Cliff Richard's coat in his musical Heathcliff will help to attract visitors to an exhibition in the Bront Parsonage Museum's new £70,000 display room.

Ballet costumes and stills from a 1920s silent movie are also among attractions at the new exhibition, A Passionate Response.

It looks at how the lives and works of the Bront family have inspired other artists, writers and performers over the past 150 years.

The exhibition also showcases extensive improvements to the museum's Bonnell Room, which were supported with a £34,900 lottery grant.

The Bront Society provided the rest of the money for structural changes, new decor, carpeting, lighting and £45,000 of high-security display cases. Museum director Mike Hill said the refurbishment would allow temporary exhibitions to be presented in modern, accessible and secure surroundings.

"We wanted to build something like a treasury because what we want to put in it are our crown jewels. Hopefully, people will be attracted into the room."

Display cases must now be more secure because items such as manuscripts could be worth many thousands of pounds, he said.

The Bonnell Room marked the second grant to the Bront Society from the Heritage Lottery Board in just 12 months. The society received funding towards the £50,000 cost of buying the 'Dreadful Dream' letter written by Charlotte Bront about the deaths of her siblings.

Mr Hill said: "Getting two grants must be pretty exceptional. I think we made out a strong case on both occasions. It was very clear local people had a pride in what was being done."

The latest exhibition, A Passionate Response, displays items from books, films, stage shows and TV series inspired by Bront stories. Museum curator Rachel Terry, who devised it with librarian Ann Dinsdale, said: "We look back at what the Brontes have inspired in other creative people, and look forward to what is to come.''

Besides the Cliff Richard coat, exhibits include costumes used by the Northern Ballet Theatre in their dance-drama The Brontes. The centrepiece is an album of production photos and stills from the 1920s silent movie of Wuthering Heights. The Bront Society has searched for many years for a copy of the film but has not come across anyone who has seen it.

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