'Gentleman Jack'-linked tower to be repaired

A church tower which includes a brass plaque commemorating one of the people fictionalised in BBC TV drama Gentleman Jack is to be repaired and refurbished.

The Grade II listed tower to the Old Church of St Matthew, near Brighouse, includes a plaque to Ann Walker, partner of Anne Lister, the 19th Century landowner and diarist who has been described as the "first modern lesbian".

Calderdale Council has given listed building consent so repairs and the installation of new steps at the tower can be carried out.

The structure housed memorials to several members of the Walker family and it had "communal value and significance to LGBTQ+ histories", planning officers said.

Lister, known by some as Gentleman Jack, is known for her diaries detailing life at Shibden Hall near Halifax, with entries including intimate details of her same-sex relationships.

Her journals were recognised by the United Nations in 2011 as a "pivotal" document in British history.

Walker and Lister sealed their union by taking the sacrament at a church in York in 1834 and started life as a married couple.

Their story was told in two series of Gentleman Jack, starring Suranne Jones as Lister, who died in 1840, and Sophie Rundle as Walker, who died in 1854.

The Old Church of St Matthew was built in 1775 by local builder William Mallinson, who is buried in the churchyard, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A new parish church was built nearby in 1875, leading to the decline of the Old Church, though it remained in use as a mortuary chapel in the 1960s.

However, all but the tower was demolished in the 1970s following storm damage and vandalism.

Calderdale Council granted listed building consent to Friends of Friendless Churches, a charity dedicated to rescuing and protecting historic places of worship.

Included among the proposed repairs is the installation of a staircase to link two existing staircases within the tower.

Repair and rebuilding of the cupola and structural timber repairs is also planned.

The proposal has been designed by a conservation-accredited architect to have minimal impact on the building, planners said.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.