As a child Bradford-born Christa Ackroyd would walk these cobbled streets of Haworth with her adopted parents.
She was captivated by the history of this charming area made famous by the Brontë sisters.
Christa herself has helped to put Haworth and the whole of Yorkshire back on the map with her career as the face of ITV Calendar News and then BBC Look North until she was marred in controversy and her contract was terminated by the BBC.
For the first time, Christa shares her own story behind the headlines.
Reporter Sophie Mei Lan for the Mrs Yorkshire podcast sponsored by Whitby Seafoods - the home of scampi.
She was captivated by the history of this charming area made famous by the Brontë sisters.
Christa herself has helped to put Haworth and the whole of Yorkshire back on the map with her career as the face of ITV Calendar News and then BBC Look North until she was marred in controversy and her contract was terminated by the BBC.
For the first time, Christa shares her own story behind the headlines.
Reporter Sophie Mei Lan for the Mrs Yorkshire podcast sponsored by Whitby Seafoods - the home of scampi.
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NewsTranscript
00:00What headline would you write about your own life?
00:06You didn't have to like her, but you'll never forget her.
00:09Ooh, even in the voice as well!
00:13Because you know, I know I'm Marmite. It's funny because when Netflix were doing the
00:18documentary they did a survey on me and it was something like 89% of women liked me and
00:2367% of men didn't, er, did like me, so that meant that 30% didn't, which says a lot
00:29about men. But then when it asked them, would you like to be a friend, it was something
00:33like 90% said yes and I'm thinking, so you don't like me and you want to be my friend.
00:37I think it's, I think it's your, it's not necessary for people to like you as long as
00:42you are fair and honest and are a friend to those in need. I know what it was like to
00:48be considered that tough woman, but it had to be done. I had to break the mould. I had
00:54to say, listen to us. My job is not, not to report on the WI or the fluffy dog stories.
01:00My job is to be out there, you know, on picket lines, to be outside Crown courts, to fight
01:06as I did with the, with the story of Peter Sutcliffe, for women's voices to be, to be
01:11heard. So if that makes me tough along the way, I've no regrets.
01:16What's your life's motto?
01:20I think, I think my life's motto was given to me as a young girl by my father, never
01:26look backwards. It's not the direction you're travelling in. And if you live your life like
01:32that with no regrets, yes, there are, everybody has in their lives things that they wish had
01:37gone differently. Some are catastrophic, some are just little niggles, but there's nothing
01:41we can do about them. So if we plan that tomorrow we are moving forward, then we're going in
01:48the right direction. And, you know, I don't know what's going to happen to me. I don't
01:53know what I'll be doing in a year's time, five years time, however long I've got left.
01:58But I do believe in the possibility that it's not over until it's over.
02:06What impact has Yorkshire had on your life?
02:09I am Yorkshire. I am Yorkshire, you know, cut me in two and we'll say that like the
02:14stick of rock. But actually what Yorkshire has taught me is the stories I've covered
02:21from the miners' strike, and then the communities that were left after the miners' strike,
02:26to the, you know, to the hunt for Peter Sutcliffe, to the Bradford City disaster, to Hillsborough,
02:32have taught me the resilience that is Yorkshire. The fact that we don't cry easily, we cry
02:40in secret. And that is, to me, our strength, but sometimes our weakness as well. Sometimes
02:47we are so stoic that we don't give in to emotion. And I've learned that I've always, I've always
02:55been tough. And I know that people have watched me on the television, and I know I've walked
03:00into a room and people have been scared of me. And that makes me sad, because I was determined
03:06to ask the question that you, as a viewer, felt needed asking. And if that makes me tough,
03:13so be it, then that was my job. But it might read Yorkshire, but like all Yorkshire, cut
03:22us and we bleed. You know, underneath that tough exterior are life lessons about how
03:28tough it is to be up here, how tough it has been in the past, how tough it is in some
03:34communities now. So cut us and we bleed. But we'll never show you.
03:40Phrase, the best thing about Yorkshire is...
03:45The best thing about Yorkshire, definitely, it's people. We are chippy. We don't allow
03:54anybody to put us down. Otherwise, you will see that we carry not just a chip, but a sack
03:58of potatoes. But we are warm, we are giving, we are interesting. We are so dry, our sense
04:07of humour, that people don't understand us. And we are so proud of our roots and our identity.
04:14You know, anywhere in the world, people might say they come from England. We say we come
04:20from Yorkshire. And you know what, there's something about the difference, the big cities,
04:26the industrial revolution, the wide moors like we're in Haworth at the moment, or the
04:31North York moors, or the rugged coastline that makes us tough. We're a tough breed.
04:37And you know what, you can't keep us down. Well, not for long.
04:41What's your favourite Yorkshire saying?
04:44No such thing as can't.
04:48Where's your best place to eat and drink in Yorkshire?
04:51I love the old post office. I love the star at Hairham, which is Michelin star, which is really, really, really, really posh.
04:59And the only reason I do that is because, you know, I know Andrew really well. I was there the first week he opened.
05:04My mum and dad went the first week he opened. And that's in Hairham and it's very near Rosedale.
05:09But you know where I think my favourite places are? My favourite places are good old Bradford curry houses.
05:15You cannot be, you know, where it literally is, you have to ask for a knife because you use your chapati to scoop things up.
05:22And, you know, there's an abundance of flavours and there's an abundance of different cultures from Southeast Asia,
05:29from India, from Pakistan, from Bangladesh, from Kashmir, you know, and also Malaysia and Turkey and Lebanon.
05:37Anything with spice and therefore it would have to be Bradford, my home city.
05:42What's your favourite Yorkshire grub?
05:47I would say fish and chips, but, which it is, it's fish, but Whitby crab, Whitby crab.
05:58Because I don't eat chips anymore because, you know, I've got a tendency to put a lot of weight on.
06:02But if you said to me, here is some Whitby haddock, not cod.
06:08You know why not cod? Because my granny used to say there were worms in it.
06:11I still don't know whether that's true, but that's what she used to say to me.
06:14But Whitby crab was to me the epitome of luxury.
06:20My mum used to let me go to the little stalls on Whitby.
06:24We used to go to Whitby every year for holidays and used to stay on my uncle's farm in Lastingham near Rosedale.
06:30And my treat was being able to go to the cockle stall and buy a dressed crab and it still tastes as good.
06:38Where's your favourite place to go in Yorkshire?
06:41Two. One we're in it, Howarth, which is where for me the story of the Brontes really began my passion for writing,
06:50but also for equality and inclusion and self-belief and determination.
06:56But the other will have to be where my mum was born, where I'm lucky enough to have a house,
07:01which is Rosedale Abbey, which is right in the middle of the North York Moors,
07:05which has no mobile phone signal, which you can switch off and be at one with yourself.
07:11Because I think that that is what we are lacking in life, quietness.
07:17And when you've no mobile phone, yes, OK, I can connect it to the internet.
07:21Suddenly you have to become aware of yourself, your feelings,
07:25and you're not reliant on your phone to tell you how you should be thinking.