Visitors have returned in numbers to the Bront Parsonage Museum at Haworth.

Attendance figures in 2001 were badly hit by the foot and mouth crisis, slumping to 69,551.

But at the Bront Society annual meeting, members heard that the figure last year had risen by about 2 per cent, to nearly 71,000. And so far this year there has been a further increase of over 15 per cent.

The meeting was told that the society had benefited from two recent tax changes -- gift aid now enabled it to claim back tax on some admissions to the museum and VAT no longer had to be paid on the admissions.

Society chairman Bob Barnard said the museum had been able to claw back VAT amounting to £460,000, plus interest, dating back to the early 1990s.

He said: "These changes, plus efforts to find other sources of income, mean the museum and society will be breaking even, in operating terms, by 2005."

Members also heard that the society had been awarded £48,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The grant, together with £16,000 from a private donor, would pay for a two-year project to put information about the museum collection on to a specially designed web site.

It is hoped that this will then lead to the production of a paper catalogue, in partnership with the British Library.

Museum manager Alan Bentley said: "This project is a great opportunity to make the information held by the museum available to a much wider audience. Interest in the Bronts seems to only get stronger and, once gathered together, this information can be used along with new technology to present the works and lives of the Bronts in original ways to new and existing audiences."