‘Mass wuther’ protest as giant wind farm threatens Brontë moors 

Out on the wily, windy moors above Haworth in West Yorkshire, hundreds of Kate Bush enthusiasts are to gather – to protest against plans for England’s biggest wind farm.

An annual event billed as “The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever” is taking place on Sunday, July 27, on Penistone Hill, above the village where Emily Brontë lived with her sisters, Charlotte and Anne, two centuries ago.

Known as a “mass wuther”, it will feature more than 500 people dressed in red dresses and flowing black wigs simultaneously performing the musical legend Kate Bush’s ethereal choreography from the video for her 1978 debut hit “Wuthering Heights”.

Although a mass wuther has taken place in various global locations including Melbourne, Berlin and Paris since 2013, it is the first time it has been held in the Brontë country that inspired it.

However, this year it is not just a celebration of Brontë and Bush but also a mass protest against plans by a Saudi-backed company to put 41 wind turbines on the moors surrounding Top Withens, the ruined farmhouse reputed to be the inspiration for Wuthering Heights itself.

Clare Shaw, a co-organiser of the event, said: “We thought this was a brilliant opportunity to tap into the strength of feeling about these plans. Some of these turbines will be very close to Top Withens and people don’t realise what the impact will be.

“It’s all a trick of language, calling it a wind farm. This is going to be a massive industrial complex built on protected peat land. Can you imagine a more novel way to send the message that this isn’t wanted than hundreds of people dancing to “Wuthering Heights”?

“The song and the book that inspired it is about Cathy and Heathcliff but also the moors – they’re all absolutely inseparable, and this is our way of drawing attention to the threat facing these moors.”

The 200m wind turbines – each more than 40m taller than Blackpool Tower – will form the Calderdale Energy Park on Walshaw Moor, stretching from Haworth to the Lancashire borders, which protesters call a “highly environmentally protected landscape of global cultural and ecological significance”.

Several campaign groups have been set up to object to the plans, and a parliamentary petition calling on the government to ban wind farms on protected peat land such as the Haworth moors has drawn almost 15,000 signatures.

Michael Stewart, a Brontë expert, said it was not a case of local people being against green policies.

He said: “There is nothing sustainable about this project. Its construction will be an environmental disaster. The aggregate required to build the roads needed to transport the turbines, and to construct the vast foundations for them, cannot be quarried locally. The nearest suitable aggregate is 90 miles away.

“It is estimated over 20,000 trucks would be needed to transport it, creating two years of constant traffic. The construction of the wind farm will create extensive flooding in the Calder Valley that will cause millions of pounds worth of damage.

“The area is a site of special scientific interest and a special protection area for endangered birds. We are not against sustainable energy – we support it, as long as it is in the right place. This is not the right place.”

Stewart said the plans needed to be completely abandoned, not scaled down. He added: “Even one turbine would compromise the very idea of Brontë country. The plan needs to be completely abandoned and reconstructed elsewhere, in a more suitable and viable place.”

Calderdale Windfarm, which is registered to Blyth, Northumberland, is the company behind the plans, but Saudi Arabia-based Energy Horizon Ii Investment Company has a 75 per cent stake in it.

It has just completed a non-statutory consultation of local residents, with a further consultation to follow later this year, and plans to submit a formal application for permission to build in spring 2026. Permission will be sought from the Planning Inspectorate, rather than the local authority, Calderdale council, owing to the nature of the scheme, and the final decision-maker would be the secretary of state.

Christian Egal, the project director at Calderdale Energy Park, told The Times that they had received more than 1,000 responses and the feedback would be critical to shaping the scheme’s final design that is “sensitive to its moorland location”.

He added: “We are committed to shaping the project by engaging with local people.

“We will continue to engage positively with the local community as we work to deliver this project of national significance, which is essential for the UK’s future energy security and climate change ambitions.”

He said that the project could power up to 250,000 homes, cut annual CO₂ emissions by up to 350,000 tonnes and contribute millions of pounds to local projects and initiatives.