Haworth’s Bronte Parsonage Museum has received a coveted status.

It has been awarded full accreditation by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

The award recognises that the museum has achieved defined national standards relating to governance, visitor services and collections management.

The parsonage houses the world’s largest collection of Bronte material including letters, manuscripts, furniture, clothing, personal artefacts and artworks. There are over 7,000 items.

Museum director Andrew McCarthy said: “We are delighted to have been granted full accreditation.

“The Brontes are of course intimately associated with Haworth and Yorkshire, but the parsonage museum has a collection which is nationally and internationally important and we should all celebrate that fact.”

Free admission is being offered to children every weekend this month.

Next month the museum will close for a major refurbishment, which will see the installation of a new exhibition focusing on the Brontes’ lives.