SPACE age ideas to spread the word about the Brontës helped win a £1 million Arts Council grant for Haworth.

Literary fans across the entire globe will be able to use tablets and mobile phones to ‘visit’ the Brontë Parsonage Museum without leaving their own homes.

The Brontë Society could develop a Pokémon Go-style ‘augmented reality’ app, live streaming of events, and 360-degree viewing of Brontë objects.

The society also plans to work with a host of schools and organisations to increase interest in both the Brontës and Yorkshire as a whole.

The Brontë Society this week revealed details of its successful bid for £930,000 of government cash to fund a four-year expansion programme.

Communications officer Rebecca Yorke gave examples of innovative project ideas that persuaded the Arts Council to adopt the Brontë Society as one of its National Portfolio Organisations.

The society’s planned programme will be tied closely to the ongoing celebrations for the 200th anniversaries of the births of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë.

The focus of the Arts Council funding is to enable the society, one of the world’s oldest literary societies, to expand its work amongst young people, new audiences and online.

Rebecca said the programme, which will run from 2018 to 2022, will enable the society and museum to find new audiences, especially through the use of digital.

She said: “We intend to redevelop our website to make it less of an ‘electronic brochure’ and include new ways for people who can’t visit the museum, due to distance, disability or other barriers, to access the collection.

“This could include 360-degree viewing of objects, room mapping and an augmented reality mobile app. We are already working with the School of New Media at Bradford University to explore the possibilities.

“We also want to develop our Vimeo and YouTube channels and share more events via Facebook Live and other streaming methods.

“We recently live-streamed some conservation work that was carried out on one of Emily Brontë’s manuscripts and there was clearly an appetite for more content like this.”

The Arts Council-funded programme will also include further partnership work to ‘bring the Brontes to the world and the world to Yorkshire’.

The Parsonage Museum last year worked with West Yorkshire Playhouse on their Brontë season, which resulted in a new audio drama, Emma Adams’ Tiny Shoes, being made available for visitors to experience in Haworth churchyard.

The museum worked with Bradford-based South Asian arts organisation Kala Sangam on the We Wove a Web in Childhood reduction. Other partners have included Sinfonia Viva, and and Bradford and Ilkley Literature Festivals.

Rebecca added: “The museum is currently working with the National Literacy Trust and Historic England on a number of initiatives to ensure the fascinating story of the Brontes and their works reaches those who may have previously had little connection with the Museum.

“The museum already has strong links with Haworth Primary School and will continue to work closely with schools in Oakworth and Lees who together make up the Brontë Academy Trust.

“We have recently qualified as an Arts Award advisor and are also planning a Saturday club for local children.”