Recent Event
Calderdale Wind Farm - A Hostile Act?
Public Forum to explore the Environmental and Cultural Impact of De-Wilding Walshaw Moor
Birchcliffe Centre, Hebden Bridge, Wednesday 15 May at 7.30pm
The Pennine Heritage Trust in partnership with Hebden Bridge Literary and Scientific Society and Stop Calderdale Wind Farm (www.stopcalderdalewindfarm.co.uk) hosted a Public Forum to raise awareness about the environmental and cultural issues of the proposed Wind Farm on Walshaw Moor. Several speakers shared their knowledge and insights into the potential consequences of this massive industrial development on the countryside, wildlife, communities and literary heritage of the Calder Valley. Topics included the impact of the Wind Farm on protected moorland habitats and wildlife, the rich bird life of Walshaw Moor, damage to peat and carbon footprint of the construction project and the poetic legacy of Ted Hughes. Following the presentations, the audience were invited to contribute to a discussion.
Speakers included:
Horatio Clare - Nature and Travel Writer and Broadcaster
Walshaw Moor: ‘A little bit of miraculous old Britain’
Dr Steve Ely - Poet and Director of the Ted Hughes Network (University of Huddersfield)
Ted Hughes and Walshaw Moor: ‘A stage for the performance of heaven’
Carl Lawrence - Professor Emeritus (University of Leeds - Engineering)
Wind Farms on Peat - The Green Debate
www.pennineheritage.org.uk www.hblitandsci.org.uk www.stopcalderdalewindfarm.co.uk
Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in the Public Forum, which was a great success. A report will follow shortly and further information about the presentations will be made available in due course.
The Public Forum was highlighted in advance on BBC Look North, ITV’s Calendar News and Radio Leeds, along with information about the Stop Calderdale Wind Farm campaign (see below for details).
Recent Media Coverage
BBC Look North - 14 May 2024
Our Campaign
Stop Calderdale Wind Farm Leaflet
Please circulate this leaflet as widely as possible by email, whatsapp and social media. Pass it on to your family, friends, neighbours and colleagues. Print it out and display it in your window or distribute it in your area. Many local people are still completely unaware of the wind farm or don’t understand its implications, so it’s vital to spread the word.
Calderdale Wind Farm is a Hostile Act against the countryside, wildlife and people of the Calder Valley and Brontë Country.
Support from Ted Hughes Estate
‘Wadsworth Moor’ by Ted Hughes from Remains of Elmet, 1979. Published in support of Stop Calderdale Wind Farm
All poems from Collected Poems by Ted Hughes are copyright (c) the Estate of Ted Hughes. Reprinted here by permission of the Ted Hughes Estate and Faber and Faber Ltd. All rights reserved.
Support from Flaight Hill Group
In 1994 the Flaight Hill Opposition Group successfully defeated a proposal for a large 44 turbine wind farm on the moor above Pecket Well near Hebden Bridge in Calderdale. The site, which extended from Cock Hill above Oxenhope to High Brown Knoll and Limers Gate, directly overlooked Crimsworth Dean and was very close to the boundary of the Walshaw Moor Estate, where the proposed Calderdale Wind Farm would be built.
When Stop Calderdale Wind Farm held its first public meeting at Wadsworth Community Centre on 6 December 2023, several members of the Flaight Hill Opposition Group came forward and offered to help. We have been working closely with them ever since and are extremely grateful for their support and their vital input into our campaign.
Halifax Courier - 4 March 2024
Hebweb - 3 March 2024
Hebden Bridge Times - 14 March 2024
Times Literary Supplement - 16 February 2024
An open letter from over 350 writers, artists and environmentalists opposing the development of the proposed Calderdale Wind Farm on the Walshaw Moor Estate because of the environmental and cultural damage it would inflict on the landscape and wildlife of the Upper Calder Valley and Brontë Country, and its disastrous impact on the internationally-renowned literary heritage of the Brontë sisters, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Read letter and list of signatories.
The Guardian - 8 January 2024
‘What do Saudi developers know of Heathcliff?’ Brontë country up in arms over windfarm plan
by Helen Pidd, Northern Editor of The Guardian.
Recent Events
Public Meeting at Wadsworth Community Centre - 6 December 2023
130 people packed into Wadsworth Community Centre in Old Town near Hebden Bridge for the inaugural Stop Calderdale Wind Farm Public Meeting. Presentations were given on different aspects of the development highlighting its damaging impact on the environment. The public were then given the opportunity to air their views. There was unanimous support for the campaign. Read report on Hebweb.
Questioning Arcadia: Beyond the Idealised Landscape - January 2024
An exhibition at Wainsgate Chapel, Old Town, Hebden Bridge by postgraduate architecture students from the University of Sheffield. The exhibition highlighted the environmental impact of the wind farm on Walshaw Moor and its knock-on effects on the Calder Valley, particularly in relation to flooding. Exploring issues such as capitalist exploitation and green colonialism, it proposed the alternative concept of Ourcadia: upland management for the benefit of the environment and the community.
