JIM Bowes stands proudly at the doorway to his storeroom like a father presenting his first born to the world.

"Well what do you think of that then?" he asks, standing aside to reveal shelf upon shelf of vinyl stretching into the distance of a second room.

"I couldn't tell you exactly but there are around 100,000 albums and singles there, that's my life in front of you."

In an era when mp3s and downloads are now accepted in the charts and experts are warning that the days of the CD are numbered, Jim is mounting a one-man crusade to keep vinyl alive.

Music lovers from all over Europe head to the unlikely surroundings of Accrington Market Hall to trawl through Jim's stock, looking for obscure rock and roll releases from the Fifties or some Eighties' heavy metal.

"I've had people turn up from Spain, from Eastern Europe, from all over really," said Jim, who has been running Custard Cube Music for the last 12 years.

"It's mainly done through word of mouth. People just seem to hear of this guy from Accrington who has all this vinyl but they don't quite believe how much there is until they see it."

Jim began selling LPs to help finance his university studies but he is the first to admit that it has taken over his life.

"I know this sounds a bit daft but I really don't care if I sell them or not," he said. "I really see myself as the curator of a music museum. Every single album, every single has a particular meaning to someone. There is just something about vinyl that you cannot get from a CD or an mp3.

"Vinyl satisfies all the senses, it is tactile, somehow a piece of plastic can connect emotionally with people. You ask anyone and they will be able to tell you the first LP they every bought and probably where they bought it from. You just can't do that with a download. "

A quick perusal of the boxes of records reveals the mainstream, the unknown and the downright bizarre. But you get the feeling that Jim just loves them all.

"I am passionate about vinyl, I'll be the first to admit that to anyone," he said. "I really like the idea that all these records are second hand. It shows to me that someone wanted them originally and therefore there will be someone else who is looking for them.

"I only try to keep one copy of everything. There is no point in having lots of the same thing."

It's not just the vinyl itself which Jim loves, it's the packaging too.

"To me record sleeves are an historical document," he said. "The cover artwork reflects the time they were done. Then there are the inner sleeves which have got so much information on them. You try reading a CD booklet, it's almost impossible."

Jim has actually approached local schools to see if they would like to take some LPs to use them in art and history lessons.

"I really feel that young people today are being deprived of memories because they are growing up with everything digital," he said.

Jim does have some very valuable records from the likes of the Beatles and Elvis Presley, but the more common or less valuable items mean just as much.

And it is not just Jim who has come to appreciate them.

"I do get a lot of people coming to me wanting to get their hands on a particular song for a wedding or even for a funeral. They have tried everywhere without success but I can usually lay my hands on it for them. "

Visitors to Jim's Aladdin's cave often spend several hours working their way through the racks.

"I once showed someone up to the stock room and left them there to browse," said Jim. "I forget all about him and the following morning the market security guards said they found the man wandering round a locked market with a great pile of records trying to find me."

Record collectors have also tried to ensure that no-one else gets their hands on some of Jim's treasures.

"You do get people who come and then realise they haven't got enough money to pay for everything they want so they try and hide LPs under the racks so they can come back later," said Jim."

With more and more record shops succumbing to the power of the internet, Jim is determined to fight for vinyl's survival.

"I've worked out it would cost me over £3,000 just to hire the skips to throw all this lot away," he said.

"But I never would do that. I genuinely believe that I have built up something that is very precious, not just to me but to so many other people in terms of the memories it evokes.

"Plus vinyl sounds so much better than a CD. It's just so much richer."