St Mary's in the Wood, whose spire towers over Scatcherd Park, has been sold to former Leeds magistrate, Graham Butterworth, who lives in Gibraltar.

The church has been boarded up since last year when the congregation moved to the church hall, unable to pay for the upkeep, repairs and heating of the grade-two listed Victorian church.

Church secretary and Morley town councillor Shirley Varley said: "I know the building is not the church, the people make the church, but it is very sad, particularly for me as I went through these gates 50 years ago to get married and because my husband Derek worked so hard for 50 years to look after it."

The sale was organised by the synod committee of the United Reformed Church but the small congregation in Morley will benefit.

Mrs Varley said: "When they rang me to tell me it was sold my heart fell into my boots because while it was not sold it was still ours, but we have jobs to do on the church hall which can now be done, so in that respect there is a little silver lining in the cloud."

She added: "The church has served the community here for nearly 400 years and hopefully it will continue to be of benefit to the people of Morley.

"If it was to be made a restaurant it could perhaps host events. We don't know if it can be done but I think the gentleman has good intentions for it and I was heartened by our conversation about it on Monday."

She said Mr Butterworth, who was responsible for the conversion into flats of the Friends Adult School at the Bottom of Ackroyd Street, told her on Monday he had no plans to turn St Mary's into flats but intended to retain as many of its beautiful features as he could while turning it into a going concern.

"He said he would like to have it as a hotel or restaurant but it had to be a viable proposition," said Mrs Varley.

"The town council was interested in purchasing it and making it into a heritage centre but it was far too big a project for our small council.

"There are repairs and upkeep but also permissions needed for the change of use."

Although Mrs Varley is devoted to St Mary's and passionate about its unique and fascinating history, she said the building suffered from dry rot and from repeated vandalism including the theft of lead from its roof.

She said Mr Butterworth was taking steps to prevent any further damage.

Mrs Varley added: "The whole of Morley's growth and heritage is in that church. It was there when Morley was just a little village through when it was a growing industrial town till now.

"The memorials there are of the people who built Morley, Charles Scarth who was six times Mayor of Morley, the pulpit was given in his memory and there are two stained glass windows in memorial of him.

"Then there is a beautiful window of the Glover family who owned Glen Mills, for a son who was tragically killed in the 1940s when he was two."

Although the building is a Victorian replacement to the original chapel, the graveyard contains the oldest graves in Morley, many of which are also listed and protected by law.

Although new locks have been put on the church gates to secure the site against further vandalism, people will in the future still have access to family graves.