One of the most visited churches in the UK – where the crypt contains the bodies of famous literary sisters Charlotte and Emily Bronte – has been gifted a £115,000 cash windfall.

The money from the Heritage Lottery pot will go towards financing the biggest refurbishment of St Michael and All Angels since it was re-built in 1879.

Also among the latest round of grants is St Peter’s Church in Birstall, where £199,000 will go to help finance roof and masonry repairs.

They come under the the lottery fund’s Repair Grants for Worship scheme.

The Haworth handout will help boost funding on a major repair project, which is expected to cost in the region of £1.4million when completed.

The Rector, the Reverend Peter Mayo-Smith, said it was good news for the parish, which saw about a million visitors a year coming to see the Bronte Parsonage Museum and the church where the sisters’ father, the Reverend Patrick Bronte, was the vicar in the mid-1800s.

The money, which would be match- funded by the church through fund-raising, was to pay for repairs to the roof and internal fabric of the church, he said.

“The first phase is to explore the problem in the south roof, which is badly leaking. We occasionally have to have buckets out to catch the water. The north roof, which isn’t as bad, will be tackled later,” said Rev Mayo-Smith.

  • Read the full story in Thursday’s T&A