Most people wouldn’t automatically associate a popular, picturesque tourist village with a list of what are supposedly the ‘worst’ towns in Britain.

Nevertheless, step forward... Haworth. It has been unflatteringly rated as the 18th “cra**est” town in a new book, entitled Cra* Towns Returns.

The startling entry for the famous village begins: “The Bronte sisters, it’s fair to say, were miserable. Their brother, Branwell, was suicidally self-destructive. Why? They lived in Haworth.”

The arguably tongue-in-cheek write-up doesn’t get much better, lambasting Haworth for killing off the Bronte sisters with its unsanitary 19th century conditions!

It adds: “I know it sounds unfair to criticise the town for something it did to folk who died almost two centuries ago. But then, in Haworth, they’re still doing everything they can to make it feel like it’s still the 1850s. Short of poisoning the water…”.

Worth Valley ward councillor Rebecca Poulsen, who lives in Haworth, said she was very surprised to hear the village had been featured in the book.

“It’s a very unfair representation, and I don’t agree with it,” she said. “I chose to live in Haworth and my family and I think it’s a wonderful place.

“We have a mix of the old and the new – not everyone likes the same things, but it’s important to preserve the historic side of the village as well as making it a place where people can live and work in 2013.

“I just wonder how much the book’s writers actually know about Haworth. Maybe they’re wanting to get some headlines by including some unlikely places.” This is not the first time Cra* Towns has caused a stir locally. Its 2003 edition ranked Keighley 40th in the UK’s top 50 worst places to live.