'Lass I liked best wer Anne, she allus had a smile and a word for a child or dog'

BBC Culture picks 'Eight of the best films of 2026 so far' and the list includes

4. Wuthering Heights

Emerald Fennell's fearless reinvention of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel is not for Brontë purists, but it is an exhilarating take on the book and a striking example of Fennell's typical artistry and daring. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are fiery as Cathy and Heathcliff, the classic lovers made for each other but separated by class. Their connection is at once frankly sexual, romantic and caustic in the cruelty they often display toward each other. With that cruelty, Fennell restores the vehemence often overlooked in Brontë adaptations. Departing from prettified period pieces, the film's visual style is an enticing kaleidoscope of colour and fashion. Fennell drops in some comic moments, and at times dares to be over the top (Heathcliff on horseback, Elordi's bad wig flying in the wind) but its excesses are a small price to pay for such ambition. However much Fennell toys with the details – and why not? the book still exists – she captures the essential enduring passion of Wuthering Heights and its class-bound time. (Caryn James)

Men's Health has also selected 'The 25 Best Movies of 2026 So Far' and Wuthering Heights is there as well.

The classic novel comes to life on the big screen once again, this time from Promising Young Woman and Saltburn director Emerald Fennell, and with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the lead roles. Fennell, an Academy Award winner for her work on Promising Young Woman, has both big fans and big detractors at this point—but her take her, while book purists haven't been thrilled, is a big, visually stunning epic romance. Robbie and Elordi are both up to the task as well, bringing a charged energy to roles that really need it. Alison Oliver, who recently shined on HBO's Task, is another major highlight in a supporting role. An original soundtrack from Charli XCX helps to set the anachronistic mood and feels like a real cherry on top. (Evan Romano)

BBC News has a short clip on the wind farm planned for Brontë Country. BBC also reports on the improvements made to a busy footpath in Haworth.

Major improvements to a public footpath used by thousands of visitors every year have been completed in Haworth.

The footpath, which links Weavers Hill car park with Main Street, had become uneven and hazardous but has now been tarmacked to provide a more accessible surface.

Thousands of people visit Haworth every year from across the globe to walk in the footsteps of the Brontë sisters, who lived in the town in the early 19th Century.

A Bradford Council spokesperson said: "This upgraded footpath strengthens an important link in the heart of Haworth, supporting a safer and more inclusive access for those who visit and enjoy this much-loved village."

Bradford Council A tarmacked footpath with a fence on one side and green fields on the other. It is a sunny day in a semi-rural areaBradford Council

The path had become unsafe but is now accessible

The path had become unsafe due to root damage from several trees, as well as debris and broken fencing that had started to encroach on to the path and the overhead trees, which were affected by Ash Dieback.

Bradford Council removed the unsafe trees and collaborated with local allotment tenants and the tenant of the neighbouring paddock to clear the path's border creating a 5ft (1.5m) wide route.

The work was paid for with money from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority's City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement. (Grace Wood)

Keighley News takes a stroll down memory lane by sharing the district’s last handloom weaver Timothy Feather's thoughts about the Brontë family.

He was born in 1825 and for most of his life lived in a cottage at Buckley Green, near Stanbury.

His loom was in the room upstairs, as it had more windows and he needed as much light as possible to see when weaving. It was also where he slept, and the bed end almost rested against the loom.

He bought his own warp, carried it home over his shoulder and set it up on the loom by tying each warp thread on to those on the previous one. Once a new warp had been ‘gated’, he would then prepare the weft. This was bought in hanks, and he wound it onto pirns to go in his shuttles.

One day a young man called Albert Kay, from Nelson in Lancashire, called at Timmy Feather’s cottage in Buckley Green. An account of his visit was subsequently reported in the Nelson Leader.

Timmy was then in his 80s and as he was the last handloom weaver in the district, had become something of a celebrity. People often called and regularly asked to see his handloom and watch him weave. Albert was no exception and Timmy invited him upstairs to look at the loom. However, it was Sunday and being the Sabbath he said “I wod ’ave woven yer a bit of it had it bin a wark day but I ne’er weave at Sunday.”

Returning downstairs Albert, no doubt disappointed, asked him if he remembered the Brontës. “Knew ’em all,” he replied. “I was baptised wi’ old Patrick. My mother used to tell me that when he splashed watter on my face I bawled like a cawf. Aye and I went to school in’t lane there beside churchyard and were taught wi’ Charlotte.”

Asked what he thought about her, he said: “Well she was a little bit of a thing, about size o’ six penneth o’ copper. A teeny, little woman wi’ least hands that I’ve ever seen. And when it was said the parson’s Charlotte had written a printed book nobody believed it a first until fine folk in carriages came up cobbles in village street.

“Aye and I knew Emily, but I never liked her. She were taller and darker than the others and she would pass yer in street and never look at yer, just as if you were a stone. I used to pass her on’t moor bottom when I was going to Haworth, but she never turned her head sideways. She always seemed to be thinking and muttering to hersel’.

“Lass I liked best wer Anne, she allus had a smile and a word for a child or dog. But like ’em all she faded away. Did I know Branwell, ye ask? Aye, I’ve supped ale with him and John Brown in’t Black Bull, aye mony a time. He finished up wild, but everybody liked him. Last time I saw him in’t street his hair were flying and he looked demented. Poor Branwell – his was a wasted life.

“Aye, I remember all to the last. I saw Charlotte that day when she came out to be wed in’t church, and she looked like a lily. I saw her carried out of t’old parsonage feet first not long after. And there weren’t many dry eyes in Haworth that day.

“Last of all, I used to see old Patrick, lonely and desolate standing up in’t pulpit, while down below, lay his wife and five childer. It was a pathetic sight.”

Old Timmy died at his cottage in 1910 and is buried in Haworth churchyard alongside the path that passes through it from the old school in Church Street. (Robin Longbottom)