AN HISTORIC clock is to be preserved for future generations after a rail campaigner won his fight.

The hand-wound Victorian clock has been a fixture at Bromley Cross Rail Station for more than a century and there were fears it could be removed if a station makeover went ahead.

Rail enthusiast Simon Pearce applied to English Heritage for grade-two listed status for the clock after 18 months of work and Culture Minister Sajid Javid has now granted him his wish.

It means anyone who wished to change or remove the clock — or the station's low-level platform and nearby signal box — cannot do so without get Bolton Council’s permission after a public consultation.

A thrilled Mr Pearce said: "The clock continues to give good time and appears in an early photograph of the station from 1912 and is likely to be even earlier in date, installed by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

"This station has real railway history about it, It is a rare survivor of iconic county stations that were mostly demolished by the 1960s and 1970s. I am thrilled it is now better protected.

"We must be prepared to make a stand for the things we care about in our communities — our heritage — and also for future generations to enjoy."

The Bolton to Blackburn line was opened in June 1848 by the Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe and West Yorkshire Railway, later part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway from 1849.

Bromley Cross Station had a temporary timber station building, but, after a train was trapped there for a full day in deep snow drifts in 1854, rail bosses decided to build a bigger building five years later.

It was built by Manchester firm Joseph Greenup and Co, of local sandstone from nearby Ousel Nest Quarry.

The low platform, which is covered by the listed status, is at the front of the booking office and dates back to 1848.

The other platforms were raised in 1886.

The signal box dates from 1875 and was built by E.S Yardley and Co, a Manchester based railway signalling contractor, run by Emily Sophia Yardley and her half brother William Smith, who was both deaf and dumb from birth, according to census records.

The box is known as a Yardley/Smith Type 1, and is the last remaining in Lancashire and one of two of this type on the network.

To get listed status, Mr Pearce compiled an extensive range of documents, maps and photographs profiling the station's history, including invoices dating from 1874.

His bid was backed by Bolton and District Civic Trust, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Society, the Victorian Society and David Crausby MP, who wrote to the Minister on Mr Pearce's behalf.