OTLEY Cycle Club have helped mark the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë's birth.

Six riders took flowers from Thornton, where the writer was born on April 21, 1816, to Haworth, where she and her gifted family lived for most of their lives.

The symbolic ride over the moors to Haworth Parsonage was part of a hectic day of celebrations to mark the anniversary last Thursday.

The club was asked to get involved by the Brontë Parsonage Museum, and was delighted to accept.

Press secretary, Jill Birch, said: "One wreath was laid at St James's Church in Thornton and we carried the other one to be laid at the Parsonage, so we travelled from where she was born to where she lived.

"It was quite a tough ride up and around the moors, but I'm so glad we took part. It was lovely and the Parsonage was so busy when we arrived – just full of people and cameras – so it was pretty exciting.

"It was a great experience. We've done so many different things in the past couple of years we'd never have got involved with if we weren't members of the cycling club."

Brontë Parsonage Museum marketing officer, Rebecca Yorke, added: "We wanted to have some way of bringing flowers from Thornton to Haworth for Charlotte's birthday, and by bicycle seemed a nice way to do it.

"Otley Cycle Club were game and were delighted to get involved."

Charlotte was the eldest of the three famous Brontë sisters.

She assured her literary immortality with the novel Jane Eyre, which was published – under the pen name of Currer Bell – in 1847.

Her other novels included Shirley, Villette and The Professor.

Otley Cycle Club, meanwhile, will be back in the spotlight again this weekend when some of their junior riders take part in the Tour de Yorkshire celebrations.

The Min Flyers will be cycling along part of the race's route, in Boroughgate, before the Women's Race's 8.15am start on Saturday.