Our Supporters
The Ted Hughes Estate
Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was one of the greatest British poets of the 20th century. Born in Mytholmroyd, near Hebden Bridge, he spent his childhood in the Upper Calder Valley and remained deeply attached to the area throughout his life. His family later settled in Heptonstall, where Hughes himself bought a house, Lumb Bank in Colden Clough, later leased to the Arvon Foundation. As well as shaping his character, the landscape and wildlife of the Upper Calder Valley triggered Hughes’s fascination with the natural world and inspired some of his most powerful and evocative poems.
In 1979 Ted Hughes published a collection of poems called Remains of Elmet - A Pennine Sequence specifically about the Upper Calder Valley, complemented by brooding black and white photographs by Fay Godwin. Many of these poems were inspired by Walshaw Moor, Crimsworth Dean, Hardcastle Crags and Widdop - the landscape threatened by the wind farm. He also wrote about Top Withens and the Brontës at nearby Haworth. Hughes’s evocations of the moors, millstone grit, heather and curlews capture the raw beauty of this wild landscape and its ever-changing weather.
We are extremely grateful to Carol Hughes and Ted Hughes Estate for their wholehearted support for our campaign to protect the literary heritage of Ted Hughes, and for the kind permission of the Ted Hughes Estate and Faber and Faber to quote his poems on this website. The Ted Hughes Network, the Ted Hughes Society, the Elmet Trust and the Arvon Foundation are all opposed to Calderdale Wind Farm.
Ted Hughes at Lumb Bank, Heptonstall. Photograph copyright (c) Carol Hughes.
‘Wind’ by Ted Hughes from The Hawk in the Rain, 1957, republished in the revised edition of Elmet, 1994. Published here with the support of the Ted Hughes Estate.
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.
Martin Parr CBE
Crimsworth Dean, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, 1975
© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
Martin Parr is one of the best-known documentary photographers of his generation. He has been a member of the Magnum agency since 1994 and was President from 2013 - 2017. His work has been exhibited all over the world and is collected by leading international museums, including the Tate and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Martin Parr spent his early career in Hebden Bridge where he lived from 1975-1980. His photographs from that period recording the lives of mill workers, hill farmers and chapel goers in the Calder Valley were published in his book The Non-Conformists in 2013. Many of these photographs focused on the community of Crimsworth Dean.
Many thanks to Martin Parr for kindly permitting us to reproduce several of his photographs of Crimsworth Dean to highlight the threat to our cultural heritage. Cross Ends Farm, White Hole Farm, Thurrish Farm and Crimsworth Dean Chapel would all be blighted by the ‘wind turbine forest’. Martin Parr has told us: ‘I certainly support your cause and agree that it would really ruin the landscape of this area.’
Bert Greenwood and his sister Phyllis Greenwood, White Hole Farm, Crimsworth Dean, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, 1975-80
© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
Some of the congregation making their way to the Crimsworth Dean Chapel Anniversary Service, Crimsworth Dean, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, 1975
© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
Dick Sunderland, Cross Ends Farm, Crimsworth Dean, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, 1975-80
© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
Congregation outside Crimsworth Dean Chapel after the Anniversary Service, Crimsworth Dean, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, 1975-80
© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
Charlie and Sarah Greenwood put up their Anniversary curtains at Thurrish Farm to mark the Crimsworth Dean Chapel Anniversary, Crimsworth Dean, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, 1976
© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
The Ted Hughes Network, the Ted Hughes Society and the Elmet Trust
The Ted Hughes Society (an academic group promoting the scholarly reading and discussion of the works of Ted Hughes), Ted Hughes Network (a centre of excellence for Hughes-related research, teaching and public engagement at the University of Huddersfield) and the Elmet Trust (a local organisation celebrating the life and work of Ted Hughes) are all opposed to the wind farm. As Dr Steve Ely (Director of the Ted Hughes Network and Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield) explains: ‘The proposed development would destroy the landscape and defile the natural world that inspired the poetry of one of twentieth century's greatest English language poets. Over a hundred of Hughes's poems and stories - including 'Wind', 'The Horses', 'Six Young Men', 'The Deadfall', 'Moors', 'Abel Cross, Crimsworth Dean' and 'Curlews in April') were inspired by the landscape that will be impacted by the proposed development, in collections he published across his whole career - The Hawk in the Rain, Lupercal, Remains of Elmet, Wolfwatching and Birthday Letters.’
‘Hughes's poetic temperament was formed in this beautiful landscape, on walks and camping expeditions he shared with his mother and father William and Edith, his uncles Thomas and Walter and his older brother Gerald. Indeed Hughes and his family regarded Crimsworth Dean in particular as so important that they referred to it as 'the happy valley' and Hughes has referred to it, in a letter to his childhood friend Donald Crossley, of Mytholmroyd, as a “sacred place to him”, where “all his writing began.”’
Dr Mark Wormald, Chair of the Ted Hughes Society and Director of Studies at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, underlines this point: ‘These moors and valleys were a lifelong inspiration to Ted Hughes as well as to the Brontës; they are also habitats or rare ecological significance.’ Dr Wormald also highlights the importance of environmental issues to Ted Hughes, who spent many years campaigning against river pollution. ‘In February 1994, Hughes was one of sixty-four co-signatories to a letter in the Times Literary Supplement opposing an earlier and much smaller wind farm of forty-four wind turbines on the moors above Haworth.’ Thankfully, as a result of Ted Hughes’s intervention, the proposed Flaight Hill Wind Farm was defeated. Given that the site was very close to Crimsworth Dean, it is clear that he would have strenuously opposed the huge wind farm now proposed for Walshaw Moor SSSI.
The Ted Hughes Network has produced a range of literary trails entitled Discovering Ted Hughes's Yorkshire created by Christopher Goddard, three of which cover areas that will be impinged upon by the wind farm, notably Crimsworth Dean. As Dr Steve Ely points out. ‘These walks will be irreparably damaged by the visual and sonic blight these turbines and their infrastructure will impose on the landscape and the more direct impact the conversion of the moor to an industrial zone will have on the wildlife that was so important to Hughes's encounter with the area - much of which is now endangered - lapwings, snipe, curlew, birds of prey and hares.’ Read more
More about the Ted Hughes Network More about the Ted Hughes Society More about the Elmet Trust
‘Cock-Crows’ by Ted Hughes from Remains of Elmet, 1979. Published here with the support of the Ted Hughes Estate.
‘There Come Days to the Hills’ by Ted Hughes from Remains of Elmet, 1979.
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.
Horatio Clare
Horatio Clare is an award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster based in Hebden Bridge. Raised on a sheep farm in South Wales, he is best known as a nature and travel writer, but his range of subjects is wide-ranging. His books include Orison for a Curlew (2015), The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal (2018) and Heavy LIght: A journey through madness, mania and healing (2021). A regular contributor to the Financial Times, he has also made many programmes for Radio 3 and Radio 4.
Speaking of the proposed wind farm on Walshaw Moor, Horatio Clare has said: ‘That particular fragment of the Pennines, that fraction of Britain, is unique. I have written about a lot of extraordinary places around the world. The awful truth is, there aren’t very many of them left in Britain. But this is one. I don’t believe there is a site of upland biodiversity to match it for fifty miles in any direction. A little bit of miraculous old Britain is still there.’
‘Once we start destroying Sites of Special Scientific Interest, once we erase the few jewels we have left – the earth is abused and we are terribly diminished, in a very deep way. I think we lose peace, and meaning, and ease, and joy, and connection, and proportion when we lose nature – or, worse, when we destroy it. Although wind energy is exactly the right thing to do, this is exactly the wrong place.’ Read more
Christopher Goddard
Christopher Goddard - The Yorkshire Map Maker - is renowned for his exquisitely detailed hand-drawn maps annotated with notes and sketches . After moving to Hebden Bridge in 2006 he began exploring and mapping the hills and dales of the Calder Valley. His first book - The West Yorkshire Moors - was published in 2013. An immediate success, it led to a series of others, including The South Yorkshire Moors and The West Yorkshire Woods.
A cartographer with a difference, Christopher Goddard records previously undocumented paths and landscape features, as well as fascinating information about wildlife, place names and history. His knowledge and appreciation of Calderdale’s countryside and wildlife is unparalleled and his views are highly respected. He has also produced several literary trail maps relating to the Brontes and Ted Hughes.
Christopher Goddard is very concerned about the environmental impact of the proposed wind farm on Walshaw Moor. ‘I would be happy to put my name behind the campaign,’ he says. ‘It’s not a straightforward issue as many of us support green technologies, but this plan just seems so wrong on so many levels.’
Juliet Barker
Historian and biographer Juliet Barker is a leading expert on the Brontës. Her landmark book The Brontës (1994) was the first definitive history of the Brontës and presented a revolutionary picture of the renowned literary family based on first-hand research from Brontë manuscripts. Previously a Curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Juliet Barker has written and edited many other Brontë publications, including The Brontes: A Life in Letters (1997).
In 1993 Juliet Barker became involved with the Flaight Hill Wind Farm Opposition Group (see below), which successfully campaigned against the destruction of the moorland landscape associated with the Brontës above Pecket Well close to Walshaw Moor. ‘The moorlands around Haworth and the Upper Calder Valley were central to their lives and writings. They roamed over the moors every day, walking “for the good of our health, but to the great detriment of our shoes”. It was these walks which inspired some of the greatest novels and poetry in the English language. More than any other writers, the Brontës were a product of their landscape.’
Heather Clark
Heather Clark is a leading American literary critic and biographer specialising in Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Her landmark book, Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath (published in 2020), is regarded as the definitive biography of one of the most celebrated and influential poets of the post-war era. Focusing on Plath’s remarkable literary and intellectual achievements, Red Comet was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.
Heather Clark is also the author of The Grief of Influence: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (2011) about the extraordinary literary partnership and poetic dialogue between these two remarkable poets. Dividing her time between New York and Yorkshire, Heather Clark is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at the University of Huddersfield.
Sylvia Plath’s grave in Heptonstall is a place of pilgrimage for Plath fans from around the world. As Heather Clark points out: ‘Sylvia Plath first visited the area shortly after her marriage to Ted Hughes and responded to the landscape in her own unique way as they walked in Hardcastle Crags and over Walshaw Moor to Top Withens. She wrote several poems about the moors, which she loved. The literary legacies of the Brontës, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath are all indelibly intertwined - with each other and with this landscape - and they will all be irrevocably damaged if this landscape is desecrated.’
Flaight Hill Wind Farm Opposition 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. They have been working closely with us ever since and we are extremely grateful for their support and their vital input into our campaign.
As Carl Lawrence, one of the Flaight Hill campaigners, points out: ‘This site has the same designations as Walshaw Moor. Noting the result of public consultation, undertaking due diligence, and engagement with the local community, the company withdrew its application. It is reasonable to assume then that the proposers of Calderdale Wind Farm would have cognizance of the Flaight Hill application, so it almost beggars belief that they think they can bulldoze through the LPA's planning policy and the precedent set of "No wind farm construction on such peatland sites".’
Corinne the Curlew
‘Hello, Corinne the Curlew speaking. My fellow Curlews and I were dumbfounded to hear that some developers have come up with the bonkers idea of building a huge wind farm on Walshaw Moor above Hebden Bridge. We, and our avian associates from the Lapwing and Golden Plover communities, wish to inform you humans that we strongly object to this misguided proposal. Call us Nimbys if you want, but we actually live on Walshaw Moor, so this really is Our Back Yard!’
‘We love this place and come back here every year to exactly the same nesting spots to breed and rear our chicks on this magnificent moor. We’ve been doing it for centuries and want to continue for ever moor (excuse the pun). The boggy peat suits us Curlews perfectly as it’s full of juicy worms which we root out with our long curved beaks! Not everyone’s cup of tea, I appreciate, but it’s what we like and what we need to survive.’
‘Thanks for listening – and do come and listen to us Curlews on Walshaw Moor this spring. Free concerts every day! Though we say it ourselves, our lyrical bubbling calls are one of the most beautiful sounds in the natural world – surely not something that anyone would wish to lose.’
Michael Stewart
Michael Stewart is an award-winning novelist and poet who moved to Yorkshire in 1995. His fascination with the Brontës has resulted in two books: Ill Will: The Untold Story of Heathcliff, a novel inspired by Wuthering Heights about Heathcliff’s missing years; and Walking The Invisible: Following in the Brontës’ footsteps, a hybrid memoir combining nature writing with an exploration of the landscapes that inspired the Brontës’ literature.
Michael Stewart is Head of Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield. He is also the creator of the Brontë Stones project, four monumental stones situated in the landscape between the their birthplace in Thornton and their home at Haworth Parsonage, inscribed with poems by Kate Bush, Carol Ann Duffy, Jeanette Winterson and Jackie Kay.
Reflecting on the distinctive landscape of Brontë Country and the Calder Valley, Michael Stewart has observed: ‘I am struck, whenever I venture from the Yorkshire Moors that surround my home to gentler contours, how much we rely on glacial folds and river-worn ravines to experience anything approaching wildness. The natural world is vanishing.’
Speaking of the campaign against the Walshaw Moor wind farm, Michael Stewart has said: I’m very happy to be named as a supporter. I have only recently become aware of these devastating plans but I will do everything I can to mobilise resistance.’
Upper Calderdale Wildlife Network
Upper Calderdale Wildlife Network are a group of naturalists and conservationists who aim to protect, conserve and enhance the rich but vulnerable wildlife habitats of the Upper Calder Valley. Members of the group have extensive knowledge of Walshaw Moor, which is considered to be the Jewel in the Crown of Calderdale’s wildlife sites. They also cherish the walking and wilderness offered by this isolated and extensive area of moorland.
‘Our members have exceptional local knowledge of this site and its habitat and wildlife. We have understood, witnessed and challenged the very substantial damage that the installation of turbines and the associated infrastructure would cause in comparable local upland'.
Snipe