A shrine to one of the most famous novels in English literature, which was crumbling away high on the moors above Haworth, has been restored.

Yorkshire Water poured in £20,000 to save Top Withens, said to be the inspiration for Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

And the work has met with praise from the Bronte Society, which feared that if the building was not tackled this year, it could be lost forever.

Alexandra Lesley, chairman of the society's heritage and conservation committee, said: "I have been to see the work and we are very pleased. The building has been re-enforced superbly."

She said the booth - the lean-to building - had also been repaired and could be used again as a shelter for visitors and walkers.

Bronte Society chairman Robert Barnard said he believed the building would now be much safer from the ravages of the climate and from vandalism.

"Some people would have liked the building restored to a farmhouse, but I believe this was the best solution,'' he said.

Every year thousands of tourists from around the world make the three-mile pilgrimage to Top Withens from Haworth to experience the setting in which Heathcliff and Cathy lived out their tragedy.

YW's Bob Baxter said: "We liaised closely with the Bronte Society and the conservation committee as well as consulting with many individuals and organisations.

"There was a strong feeling that it would be wrong to try to recreate Top Withens in its entirety, so we came up with an intricate scheme to prevent the farmhouse deteriorating any further without altering its appearance.''

He said concrete beams and buttresses, used to stabilise the walls, had been stone-faced to blend in with the structure so that visitors would not notice any difference from the outside view.

The building was featured in the first illustrated edition of Wuthering Heights by an artist called Wimpers who was sent to Yorkshire by the London publishers in the 1870s.

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