Idyllic landscape that inspired Wuthering Heights 'under threat from wind farms', local residents fear
Around 80,000 visitors come to the area each year, many wanting to see the history of the Brontë family.
It’s an idyllic part of Yorkshire that attracts tens of thousands of tourists per year.
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Walking in Bronte country on the Moors above Haworth is like walking in one of the famous sisters’ novels.
But the landscape that inspired Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, a story revived in the latest Hollywood film starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, is under threat, according to some local residents.
Thirty-four wind turbines, each one standing at 200 metres tall, are being planned for construction on Crow Hill on the Moors here.
Nick Makinnon’s home sits on part of the Bronte walk, taking in the stunning views of the dramatic scenery.
He is among a large group in the surrounding area who are campaigning against these plans.
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“It’s a special protection area for enlisted birds, it’s a conservation area and it’s the inspiration for the Bronte sisters” Nick explained. “So on those three axes, it’s the worst site in England.”
A spokesperson for Calderdale Energy Park told LBC: “Our assessment work to date concludes that Top Withens (the farmhouse that inspired Wuthering Heights) and its Brontë associations would remain intact, with no harm to its heritage significance.
“The nearest turbine would be more than 800 metres away and positioned beyond intervening landform, limiting its prominence in views from the site.”
To that, Nick said this goes much deeper…literally.
“Amazingly, there’s only one site in England where you get a peat landslide known as a ‘bog burst’, where the bog explodes under pressure.” Nick pointed out.
“The only place it happens in England is on Crow Hill. The developers of the Wind Farm have very recently decided it needs to go over that area.”
In response to Nick's comments, a spokesperson for Calderdale Energy Park told LBC: “Detailed peat, ground condition and stability assessments are ongoing, and the findings will inform the project's final design.
“The design has already evolved through two stages of peat probing and hydrological surveys, moving infrastructure away from deeper peat and adjusting track alignments to follow shallower corridors, with floating tracks proposed in suitable locations to avoid cutting into peat altogether.”
Around 80,000 visitors come to the area each year, many wanting to see the history of the Brontes.
Rebecca Yorke, the Director of the Bronte Parsonage Museum, said if this energy park were to go ahead, it would “change the landscape forever".
“It would be very mercenary to say it would have an impact on tourism; we don’t know if it would stop people coming here,” she said.
“But what we do know is that their experience would be very different. That landscape would not be the same, the wildlife wouldn’t be there.
"To walk those moors is like walking in the Brontes' imagination. You can’t separate the landscape from their writing.”
It is not just this area of West Yorkshire that these plans could impact either. In order for the huge wind turbines to be transported to the site, bit by bit, they would have to be transported through the town of Colne in East Lancashire.
It’s an area that can be a traffic headache at the best of times, but with an extra 200 HGV journeys predicted per day for the next two years if the plans are approved, people are worried.
Stephen Atkinson, the Reform leader of Lancashire County Council, told LBC: “Residents are really concerned. The scale of this energy is just unfathomable. This has gone under the radar, I think.
“The residents of Colne have been aware of it, but I think we’re now at a stage that as we come closer to a decision, it is now getting a higher profile.”
The three councils that would be affected by this energy park- Lancashire, Bradford and Calderdale- now have Reform-led authorities.
Given the national party's scepticism around Net Zero, it is little surprise that they are against plans for a huge wind farm.
Leader of Calderdale Council Dan Sutherland said: “I think many people know about Reform’s policy nationally around renewable energy, but what really matters on this particular proposal was getting into the detail.
“Those high-level arguments about renewables aren’t going to be sufficient when it comes to a proposal like this.
“The route of it comes from an ideology that has been left to run out of control, where in the pursuit of a goal around the environment, we’re putting at risk some of our key heritage.”
Nick told LBC: “For the Reform-led localities, for them it’s an open goal. This is such a terrible wind farm; all they need to do is keep pointing out what a terrible wind farm it is, and it is impossible to disagree with them on that point.”
A spokesperson for Calderdale Energy Park said: The project could generate enough electricity to power approximately 198,000 homes, helping to strengthen the UK's energy security while keeping costs down for consumers.
"We recognise that Brontë Country is an important part of the area's cultural identity and that people care deeply about its landscape and heritage. These issues have been assessed through the PEIR's heritage, landscape, visual, tourism and socio-economic assessments.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero told LBC: “Onshore wind is a key part of our plan to lower bills and bring growth to every postcode.
“Our latest record-breaking renewables auctions secured enough clean energy to power the equivalent of 23 million homes and support good jobs across the country.”
A final decision will be made by the Secretary of State Spring 2028. Still time, these campaigners hope, for Prime Minister Andy Burnham, an English literature graduate, to think again on this decision which could see the famous landscape “forever changed.”