
The historic home of novelist Elizabeth Gaskell is set to re-open to the public - after a 20-year fight to save and restore it.

The writer's home in Ardwick, Manchester, has undergone a £3.5million transformation to take it back to Victorian times when she lived there - writing famous works including North and South and Cranford.

From Sunday, visitors will be able to sit at the dining table where Gaskell entertained Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters - and at the desk where she penned her novels.

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Former glory: Novelist Elizabeth Gaskell's historic home (pictured) is set to re-open to the public - after a 20-year fight by a band of volunteers to save and restore it

The home of Elizabether Gaskell (left) in Ardwick, Manchester, has undergone a £3.5million transformation to take it back to Victorian times when she lived there - writing famous works including North and South and Cranford

A small group of volunteers spotted that the Victorian villa, formerly owned by Manchester University, had fallen into serious disrepair in the 1990s and formed a group to save it

The battle to rescue the house on Plymouth Grove from decay and demolition has taken a small band of volunteers more than 20 years.

They spotted that the Victorian villa, formerly owned by Manchester University, had fallen into serious disrepair in the 1990s and formed a group to save it.

More than £3.5million later, the house has had its roof completely replaced, been replastered on the outside and completely restored inside.

Volunteers worked with John Rylands Library to examine Gaskell's letters and books, carpets and furnishings have been especially made to resemble those she described.

Elizabeth Gaskell moved into the house in 1850 with her husband the Rev William Gaskell and their four daughters, living there until her death 15 years later.

Visitors will be able to sit at the dining table where Elizabeth Gaskell entertained Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters, or the desk where she penned her novels (pictured)

Twenty years and more than £3.5million later, the house has had its roof completely replaced and has been replastered on the outside and completely restored inside

Following its restoration, the Grade II house, owned by Manchester Historic Buildings Trust who battled to save it, will host a book club and literary events, as well as being open to visitors

Many of the Victorian era's great and good visited, including Charles Halle, Charles Darwin and author Harriet Beecher-Stowe.

Visitors can now see digitised copies of Gaskell's early drafts, letters and manuscripts, along with exhibitions on the history of Plymouth Grove.

The Grade II house, owned by Manchester Historic Buildings Trust who battled to save it, will now host a book club and literary events, as well as being open to visitors on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

MRS GASKELL: THE NOVELIST WHO RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH CHARLES DICKENS AND THE BRONTE SISTERS A scene from a BBC adaptation of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell Novelist and short story writer Elizabeth Gaskell, often referred to as just Mrs Gaskell, was born Elizabeth Stevenson on September 29, 1810. Her novels offered portraits of the lives of people in the Victorian era - including the very poor - and was the first to write a biography of Charlotte Bronte. She married Unitarian minister William Gaskell in 1832 and the pair later settled in Manchester. The industrial surroundings of the city influenced the writer's work. But it was the death of her son William in 1845 which proved the catalyst for her first novel, Mary Barton. The couple went on to have four more children, Marianne, Margaret Emily, known as Meta, Florence Elizabeth, and Julia Bradford. They moved to their third home was a large house near open fields in Plymouth Grove. The family entertained a stream of visitors, including a number of eminent figures. Her connections included such the Wedgwoods, the Darwins and the Nightingales. Charles Dickens and John Ruskin visited Plymouth Grove, as did the American writers Harriet Beecher Stowe and Charles Eliot Norton, while the conductor Charles Hallé, who lived close by, taught piano to one of their daughters. Her close friend Charlotte Brontë stayed there three times. Built between 1835-1841, Gaskell House is seen as rare example of the elegant Regency-style villas once popular in the city. It was here that she would go on to write some of her most famous works, including Cranford and North and South. Her other works included Lizzie Leigh, Lady Ludlow, and her last novel Wives and Daughters. Elizabeth Gaskell died of a heart attack in 1865, while visiting a house she had purchased in Holybourne, Hampshire. Advertisement

Janet Allan, 79, chair of the Trust who has led efforts to save the house, said: 'This is a triumph - we have been very fortunate to work with skilled professionals but also volunteers without whom we could not have done this.

'I should love to know what Elizabeth Gaskell would think of the house now. Some places have an atmosphere all of their very own and this is one of them.

'Elizabeth Gaskell said she wanted the house to give as much pleasure to others as it did her and that is our motto.'

Descendants of Elizabeth Gaskell returned to the house where she lived to see its transformation.

Visitors can now see digitised copies of Gaskell's early drafts, letters and manuscripts, along with exhibitions on the history of the area

Elizabeth Gaskell moved into the house (pictured left) in 1850 with her husband the Rev William Gaskell and their four daughters, living there until her death 15 years later. Its interior has been completely renovated (right)

Great-grandaughter Sarah Prince, 56, and her daughters Imogen, 24 and Eleanor, 26, have donated a wedding veil worn by Gaskell and every woman in the family since, along with clothes and books belonging to the author.

Sarah Prince said: 'For years we've had all these artefacts belonging to Elizabeth.

'To be able to bring them back to her home is the pinnacle.