards, and was even nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award in 1995 for the film The Madness of King George. Even earlier in 2023, he featured at the Leeds Playhouse for a special ‘In Conversation’ event.
As is so often the case, the greats don’t tend to get their plaques, statues, or their names attached to significant buildings until after they’re in the ground. Bennett, who declined a knighthood in 1996, is certainly an example of this, bar the Alan Bennett Library at Lawnswood School. For Bennett, his early years in Yorkshire don’t detail fields and flowing landscapes, but rather the dull nature of urban life post-war. Perhaps this helped to spur imagination for his future works, some of which will have been inspired by his adventures between the back-to-back streets of the Hallidays. Of course, beyond the literary exploration, Leeds is now a buzzing city that’s well worth visiting if you’re in the area.
If you want to see if the places of some of the greatest writers in British history will bring you some inspiration, Yorkshire offers a grand stage for your adventures. Get yourself over to Leeds, Mytholmroyd, Shibden, Manningham, and Haworth to explore the paths and settings that helped to underpin some truly tremendous careers. With Leeds Bradford Airport in the heart of West Yorkshire, you won’t have too far to travel if you plan your routes right.