A couple have pledged to return to Haworth despite a confrontation with a car clamping company.

But Peter and Joyce Cartner will never feel the same again about visiting the Bront shrine.

Mr Cartner was cleared by Bradford magistrates of criminal damage when he used a crowbar to free his vehicle from a wheelclamp. His Ford Escort had been clamped in the car park of the Black Bull pub in the village.

But 56-year-old Mr Cartner, of Middleton, near Manchester, believed the clampers - CarStoppers of Haworth - had "trespassed" on his property. And magistrates believed him by agreeing that despite the warning signs, he had not "consented to the risk" of being clamped.

He believed he knew the landlord and he would have allowed him to stay.

The landlord he knew had actually left the pub.

This week Mr Cartner, secretary of the Military Vehicle Trust, said he would be returning to Haworth for the 1940s weekend on May 10 and 11.

Mr Cartner, a builder, owns a World War Two Jeep and truck. He said: "It was an ordeal, but I convinced the magistrate I was right. I intend to go back to Haworth but it has tarnished my feeling for the place."

Ted Evans, who owns two car parks in Haworth - at Changegate and Rawdon Road - from where CarStoppers operate, said the magistrates' ruling would not impact on how his car parks were run.

"The public using the car parks and seeing the signs informing them they will be clamped are effectively agreeing to a contract which says that if they park and pay and stay beyond their time, they can be clampe," he said.

He stressed that if mistakes were made he insisted the public was recompensed.