Press

Top Withens | Andrew Fowler

Campaigners continue to rally support in battle against planned wind farm

Plans for a 41-turbine development on Walshaw Moor have sparked massive opposition.

Objectors say the Calderdale Energy Park would have a huge environmental and visual impact.

Amongst those who have spoken out against the scheme is Keighley MP Robbie Moore.

And concerns have been voiced by the Brontë Society about the effect it would have on moorland that inspired the literary siblings – including Top Withens, reputedly the inspiration for the setting of Wuthering Heights.

Keighley News
Alistair Shand
12 August 2025

Windmills around Haworth | TLS

Thirty years ago Ted Hughes, Jeanette Winterson and sixty-two other signatories stood against an “assault on our literary and artistic heritage”: a proposal to build forty-four wind turbines on the moors above Haworth, the West Yorkshire home of the Brontës (Letters, February 18, 1994).

We, the undersigned, are standing again – this time against an impending planning application for England’s largest onshore wind farm on this area of international literary significance and ecological importance. At 655ft tall the 65 proposed turbines would be two-thirds the height of the Eiffel Tower. They would be visible for twenty-five miles, and would be served by miles of access roads across fragile peat.

These are not just the wuthering heights written into immortality by the Brontës, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, or the wily, windy moors sung about by Kate Bush. They are a unique, highly protected priority habitat. The turbines would occupy eleven Site of Special Scientific Interest land units, which also have European Natura 2000 status (now transferred into UK law).

TLS
Letters to the Editor

Ed Miliband would let a turbine farm destroy Brontë country. We need net zero, but at what cost?

I cannot think of any British government for half a century that would have dreamed of destroying this place. Yet the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, apparently wants to do so, with the largest onshore windfarm in England, the Calderdale Energy Park.

The Guardian
Simon Jenkins
14 July 2025

‘It takes 25 years for a footprint to disappear’ – the secret, beguiling magic of Britain’s bogs

They are the air-conditioning units of the world – filtering water, preventing flooding, preserving history and providing habitat. Our human ancestors knew the extraordinary power of peatlands, so why are they still being destroyed?

The Guardian
Alys Fowler
22 June 2025

Top Withens: unique protected Yorkshire peat bog under threat

As we celebrate Earth Day, will the government let short-term cash trump the long-term conservation of our carbon-storing blanket peat bogs?

Yorkshire Bylines
Nick MacKinnon
22 April 2025

Concerns raised over transport to Calderdale Energy Park

Campaigners against a wind farm planned for land owned by an East Lancashire businessman have raised concerns regarding the transportation of infrastructure for the turbines along country roads.

Lancashire Telegraph
Jack Scott
16 May 2025

Actually the World’s Most Wuthering Heights Day

Why 500 people will dance on Sunday in celebration and in protest in Haworth, home to Wuthering Heights

Remember the first time you heard Wuthering Heights? I was four years old. I believed Kate Bush was a ghost, and I loved her – her spooky voice, her red dress shimmering in the mists of Salisbury Plain. I wasn’t alone. Across the globe, millions of devoted fans across the globe are still drawn to the depth of emotion and melodrama in that song; the theatricality and accessibility of the dance.

Yorkshire Bylines
Clare Shaw
26 July 2025

Bygone Burnley: Widdop, the crossroads of two kingdoms

Widdop, an ancient packhorse route between Burnley and Hebden Bridge, today still cuts through beautiful countryside criss-crossed by the meandering streams of Graining Water and Hebden Water.

Of more pressing and immediate concern is the fear that the landscape around here, which includes the nearby National Trust beauty spot of Hardcastle Crags, is the subject of a plan to build a huge windfarm stretching across the moors, something which Roger is vocal about in his opposition.

Burnley Express
Dominic Collis
7 July 2025

More concerns raised that proposed Calderdale Wind Farm would destroy vital peatland and cultural legacy of Bronte Country

A Pendle councillor has shared her concerns to the potential developers of a controversial huge wind farm that would stretch for miles across special open moorland.
As we revealed last week, green energy developers Calderdale Wind Farm Ltd want to build the largest onshore wind farm in England on the Walshaw Moor Estate near Hebden Bridge in Calderdale, which would also impact upon land overlooking Trawden and Laneshaw Bridge in Pendle.

The land in question, which includes several Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), is owned by the owner of Colne’s Boundary Mill, Richard Bannister.

Protecting the Brontë Moors

The moors are a timeless reminder of the landscape the Brontës knew, they seem almost unchanged, but they are under threat.

The Anne Brontë Blog
13 April 2025

Ancient Peat: Our Fight to Protect Our Beloved Landscape

When in autumn 2023 a Saudi-based company called Calderdale Windfarm Ltd put forward a proposal to build what would be England’s largest onshore wind farm with 65 wind turbines, each up to 200m high on 2330ha of Walshaw Moor local people were astonished – and alarmed.

Criticaurbana.com
Lydia Macpherson

Campaigners argue English wind project would do more environmental harm than good

Campaigners in the north of England are arguing that a major new wind farm planned in the

region will do more harm than good to climate and environmental outcomes by degrading the

peatlands that act as a natural carbon sink.

by Orlando Jenkinson 28 July 2025

Windpower Monthly
Orlando Jenkinson
28 July 2025

Kate Bush fans hold dance tribute on Brontë moors

This year’s West Yorkshire tribute will be held on moorland on Penistone Hill, not far from the famous Brontë sister’s home in Haworth.

BBC News Yorkshire
Julia Bryson
5 July 2025

Walshaw Moor: Move to halt wind farm on moor which inspired Wuthering Heights

Despite its legal protections, the Saudi-backed developers are pushing ahead with plans to build 41 wind turbines – at 200m more than 40m higher than the Blackpool Tower – and a battery energy storage system on the moors surrounding Top Withens, the ruined farmhouse said to have inspired the novel by Emily Brontë.

Yorkshire Post
Alexandra Wood
27 June 2025

Opposition from Pendle and West Yorkshire grows against proposed Calderdale Wind Farm

Plans to build a huge windfarm on land stretching from West Yorkshire to Pendle have met with vociferous opposition from residents.

Calderdale Wind Farm Ltd announced in September, 2023, a proposal to build the largest onshore wind farm in England on the Walshaw Moor Estate near Hebden Bridge in Calderdale, which residents in Pendle fear will directly impact their lives, especially those living in Laneshaw Bridge and Colne.

Burnley Express
Dominic Collis
12 June 2025

Save Wuthering Heights!

For those who don’t yet know, there are plans to build a massive windfarm in Brontë Country. At 200m, the turbines are huge (bigger than Blackpool Tower), bigger than any turbines used onshore.

They will have to dig out peat from the moors that is capturing carbon and it will destroy forever Brontë Country.

Substack – Brontë Writing Centre
Michael Stewart
9 June 2025

Moorland path to Top Withens | Jaiq Carter

How You Can Help

GETTING INVOLVED

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Speak Out

Share your thoughts with your communities at home and online. Attend meetings.

Contact your MP.

Contact a member of the House of Lords.

Write to Ed Miliband, current Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary.State@energysecurity.gov.uk and tell them that there is no need to build wind farms on protected peatland.

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Stronger Together

You are welcome to join our campaign group and add your voice and vote to the many – The Calderdale Windfarm Action Group is the main Facebook group representing all of the eight campaign groups of Stronger Together to Stop Calderdale Windfarm.
We’d love to have you on board with us.