In 1861, civil engineer John McLandsborough paid a trip to Haworth, declaring himself a “pilgrim at the shrine of Charlotte Brontë”. The author had died six years earlier and people were curious to see where she and her sisters had been born, raised and so profoundly inspired. McLandsborough was astonished to find there was no railway line so, although he was a specialist in sewers and drains, he proposed a branch line connecting Haworth with the Midland Railway at Keighley. Six years later, a line was opened through the beautiful Worth Valley.
