Top Withens

[2][3] A plaque affixed to a wall reads: This farmhouse has been associated with "Wuthering Heights", the Earnshaw home in Emily Brontë's novel.

The buildings, even when complete, bore no resemblance to the house she described, but the situation may have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland setting of the Heights.The popular misconception that Earnshaw's house was styled on Top Withens may have arisen from a series of letters between publisher George Smith and Charlotte Brontë's friend Ellen Nussey, as he sought a list of places that had inspired the novels.

Holes were made in the wall, the roof was partially torn off, flags were cracked, and around 30 windows were almost completely removed.

A portion of slate was thrown far from the house by the wind, and in the kitchen the blade of a knife had been fused by the heat.

A bowl of dough prepared by the farmer's wife, Mrs. Sunderland, was smashed to pieces, and her dog and cat fled the building in fear.