It is a poor state of affairs when the vicar of a world-famous church in a popular and busy beauty spot has to start thinking about installing closed-circuit television to protect visitors. Yet that is a serious option being considered by the Rector of Haworth following the attempted robbery of a 50-year-old Allerton woman by a knife-wielding man.

Sometimes extreme situations call for drastic measures - and matters are indeed extreme when an attack of that sort can be launched in the church in the middle of a Saturday afternoon by a young man apparently desperate for money.

Fortunately the woman managed to fight off the would-be robber and was not injured in the attack, but it was nevertheless an alarming incident and the Reverend Paul Slater is sensible to be looking at ways of reducing the chances of such a thing happening again.

He is well aware that there are some people who have reservations about CCTV, seeing it as a civil liberties issue. But surely in this case - as in many others - those must be outweighed by the need to protect and reassure the public.

An alternative, of course, is to close the church to the general public. But as Mr Slater points out, it is important that it remains open not only because of its Bronte connection for the tourists but also because people often want to spend a few moments in prayer.

He is right. If visitors are denied the opportunity to pray, it will be a victory for lawlessness.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.