A Horwich councillor has said he hopes to be able to preserve as much heritage as possible of a building which was ravaged by a fire earlier this year.

Emergency services were sent to the Horwich Loco Industrial Estate on Saturday, June 17 this year.

A large fire had engulfed the property on Railway Road and three fire appliances remained there overnight to deal with the aftermath.

The blaze is believed to have occurred in the storage buildings which had heritage significance after being built in 1886.

Large chunks of the back of the building have been removed.

But ward councillor Peter Wright has said he hoped to retain heritage aspects of the building.

He said: “The demolition firm JW have taken part of the building down now.

“They have just kept the front up at the moment.

“Most of it has been taken down.

“There are signs at the front that tell some of its history.

“It would be nice if we could keep as much of the heritage as possible.

“Hopefully the signs can stay in the food bank next door.”

Mr Wright added that there had been no complaints raised about what is taking place at the building.

He said: “I think they realise unfortunately it is in a bad way.”

One of the signs at the front which is still in place reads: “Horwich was transformed from 3,000 people in the 1880s to a thriving industrial town of 12,000 in only 10 years.”

Another states that there were 1,830 Locomotives built and contains illustrations of these.

A different sign says there were 97 years of production and shows a tank and a railway.

Behind the front of the building one floor is still in place but there is nothing left on top of it and large amounts of rubble underneath.