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. Read more… Keighley News  Alistair Shand 12 August 2025

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). Read more… TLS Letters to the Editor

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. Read more… The Guardian Simon Jenkins 14 July 2025

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? Read more… The Guardian Alys Fowler 22 June 2025

As we celebrate Earth Day, will the government let short-term cash trump the long-term conservation of our carbon-storing blanket peat bogs? Read more… Yorkshire Bylines Nick MacKinnon 22 April 2025

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. Read more… Lancashire Telegraph Jack Scott 16 May 2025

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. Read more… Yorkshire Bylines Clare Shaw 26 July 2025

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.

Read more… Burnley Express Dominic Collis 7 July 2025

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. Read More… Burnley Express Dominic Collis 18 June 2025

The moors are a timeless reminder of the landscape the Brontës knew, they seem almost unchanged, but they are under threat. Read more… The Anne Brontë Blog 13 April 2025

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.

Read more…

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Lydia Macpherson