Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
National Media Museum
(
&
0844/856-3797;
www.nationalmediamuseum.org.
uk) captures the history of photography, film, and TV over eight floors of interactive
and traditional galleries and through activities including animation workshops,
sleepovers, and IMAX screenings. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm, plus bank-
holiday and school-holiday Mondays, it's free (but there are charges for the IMAX
cinema and for most activities). The city also has a small but thought-provoking
Peace
Museum,
10 Piece Hall Yard (
&
01274/434009;
www.peacemuseum.org.uk), and
two modest art galleries,
Bradford 1,
Centenary Square (
&
01274/437800
), and
Cartwright Hall,
Lister Park (
&
01274/431212
). Since 2008 the latter has
devoted its upper galleries to Connect, a permanent exhibition about the links
between works of art from different cultures and times. Admission is free; opening
hours are Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday 1 to 5pm, plus bank holidays.
Before venturing west into Brontë territory, families might want to hop 8
1
⁄
2
miles
southwest to
Halifax,
home to
Eureka! The National Children's Museum
(
&
01422/330069;
www.eureka.org.uk), with six interactive galleries. Tickets
(£9.95 adults, £3.45 children 1-2) give repeated access for a year; it's open 10am
to 4pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 5pm Saturday and Sunday (daily in school
holidays).
Just west of Halifax,
Hebden Bridge
has numerous claims to fame: It has the
highest number of lesbians per head in the U.K., was awarded Fair Trade Zone status
in 2003, and was named the world's fourth quirkiest place to live by the British Air-
ways magazine in 2005, having built up a population of writers, musicians, artists,
photographers, alternative practitioners, and green and New Age activists since the
1970s. American poet Sylvia Plath is buried in the adjoining hilltop village of
Hep-
tonstall,
near the parents and uncle of her husband Ted Hughes, born in neighbor-
ing Mytholmroyd. Hughes's former house in Hepstonstall is now a residential writing
center (www.arvonfoundation.org).
Plath's collection
The Colossus
includes a poem about the beautiful valley of
Hard-
castle Crags
(
&
01422/844518;
www.nationaltrust.org.uk) to the north of Hed-
ben Bridge. Described by the poet as “absolute as the ancient world,” this landscape
offers miles of woodland walks past streams and waterfalls (pick up trail maps in the
new sustainably built visitor center in an old cotton mill).
Bradford Industrial Museum & Horses at Work
MUSEUM Outside the
city center at Eccleshill, this venue depicts how mill life was for local workers and
owners in the 1870s, through permanent displays and daily demonstrations, includ-
ing steam demonstrations on Wednesdays. Sometimes you'll also be able to watch
displays by the museum's own horses, unless they're out working on the streets of
Bradford or shooting for TV or a movie.
Moorside Mills, Moorside Rd. (9 miles west of Bradford),
Eccleshill.
&
01274/435900.
www.bradford
museums.org. Free admission. Tues-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun 11am-4pm.
Brontë Parsonage Museum
MUSEUM This stone-sided parsonage near the
top of the village of Haworth west of Bradford contains the Brontë family's furniture,
personal treasures, correspondence, pictures, books, and manuscripts, bearing testa-
ment to their residence here from 1820 to 1861—during which time Charlotte wrote
Jane Eyre
, Emily wrote
Wuthering Heights
, and Anne wrote
The Tenant of Wildfell
Hall
. The Brontës' father, Patrick, was perpetual curator of the Church of St.
Michael, where Charlotte and Emily are now buried in the family vault.
Insider tip:
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