An appeal has been launched to help fund the purchase of a rare Charlotte Brontë manuscript.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is appealing for financial support from the public and funding bodies.

It needs to raise up to £300,000 to cover the expected cost of buying the work at an auction next month.

The unpublished manuscript contains three works written by Charlotte – author of Jane Eyre – when she was 14.

Charlotte’s Young Men’s Magazine Number 2 contains 4,000 words set in a fictional world created by the famous literary siblings.

The book, until now in private ownership, is believed to have never before been seen by scholars.

The Parsonage Museum, in Haworth, hopes to buy the 19-page book when it is auctioned at Sotheby’s in London on December 15. The manuscript is expected to fetch between £200,000 and £300,000, and the museum wants to ensure it becomes available to the public.