Haworth: Day Four (Tuesday)

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It’s our last full-day here today.

We’re going to drive over to Bradford to the National Media Museum. As the title suggests, it’s a museum devoted to film, photography, television, radio and the web. We last went there over 20 years ago and the place sticks in our mind because at that time, we were waiting at the lights nearby when a woman crossed the road in front of us and did a ‘moony’ – nice!

We had a trouble-free journey there, probably made more easier by the improving weather – the sun’s out and we’re at 13 degrees…almost a heatwave!!!

National Media Museum - Bradford

On arrival into Bradford, we found the Museum pretty quickly and used the car-park located behind it. The place was very quiet and in spite of us having been there before, it all looked a bit unfamiliar. We decided to start at the top and worked downwards.

The best floor for us was the one devoted to TV, where there was tons of TV memorabilia, including a full-sized Dalek, and the normal tube-map showing Walford East from EastEnders as a real underground station. 

For me, the most interesting part was the TV archive where there was a facility to choose and watch loads of old, now largely forgotten, TV programmes. We opted for the very first episode ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ entitled ‘On Trial’, first transmitted in 1971. We were directed to a private booth where were shown the first fifteen minutes (not sure why we couldn’t see the whole thing though!). Very enjoyable, but better if we’d seen it all. Nice to see the old London Weekend Television ident again too!

We covered the rest of the floors with some speed and after reaching the ground-floor were left with the impression that over the years, the museum had shifted from being purely educational and a traditional archive, to one where there was more emphasis on entertainment. I guess that’s the way of things these days, as museums have to work even harder to attract ‘the yoof’.

Overall, we left there feeling a little disappointed that it seem to have lost the ‘oomph’ compared to our first visit all those years ago. Maybe that’s because we’d never seen anything like it before when we first visited all those years ago – or maybe, the whole notion of archiving loads of TV programmes is something that is just-as-possible on a home PC these days!

We consoled ourselves by setting out to find a curry-house somewhere close-by within walking distance.

No such luck….lots of shops, but hardly any restaurants. In fact, the town of Bradford was very confusing and not helped by the whole pedestrian area of central Bradford being covered in road-works. Obviously, big plans are afoot to smarten the place up and make it more pedestrian friendly, but it all made it much more challenging to get around and explore the place. We just wanted it to be more curry friendly!!!

So, back to the car to find somewhere to eat. We drove to Halifax and saw a sign for converted Mill, parked up, only to find that it seemed to be a series of empty business units and one solitary restaurant.

Haworth Old Hall InnIn the end we decided to stop looking and head ‘home’ to try the local Pub/Restaurant near to the cottage – Haworth Old Hall. This had been recommended and on arriving noticed how old the place looked. In fact, it dates back to 1580, but fortunately, the staff and the food were much younger! We had a good wholesome lunch – pie and mash for me; fish and chips for Ann.

And finally, back to the cottage for a quick snooze before beginning the task of packing – we seem to be leaving with more than we started with!

We’ll be leaving after breakfast tomorrow – and with a good journey, we should be home around 1ish.

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