AN antique family heirloom belonging to writer and vet Alf Wight has returned to its home after a gap of half a century.

The piece of furniture that has been lovingly polished over the years now stands in a museum, which pays tribute to the All Creatures Great and Small author.

The World of James Herriot has become the final resting place for some of Alf Wight's most treasured possessions.

Now the North Yorkshire centre has been given one of the family's oldest pieces of furniture by his children, Jim Wight and Rosie Paige.

The hand-crafted, smoked oak sideboard has returned to the dining room of the house, in Kirkgate, Thirsk, where Mr Wight practised as a veterinary surgeon. Visitors can look around the original surgery - the Skeldale House of the Herriot books - and be taken on a journey back to the 1940s and 1950s.

"Following their mother's death, Jim and Rosie wanted the sideboard to come to the centre," said centre manager Sue Dalton.

"Joan was very fond of this piece of furniture - lovingly polishing it over the years. It now stands in our recreated dining room, adding to the air of authenticity we are trying to recreate."

The original surgery was bought by Hambleton district Council when Alf died in 1995 and painstakingly restored as a tribute to the best-selling author.

It is the only centre in the UK dedicated to veterinary science. It features displays of artefacts, interactive exhibits and a visible farm, as well as books, manuscripts and the Olivetti typewriter on which the Herriot stories were penned.