A history group is campaigning to obtain listed building status for a former Baildon school amid fears it could be bulldozed.

The Baildon Local History Society has written to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the hope of gaining Grade II listed building status for the Woodbottom Primary School building in Otley Road.

Bradford Council put the site up for sale in November last year and members of the group are concerned the building, built in 1877, might be knocked down by developers.

If the building became listed any developer would have to get listed building consent from the department to alter it.

Society secretary Stewart Main said it would be sad if the school was demolished.

"We are trying to get the building listed because it is an old school," he said.

"We are not wanting to let the building remain empty but we feel it is a worthwhile venture to try to preserve it as it has many connections with people in the area."

Mr Main said the school was one of the first to be built in Bradford after the passing of the Education Act of 1870, which introduced free state education to England.

Former Bradford MP William Forster was instrumental in getting the bill through Parliament in his role as vice-president of the committee of council on education.

After the school closed in 1980, the building was used by Bradford Council's child guidance and school psychological services before they moved out last July.

The society has sent a history of the building, an architect's report and photographs to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and expects a decision in the next few weeks.

Mr Main said the society would be pleased to see the building turned into flats if the application was accepted.

"Sandal Primary School received listed building status last year and is to be turned into apartments and it would be good if this happened here," he said.

"The last thing we want is for it to remain derelict."

Councillor John Cole (Lib Dem, Baildon), a supporter of the application, said the school was the oldest in Baildon.

"It has historic and architectural merits and it has the virtue of old age," he said.

"If the building was listed then the outside shell could be kept and it would be an interesting challenge for an architect to develop it for future use."

A Bradford Council spokesman said: "In November last year, the Council invited offers for the building and we are now in the process of agreeing a sale, subject to contract."