The Bronte Parsonage Museum is gearing up for a busy year following renewed interest in the famous writing sisters.

The Haworth museum developed new displays in time for last week’s reopening after its winter closure.

Bosses hope to capitalise on publicity around last autumn’s two Bronte movie adaptations and a high-profile manuscript sale.

The museum tried to buy the £700,000 manuscript, a tiny edition of Young Men’s magazine, but lost out to the Musee des Lettres et Manuscrits in Paris.

The Parsonage is instead displaying another edition of the same magazine, written by Charlotte Bronte when she was 13, along with other early Bronte manuscripts.

Andrew McCarthy, the museum’s director, said visitor numbers rose last year by more than eight per cent, and there were already more than 250 bookings for this year.

He said: “It’s clear that visitors will be coming to Haworth in significant numbers, from within the UK but also from overseas.

“We have some wonderful exhibitions and events planned that will make their visit here very special.”

The Bronte Parsonage Museum closes every January for maintenance work, cleaning, conservation and development of new exhibits.

Last year’s exhibition dedicated to the Brontes’ father Patrick will continue for the next few weeks.

It will be followed by a new exhibition looking at the history of the museum’s collection.

There will also be an exhibition of costumes from last year’s film adaptation of Jane Eyre, and exhibitions of work by artists Rebecca Chesney and Simon Warner.

These will focus on ‘weather’ and its historic and contemporary associations with the Brontes.

The exhibition will include a survey of photographic images of Top Withens and a sketch of it by celebrated poet Sylvia Plath.

There is also a programme of events with visiting authors.

More details from bronte.info or by phoning (01535) 642323. The museum is open every day this year until December 23.