London buyer for Yorkshire restaurant in Brontë Village

The Stirrup restaurant in the Brontë Village of Howarth, West Yorkshire, has been sold to a London restaurateur after attracting international interest.

Created from three former weavers' cottages, the restaurant lies in the village's narrow cobbled Main Street close to Howarth Parsonage, where the Brontë family lived between 1820 and 1861.

Howarth, on the eastern slope of the Pennine moors in the Worth Valley, is within easy walking distance of Howarth Moors, the Brontë Waterfalls and Top Withens farm (the inspiration for Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights).

The restaurant can seat up to 40 diners across two dining rooms.

The building is made from Yorkshire stone with mullioned stone window frames, period-style sash windows and a cottage-style décor inside with beamed ceilings and two open fireplaces.

For the owners, there is three-bedroom accommodation on the first floor along with a private garden and rockery to the rear.

New owner, Polly Costin from Wanstead, previously ran a restaurant in London for 14 years serving modern European cuisine.

The Leeds office of Christie + Co sold the freehold off a guide price of £345,000.on behalf of Jane and Frank Parkin, who have run the restaurant since 1965.

By Angela Frewin