A CENTRE for women’s writing could be built in an underground former reservoir above the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

And a long-lost barn could be rebuilt alongside the Haworth attraction to house a visitor centre dedicated to the famous literary family.

The proposed projects – both in the very early stages – have been revealed in interviews this month by Brontë Society executive director Kitty Wright.

She this week to;d Keighley News that both ideas were ‘glint in the eye projects’ for the society and might never happen.

But she confirmed they were among ideas to help the society and its museum gain much-needed space and ensure it made the most of the Bronte legacy in the modern world.

The ideas for new buildings on land owned by the Brontë Society near the museum were put forward in the Brontë Society’s recent successful bid to become an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation.

Kitty said that such accreditation with the Arts Council allowed the society spend time and money looking at the feasibility of such projects, but stressed major funding would have to be found to actually carry them out.

She said the large Victorian underground reservoir lay on land behind the parsonage.

She said: “It was built after Patrick Brontë commissioned the Babbage report into public health in Haworth. The village needed a fresh water supply.

“It’s fantastic to have the reservoir for its own historical reasons, with its links with Patrick Brontë."

Kitty said the Brontë Society would have to carry out detailed investigations into utility supplies, engineering, drainage and access, as well as environmental surveys and extensive consultation with local people.

She said: “The project is doable but it’s very ambitious and challenging because of where it is.

It would be great to have a sympathetically constructed building to house a centre for women’s writing.

“We don’t need a building to turn ourselves into such a centre. Amongst the many things the Brontë Parsonage Museum can be is a centre for women’s writing.

“But we could hire the new space to other writing groups, or drama companies for workshops of new writing.

“We have to keep looking to secure or future but we have to be very clear about preserving the things that make us special. It’s absolutely about being true to our heritage and finding a way of expressing that.”

Kitty stressed that the other idea, rebuilding the barn, was only a tentative suggestion at the moment.

During the Brontës’ lifetimes the barn stood on a small hill between the Parsonage Museum and the car park, but there are now mature trees on the land.