Community leaders are fighting to save part of a grand Huddersfield estate with deep roots in the history of the town.

Huddersfield Civic Society has objected to plans to demolish the 19th century coach house and stables at Longdenholme in the Greenhead Park Conservation Area.

The buildings overlook the park.

Pennine Developments Ltd wants to flatten the buildings to make way for three new detached houses in Greenhead Road.

The coach house, built in 1881-82, is part of the mansion estate home of Joseph Woodhead, founder of the Huddersfield Examiner.

Editor and proprietor Woodhead started the newspaper in September, 1851 and became a Liberal politician and non-Conformist.

He was elected to Huddersfield Town Council and was twice Mayor of Huddersfield before being elected MP for the Spen Valley in 1885.

Awarded the Freedom of Huddersfield, he was said to have turned down a baronetcy as he had no wish to be known as anything other than plain Joe Woodhead.

The Longdenholme estate was created by architect Ben Stocks and builder Abraham Graham, both prominent figures in the town.

The coach house is described as “elaborately embellished” and the civic society has applied to have the building listed for its architectural merits in a bid to save it from the bulldozers.

Society chairman Chris Marsden said: “The Longdenholme mansion is a record of the significance of the development and power of provincial the newspapers in the 19th century and a dramatic architectural expression of the influence of men such as Joseph Woodhead, Ben Stocks and Abraham Graham on our townscapes.

“These buildings are an important part of the Greenhead Park Conservation Area. This ill-thought planning application discounts the magnificence of the coach house and we need to see it refused. Listing may give the whole property the protection it deserves.”

Other significant members of the family include: Sir German Sims Woodhead (1855-1921), an eminent pathologist and tuberculosis expert who was awarded the KBE; Herbert Miall Woodhead (1860-1951), a medical officer of health; and newspaper editor Ernest Woodhead (1857-1944), who also played rugby for England and was granted the freedom of the borough in 1918.

The house was bought by Huddersfield Corporation in 1917. It was later used as an annexe to the nearby girls’ school before becoming a nursing home.

Mr Marsden said just because a building was derelict and neglected there was no reason to demolish it.

Society member and local resident Tony Chisholm said demolishing the buildings would remove an “important historical reference point” at Greenhead Park and described the new homes as “breathtakingly incongruous.”

Comments on the planning application must be made to Kirklees Council by May 11.