In Spring 2022 the above structure was given Ancient Monument Status, which puts it into an exclusive club with Stonehenge etc. This means that the landowner’s plans for the area around the embankment will need to be revised as a hole was going to be punctured through it presumably for road access. The embankment is important as it is one of the last pieces of the Bolton and Leigh Railway of 1828, the first public railway in Lancashire. It was engineered by George Stephenson. It arrived at the dawn of the railway age and is significant as a result, in line with the Stockton & Darlington and Canterbury & Whitstable railways. (Phillip Earnshaw)