As part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture a new landscape ornament has appeared on an elevated spot above the little town of Haworth, best known as the home of the Brontë sisters. Creative Director Shanaz Gulzar commissioned four artists to create site-specific works for Penistone Hill Country Park. The project is called Wild Uplands as the artworks are sited on a lofty and lonely common (the wily, windy moors of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights) that is only ten miles or so from busy Bradford.

County Durham-based artist Steve Messam has created The Tower, a 10 metre high arched structure clad in the raw fleeces of two breeds of sheep that can be found on the local hills: the Lonk and the Derbyshire Gritstone. In his own words Messam ‘draws inspiration from geology, cultural histories, and farming methods, to create installations that bring a sense of place to life’.

Messam’s work references both the importance of wool to the development of Bradford, and the very stone that was used to build the handsome stone town in the nineteenth century (it became a city in 1897). Close to The Tower is a former quarry, and abandoned blocks of stone can be seen scattered on the hillside.

The Tower is built of blocks of plywood and steel mesh around a steel and aluminium frame. The blocks are clad in the untreated fleeces, which echo the muted beiges and greys of the building stone from the quarry.

There’s an immersive sound walk that accompanies the artworks, created by Opera North, or you can just enjoy the ever-changing soundscape of the breeze rustling through the grass and (when the Flâneuse visited) the song of the meadow pipits.

Visitors can walk up to the four installations from Haworth village, or it’s a short level stroll from Penistone Hill car park. The temporary landmark can be seen until 12 October 2025 and there’s more information on the Tower and the other artworks here.

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