KEIGHLEY families are being invited to celebrate Father’s Day with the Bronte sisters’ dad.

The Bronte Parsonage Museum is running a special offer on Sunday June 16 as part of the 200th anniversary of Patrick Bronte’s links with Haworth.

Visiting fathers accompanied by their children – young or old – can have a special ticket price of £5.

They will also receive a 10% discount at the shop in the museum, which recreates the rooms inhabited by the Rev Bronte and his novel-writing daughters.

A museum spokesman said: “Father’s Day is a great opportunity to take a glance into what Patrick was like the father and how he encouraged his children.”

Elizabeth Gaskell, the early biographer of Charlotte Bronte, described Patrick as a “wayward eccentric wild father”.

She added: “He thought children should be brought up simply and hardily; so they had nothing but potatoes for dinner; but they never seemed to wish for anything else; they were good little creatures”.

This simple upbringing certainly did not stifle the creativity of his children, in fact experts think it might have been instrumental in their desire to escape into their own imaginations.

Throughout 2019 the Bronte Parsonage Museum is holding events and an exhibition celebrating the life of the Rev Patrick Bronte, 200 years after he was invited to take up the role of Perpetual Curate in Haworth.

The exhibition, Patrick Bronte in sickness and in Health, explains more about the man who, as a church minister, was expected to know how best to advise and help parishioners who couldn’t afford medical treatment.

For the first time Patrick’s medical textbooks, filled with his own notes, are collectively on display, giving a fascinating insight into his determination to help the sick, even as he lost his own family.

Alongside his books are a collection of the Bronte family’s spectacles and a handkerchief, believed to have been used by Anne Bronte and spotted with blood from her infected lungs.

The Bronte Parsonage Museum welcomed approximately 77,000 visitors during 2018.

Admission prices this year are £9 for adults, £7 for over-65s, £6.50 for students/concessions, and £4 for children.

Visit bronte.org.uk or call 01535 642323 to book tickets.