High Sunderland Hall

It has long been held that High Sunderland Hall was Emily Brontë’s main model for the external features of Wuthering Heights while Top Withens was the actual location for the house.

The building was noted for its elaborate and grotesque carvings and Brontë's description of Heathcliff's wild moorland home has unmistakable echoes of the old house.

In Chapter I, Brontë writes:[1] Before passing the threshold I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front and especially about the principal door, above which, among the wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I detected the date 1500 ...The photos below show the resemblance of High Sunderland to Emily’s above description.

Once the door had proved secure, the rattle of the handle would be followed some moments later by a tap at the window, and if a person was brave enough to look out, they would see a disembodied hand rap against the glass several times before a peal of hideous laughter was heard.

[6] The fortunes of the family waxed and waned, from the Elizabethan splendour of High Sunderland, to the death of one late 19th century descendant's wife in the lunatic asylum, after fifteen years of confinement for "constant praying and singing".