Law Hill School
Law Hill House today
In 1838, Emily Brontë took a position as teacher at a school for girls near Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Law Hill, in Southowram, was a large house with a separate schoolroom and lodgings, set on a working farm high in a hilltop village. There were extensive views of moorlands, mills and large, wealthy houses.
Despite her short stay and terrible working conditions, Emily managed to write several surviving poems and drew inspiration for many aspects of Wuthering Heights from her surroundings.
Whilst there, Emily would have become familiar with the house’s original founder, Jack Sharp – an orphan, taken in by his uncle, who financially ruined his family after their father’s death. He built Law Hill to assert his dominance and wealth, becoming a model for Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights.
Law Hill, in Southowram, was a large house with a separate schoolroom and lodgings, set on a working farm high in a hilltop village. There were extensive views of moorlands, mills and large, wealthy houses.
Despite her short stay and terrible working conditions, Emily managed to write several surviving poems and drew inspiration for many aspects of Wuthering Heights from her surroundings.
Whilst there, Emily would have become familiar with the house’s original founder, Jack Sharp – an orphan, taken in by his uncle, who financially ruined his family after their father’s death. He built Law Hill to assert his dominance and wealth, becoming a model for Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights.