Timber from Brontë sisters' birthplace up for sale

Picture framer Andy Rushworth, together with Nigel West from the Brontë Birthplace

Timbers from the childhood home of the Brontë family are to be sold off to raise funds for its restoration.

Thin sections of beam taken from the parlour ceiling where Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Bramwell were all born, have been valued at £250 a piece.

Money raised from the sale will fund ongoing conservation work at the property in Market Street, Thornton, which opened to the public for the first time earlier this year.

Collectively, the sisters were known for writing some of the most widely read and influential British novels of the 19th century, including Emily's Wuthering Heights, Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

A total of 240 fragments of the beams have been framed, using museum-quality art glass.

Each of the slices has been given holographic authentication and a register of ownership will also be kept.

The house where the Brontë siblings were born opened to the public earlier this year

Brontë Birthplace, the community organisation responsible for renovating the property, said each piece would be a "timeless keepsake from the very place where the Brontë story began".

Fundraising co-ordinator Nigel West said: "This is a limited edition. We do not anticipate any further major works in our lifetime, and you can take the opportunity to own this little slice of history, secure in the knowledge that removal was completely necessary to ensure the safety of the building.

"Dating back over 200 years, each beam once supported the very floor beneath the feet of the Brontë family."

The Brontë family lived at the terraced house in Thornton between 1815 and 1820, before moving to the parsonage at Haworth.

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