WHEN the notion of creating a film set on Haworth moorland was first mooted, there must have been a few raised eyebrows in the village.

And when a re-creation of the Bronte Parsonage appeared on windswept Penistone Hill, soot-blackened and bleak against the open moor setting, it created quite a buzz on social media. Phone cameras were clicking as dog walkers, pony trekkers and onlookers made their way past the eerie set, along the public right-of-way.

The Brontes' Haworth home was re-created in painstaking detail for a new drama about the family by Yorkshire screenwriter Sally Wainwright. The one-off BBC drama, To Walk Invisible, is due to be broadcast later this year and looks set to be a jewel in the BBC's festive TV schedule.

It is hoped that the programme will leave a significant tourism legacy in the district. Bradford City of Film director David Wilson predicts it could create the same international stir, and potential for local businesses to benefit, as Yorkshire's Tour de France Grand Depart did in 2014.

"As a big Christmas drama, especially if it's transmitted through BBC Worldwide too, it will be a calling card for Yorkshire. Its legacy will be to make Haworth and the region a key tourist attraction," he said.

Unlike other TV and film adaptations of the Brontes' work, this production is about the family themselves - and is filmed where they lived. Authenticity was key to the set; the parsonage, its side street and neighbouring buildings, including the church and graveyard, were re-created in timber and MDF, although they appeared to be built from stone.

Sally Wainwright and producers have worked closely with the Bronte Society and Haworth's Parsonage Museum on the project, paying meticulous attention to detail, right down to inscriptions on gravestones. Flagstones were re-produced in the same measurements, costumes were replicas of clothes worn by the family, and handwritten letters and manuscripts, first edition Bronte books, ink wells and pen nibs were exact copies of originals in the house.

Rebecca Yorke, marketing officer at the Parsonage Museum, said staff had been "staggered" by the attention to detail.

"We were invited to the studios and it was quite unnerving to be in this amazing replica," she said. "It was just like our own building down to the very last thing - only more "lived-in" as it would have been at the time.

"They have the right pet dogs, Flossie, a spaniel cross, and Keeper, a mastiff type, and they made copies of the dogs' original named collars, which is an incredible approach."

Although the interiors are filmed in a Manchester studio, location filming has taken place at the Penistone Hill set over recent weeks. This week filming began on Haworth's main street.

Initial 'phonecalls about the production came to the Bradford City of Film office, and the team has been involved in several ways.

"Filming at the Parsonage Museum would have been impractical anyway, but Sally wanted the house to look as it would've done in the mid-19th century when the family lived there. Even the trees by the parsonage weren't there back then," said City of Film director David Wilson.

"Once Sally mapped out what she wanted, I assembled a team of council departments - highways, planning, tourism, emergency planning, countryside and rights of way - and we worked closely with the locations manager. We needed to do it all with the least disruption for residents and traders in Haworth.

"Penistone Hill is managed by Bradford Council; it's the only bit of flat land near the village overlooking the moors. We negotiated use of the car park as the key location for the set build.

"We needed to keep disruption to a minimum, especially when Haworth held its recent 1940s weekend. We liaised with bus companies and made sure the park and ride services were functioning. We continue to liaise with the production company on site specific issues."

Mr Wilson hopes the drama will have a longterm impact on tourism. "It could've been made elsewhere - very few Bronte adaptations are actually filmed in Haworth - but, thanks to Sally Wainwright's attention to detail, this drama is right here, with the elements and landscape that make it authentic.

"When people see places on TV they're more likely to visit. A production with this profile, with Sally Wainwright behind it, should create the same legacy as the Tour de France, with people making repeat visits to the district for years to come."