Work to carefully dismantle the Victorian stone facade at Bradford's Forster Square station has begun.

Specialist contractors William Aneley, of York, says the work is on target and the first phases should be completed by the start of next week.

There will be a time gap before the second phase begins to allow developers to do more work elsewhere on the site as part of the £500 million Stannifer Broadway shopping scheme.

The facade, which will eventually be restored to its former glory, was completed by the Midland Railway Company in 1890 and was the entrance to the station until a new station was opened in 1990 further down the line towards Shipley.

Around the same time part of the stone facade was dismantled and later reconstructed to enable a culvert to be rebuilt.

And 14 years later the scaffolding is up again at the historic structure - with contractors using the latest technology to dismantle it before putting it together so it can become an important feature of the multi-million shopping scheme.

Each stone will be minutely photographed as it is removed.

Numbers and references will be ground into the stones. References will be so detailed that people will know the exact storage position of every stone.

The wall will be rebuilt in the same area using the photographs to ensure it mirrors the old structure precisely.

The numbers on the stones will not be visible on the reconstructed wall.

Site manager Mark Wood said: "Work is on target. It's a good operation so far. There will be a gap before the second phase starts and re-erection of the wall is still in its planning stage.

"I'm hoping we might come across some interesting finds like coins but we haven't disscovered anything like that yet."

Councillor Simon Cooke, Bradford Council's executive member for regeneration, said: "the station wall is a very important piece of Bradford's history and it is important it is preserved for future generations.,

"A specialist team will take down and re-instate this 19th century wall so that it features in the exciting redevelopment of the area."

The W E Forster statue which stood in nearby Forster Square until recently was also gently removed recently in a specialist operation and put into storage.

It will go back to a prominent place in the new development which is expected to open in autumn 2007.