New chapter as old Hipperholme Library is sold

Calderdale Council had listed the Hipperholme Library building on Leeds Road in an online property auction today.

The guide price was £120,000, but the lot ended up smashing this figure, eventually selling for £286,000.

The identity of the buyer has yet to be disclosed.

The grand library, which dates back to 1899, still has its original “ornate stonework, stained glass windows” was closed in 2020 – one of several libraries to shut under a shake up of library services in Calderdale.

It was part of the Future Council project – to dispose of parts of Council land and buildings portfolio to both save running costs and increase revenue to offset severe budget pressures.

In the run up to the auction there had been calls for the Council to halt the sale pending a review of the policy by the Secretary of State.

Walsh, a local man, whose work includes the old vicarage at Lightcliffe, George Street and Craig Royston on Bramley Lane was paid £10 and offered 5% commission. The building included a council chamber, a committee room, a range of smaller rooms and a surveyor’s house.

The council’s last meeting was held on 24 March 1937 and it was then incorporated into the enlarged Borough of Brighouse. Much of the building became Hipperholme Library which opened in 1938.

Before the sale Paul Thompson, managing director at auctioneer Pugh, said: “The property is a great investment opportunity and there are all kinds of new uses that it could be put to in the hands of an imaginative developer and suject to the necessary planning consents.”