Bronte enthusiasts from across the globe are to visit Red House Museum next week to show their support for the closure-threatened property.

Members of the Bronte Society from as far afield as the US will travel to the Gomersal museum, the former home of Charlotte Bronte’s close friend Mary Taylor, on Tuesday.

Kirklees Council proposed closing Red House in January, but following hundreds of objections gave the museum a temporary reprieve while plans were drawn up to find £116,000 a year to keep it open. A meeting will be held on Monday at which a decision will be made by Kimiyo Rickett, assistant director for communities and leisure, on reducing opening hours and staff at the authority’s museums and galleries.

A proposed package of reduced opening hours includes shutting all sites one day week and three two days a week, as well as early winter closing times.

Oakwell Hall House in Birstall and Red House Museum, which recently started charging for entry, would also be closed on weekdays during the winter.

Imelda Marsden, a life member of the Bronte Society, said she would speak in support of Red House at the organisation’s annual meeting today, which will be attended by members from abroad.

She said: “When they talk about closing it, it’s not about the things inside, it’s about the social history of the museum.

“Once it’s gone, it’s gone and we have lost it. We will never get it back. It’s part of the Brontes’ story.”

Mrs Marsden said a Friends of Red House group was being set up with the help of enthusiasts from Oakwell Hall.

Charlotte Bronte based the house Briarmains in her novel Shirley on Red House, and some of the book’s characters were understood to have been inspired by the Taylor family.

About 30,000 visitors from the UK and across the world come to Red House every year, many of them on the Bronte trail.