Residents in battle to save mural from demolition

Campaigners fighting to save a mural in a block of flats earmarked for demolition say they have been given less than two weeks to raise tens of thousands of pounds to rescue it.

The tiled image, which depicts 19th Century Methodist preacher Abraham Lockwood, is located in the entrance of Bishop's Court in Huddersfield.

Kirklees Council has said safely removing the mural would cost more than £40,000, and that it is not prepared to fund the work.

Residents say they fear the mural will be "lost forever" and have accused the council of giving them a metaphorical "ransom note".

The mural of The Bishop of Berry Brow, as Lockwood became known, was unveiled in the 1980s, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

It was later hidden under layers of plaster, when the flats were refurbished, but was rediscovered in 2008 by locals, including the former chair of Huddersfield Civic Society, Christopher Marsden, who described the decorative display as a "crucial part of local heritage".

Bishop's Court, along with the neighbouring Holme Park Court, is set to be bulldozed by this August.

Kirklees Council said that while it "recognises the mural's importance to the local community" the decision had "not been taken lightly", adding that a safe removal would "not be a responsible use" of Housing Revenue Account funding.

The local authority told residents last week that £40,000 would need to be secured by 19 June to preserve it.

Marsden said: "We were basically handed a ransom note that said we find the money in 14 days or we smash it up."

He said he feared what condition the mural would come out in if it was removed and explained the difficulty of finding qualified contractors at short notice.

He added he was "worried I am going to have to wash my hands with it…It's a shame because we had already lost it for years".

A Kirklees Council spokesperson said if the mural cannot be preserved it will be "documented as fully as possible through photographs" and shared on the project online microsite.

They said they had tried to find an organisation "willing to take on the mural and associated costs" and remain open to any organisation able to do so within the required time frame.

However, they said "due to the constraints of the demolition programme, we will need to proceed unless a fully funded alternative is confirmed by the deadline".

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