Plans to create flats and bedsits at historic Halifax town centre pub The Old Cock are submitted

The proposals for The Old Cock in the town centre follow a separate application by Matthew Gledhill earlier this summer seeking listed building consent for changes to the building which dates from the 17th century.

Changes at the inn, a Grade II listed public house, will not alter the scale and its appearance will be unchanged, says WHp ARCHITECTURE’s supporting statement.

Surviving 17th century interior features will be preserved and incorporated into the proposed layouts without modification, it says.

The statement adds extensive alterations and extensions have, to a large extent, concealed the form of the original building.

The building’s listing describes The Old Cock Inn as “early 17th century, very much altered” and lists some 17th century, 18th century and 19th century features remaining.

The Old Cock is one of Halifax’s oldest inns and was the meeting place of leading figures in the town in Victorian times which led to formation of the Halifax Permanent Building and Investment Society, which later became the Halifax Building Society.

The finance firm grew into the ‘world’s biggest building society’ before becoming the Halifax Bank, now part of the Lloyds Banking Group.

The Old Cock was also where the infamous Cragg Vale Coiners gang met and where their leader, “King” David Hartley, was arrested in 1769 and later hanged in York, says the pub’s website.

The planning application, number 21/01118/FUL, can be viewed on Calderdale Council’s Planning Portal.