For the first time in more than 160 years the Bronte family’s piano is to be heard again at their former home in Haworth.

It was last played in the parsonage, now the Bronte museum, in the mid 1800s before being sold following the deaths of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell.

The upright will be played again at a recital in June, following a restoration project financed by a Bronte Society member living in the US.

The piano will be back on display at the Bronte Parsonage Museum from Thursday, June 3, and will be played on the next evening exclusively for Bronte Society members.

The public will also get a chance to hear the instrument at future events.

The restoration has involved a complete internal overhaul.

Many of the internal workings were either damaged or missing and the restoration was complicated by the piano’s rarity and the lack of similar instruments available for comparison.

Andrew McCarthy, the museum director, said: “Emily was described as playing ‘with precision and brilliancy’, Anne preferred to sing, though she was able to accompany herself on the piano.

“The family exception was Charlotte, whose poor eyesight proved an impediment to sight reading.”

After his childern’s deaths, their father the Reverend Patrick Bronte lent the piano to the curate at Oxenhope It was then sold at an auction of Bronte items in 1861and later put up for sale at Sothebys in 1916.

It was withdrawn from the sale and instead presented to the Bronte Museum where it has stood in Mr Bronte’s study ever since.