Top Withens (inspiration for “Wuthering Heights”)

For many people Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is the best novel ever written - and they won’t change their mind. The book gets its name from an isolated farm house on the moors where Heathcliffe descends into madness. One Sunday afternoon I decided to walk up the well-beaten track to see it. It’s about three miles and the path is not too undulating. The main problem for me was the heat and not the terrain as it was a hot day. I was a bit worried about the sheep who lined the walls to tuck themselves into the shade. There didn’t seem to be any water for them to drink.

I set off listening to an audio book version of a Van Der Valk novel so although wild moorland was all around me my mind was in Amsterdam. A signpost in Japanese pointed the way to Top Withens if they were feeling a little lost. It took about ninety minutes to get there and the path is probably the one the Bronte’s took. It’s the most direct path from Haworth parsonage to the ruin. At one point you drop down into a valley and a see “Bronte Seat” by the stream – a huge boulder like a giant seat. There’s no evidence stating the Brontes sat on it but surely any child passing it couldn’t resist the chance to plonk their buttocks on it.

Lots of people had reached the chair and stream and weren’t going further. Some were having picnics, some were just lying by the water. I even saw someone who wasn’t on a tablet. To continue on the path you have to walk up the valley side, turn left and the path takes you all the way to Top Withens Farm. I continued on though the number of walkers reduced. I passed only three couples on the way to/from the ruins. I didn’t want to carry a bottle of water any further so I wedged it in a stone wall knowing I’d collect it in an hour or two - but on the way back it had disappeared. When the Bronte’s walked up here they would have bought their dogs - Keeper, a bull mastiff (Emily’s favourite) and Flossy. The landscape of mostly thick heather was probably the same in the Bronte’s day. When you get high enough you can look back to Stanbury and Haworth villages in the distances.

I wound my way up to the ruin, the destination of so many people from all over the world. I couldn’t quite believe I was there. I’d seen it on documentaries and in books. Emily described Wuthering Heights as a gentrified mansion and when her imagination was fired as she sat at the table in the front room at the parsonage it must have seemed nearly real. Nowadays though it’s a deserted farm house, one of many you could easily walk passed and barely examine.

When the Bronte family were alive this was one of three farms - Near Withens, Middle Withens and Top Withens. Jonas and Anne Sutherland lived here then (it was known as “Top O ‘th Withens” then) and they must have lived a meagre existence through merciless winters. They farmed 20 acres of land, selling oats to folk who passed by. They also sold milk from the four to six cows who roamed around.

Is this neglected farm truly Wuthering Heights? The Bronte Society have placed a stone on the ruin inferring it MAY BE. I must admit the description of the Wuthering Heights mansion doesn’t resemble the ruin at all, no likeness at all. However Charlotte Bronte’s life-long friend Ellen Nussey confirmed it was the model for the mansion. She even suggested it be drawn for a book about the Bronte’s that came out in 1872 (Emily had been dead for 24 years when it was released.) The Bronte children lived a simple pastoral life and it’s very likely they left the back door of the parsonage and walked up to his farm. On 18th May 1893 this farm was struck by lightning during a thunderstorm. The roof was partially torn off, flags were broken and about 30 windows were breached. It was last inhabited in 1926 by Ernest Roddy.

I met a middle-aged couple walking around the ruins. They were up from Plymouth to view a venue for their daughter’s wedding (they said she’s met “a blockhead” at Leeds University and was making a home up here with him.) The woman’s favourite book of all time was Wuthering Heights so they just had to throw a glance over these stones. On the walk back I was very thirsty and - like a cowboy – I lay on my belly next to the stream and drank water from cupped hands. Top Withins was well worth the walk in hot sun.