The historic gatehouse to a former Birmingham metalwork factory could be saved from demolition after securing a Grade II listing.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has awarded the special status to the gatehouse at the former IMI factory in Wellhead Lane, Perry Barr.

They are the only surviving buildings on the site and were constructed in 1915 when the factory, at the time owned by Kynoch Company and employing 18,000 people, was manufacturing munitions for the First World War effort.

The white buildings have been earmarked for demolition under plans to build a new Islamic free school which prompted the Victorian Society to call on Historic England to intervene and make a recommendation for them to be listed.

The Victorian Society, which campaigns to protect historic buildings, is now calling on the Eden School to reconsider its plans.

Society spokesman and Birmingham Post columnist Joe Holyoak said: “We are delighted the buildings have been listed as it has become much more difficult to get a building listed in recent years.

“We believe this is an important part of Birmingham’s industrial history. The Kynoch Company was a great place of engineering and enterprise.”

He warned that, although the listing had been given, it did not rule out demolition, it just made it much harder.

Mr Holyoak added that a protected building, if not used or restored, could still fall into dereliction and be lost.

“I hope the buildings can be integrated into the new development,” he added.

The gatehouse was designed by local architect William Haywood, a prize-winning student of the Birmingham School of Art.

The Historic England report said: “The gatehouse buildings are neo-classical in style and composition and were clearly intended to form an impressive public face at the Wellhead Lane entrance to the works.

“That they have survived mostly intact enables us to understand their function and the quality of the architecture and detailing, despite some loss, remains apparent.”

The Eden School, part of the Tauheedul free school trust chain, secured planning permission for an Islamic free school on the site in 2014.

But a revised planning application, which included the demolition of the gatehouse, was submitted late last year and is due to be decided later this month.

No one from the school was available to comment.