'Crumbling' Bradford manor house could be saved by council

The Old Manor House in Manningham has been falling into disrepair since becoming empty in 2000

A crumbling 16th Century manor house which is said to be "too important" for a city to lose could be bought by a council.

Manningham Old Manor House is one of Bradford's oldest surviving buildings but has been empty since 2000.

Conservation groups have raised concerns for years about the derelict Grade II-listed building.

Councillors have been urged to approve a compulsory purchase order at a meeting on Tuesday as a "last resort".

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The manor on Rosebury Road is in the St Paul's conservation area and has been covered in scaffolding from half-completed works dating back to 2012.

It has no windows or doors and only part of the roof remains.

Much of the timber is rotten and it is used as a fly-tipping site, is an "anti-social behaviour" hotspot and is "visually detrimental to the area", the council said.

'Stripped to a shell'

A council report said the manor house's owners have had legal orders to repair the building but it is now "little more than a shell".

A compulsory purchase order would be the "last resort" and if approved would mean meaning the owner would be forced to sell it, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The authority would then take it on to restore.

A council report said: "Internally, the building has been stripped to a shell and has suffered through poor and abortive alteration works, leaving the building partly filled with debris, lacking any floors or wall finishes, displaying accelerating structural issues and is devoid of any services or facilities."

Historic England, which has provided interim funding to stop the manor degrading further, said it is "a rare surviving building of its type and a key building in the conservation area".