A £25,000 project will turn back the clock in a popular woodland and preserve the rare beauty spot.

The money has been granted to Lancashire Wildlife Trust by the charity SITA, which redistributes landfill tax money to environmental organisations.

The aim of the work at Sunnyhurst Wood, Darwen, is to recreate vegetation which would have been in the area in Victorian times.

Ben Hargreaves, local nature reserve manager for Lancashire Wildlife Trust, said: "Sunnyhurst is one of the biggest woods near Blackburn town centre and has some very ecologically important upland oak woodlands.

"This kind of woodland is in quite short supply as a lot of uplands are moorland and managed for agriculture.

"A lot of the surveying has been completed already, and we will be going through areas and removing and replanting vegetation to how it would have been in Victorian times.

"There has been so much influence from species such as sycamores and rhodo-dendrons and the woodlands have become fragmented."

The climate and steep incline of upland areas in Sunnyhurst make it an ideal location for the oak woodlands and unsuitable for agriculture.

The large-scale work will start in the coming months and involve teams from Lancashire Wildlife Trust's environmental task fund, New Deal and local volunteers.

There are no precise figures for the total extent of this woodland type, but it is believed to be between about 70,000 and 100,000 hectares, mainly in the north and west of the UK.

For some of the distinctive species present, Britain and Ireland hold a substantial part of the world population.

President of the Friends of Sunnyhurst Wood, Denis Gillibrand, said: "I knew some work was going on in the upland area, but wasn't aware the funding had come through.

"It's good news for Sunnyhurst Wood, but unfortunately even £25,000 doesn't stretch very far."