Facelift restores village Brontë look

The Old School Room, designed and built by Patrick Brontë, has had new windows installed which match the original Georgian design.

And Mrs Beighton’s Sweet Shop and a holiday cottage on Main Street have had original features including windows restored.

English Heritage, which part-funded the conservation work, said the works were “intended to reverse the slowly-declining state of the conservation area which is putting it at risk”.

Trevor Mitchell, English Heritage planning and conservation director for Yorkshire, said: “These small-scale works show that normal maintenance and repair projects can make a big difference to the quality of the village when they are well detailed.

“We hope that other owners will follow our example so that, over time, the whole village will become as beautiful and well preserved as the newly-redecorated Parsonage Museum.”

English Heritage gave £42,000 and Bradford Council £11,000 towards shop front improvements.