The Real Wuthering Heights: The Story of The Withins Farms

Top Withins Farm on Stanbury Moor, West Yorkshire, is internationally famous as the inspiration for Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and visited every year by hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world. Apart from the Bronte connection it stands on the Pennine Way and is one of the highlights for the thousands who walk it each year. As well as tracing the history of the Withins farms and their inhabitants from 1567 to the present day, this book looks at the everyday life of the farmers who lived there. It gives a full account of the building history, farming practices, textile production and domestic life over the years and is beautifully illustrated by splendid reconstructions of the buildings and their interiors and of the tools and utensils used in farming, weaving and cooking. It also describes a walk from Stanbury to Top Withins and back to Haworth, detailing the history of all the farms that are passed on the way, and gives a full account of the life of Timmy Feather, the last of the handloom weavers on the moors. In all, this book is the most complete and wide-ranging account of the life and work of a Pennine hill farm ever attempted.