Junction Inn - Smoothing Iron, 77 - 79 Egyptian Street, Bolton

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The Junction Inn was situated at the meeting of three thoroughfares: Egyptian Street, St John’s Street and the northernmost part of Higher Bridge Street close to where it meets Blackburn Road and Kay Street.

The building was used as a pub in at least the 1860s. The first record we have of it as licensed premises is from 1869 when the licensee, George Pownall decided to sell the lease. [1]

However, the advertisement suggested that the lease agreement dated back to 1837, the likely date of construction although it may not necessarily have been a pub right from the start. At that time of the 1869 sale the pub was known as the Smoothing Iron due to its unusual rectangular shape and it was still known by that name as late as 1876.

For over ten years, the Junction was in the hands of Martha Cope and it seems to have taken on that name under her tenure. Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1859, Martha moved in to the pub in the 1880s with her first husband, Joseph Smith. He died in 1890 leaving Martha and three children and she took over the running of the pub.

In 1893, Martha married the pub’s barman, the Nottingham-born William Henry Cope, who was already living at the pub according to the 1891 census. They went on to have two children together, but in March 1898 on a visit to his home town, William died at the age of just 26.

Martha Cope died in 1901. By the time of the 1911 Census the eldest child, Minnie Smith, was married to William Kirkman. The two other children she had with Joseph Smith were living with their aunt and uncle in Darbishire Street. Two other children, Ethel and Martha, later emigrated to Canada.

Martha Cope was succeeded by Joseph John Goodlad, a career licensee who had previously been at the Union Arms on Deane Road. At the time of his death in 1920 he had moved on again, this time to the Windsor Castle at the bottom of Halliwell Road.

By then the Junction Inn was in the hands of Magee’s brewery after their takeover of previous owners, Halliwell’s Alexandra Brewery in 1910. Although Greenall Whitley were the owners when the pub closed in the 1960s it was still being supplied by beer brewed by Magee’s Crown Brewery just off Derby Street.

 [1] Bolton Evening News, 12 May 1869.

Blackburn Road goes off to the right and Egyptian Street to the left in this August 2015 image (copyright Google Street View). The Junction Inn stood where the trees are in the middle distance. The short thoroughfare heading off to the right of where the pub stood was once the bottom end of St John’s Street.

Stanley Arms, 1 Egyptian Street

Pen Street runs down the side of the Stanley Arms in this late-twenties shot of the pub.

Egyptian Street takes its name from the Egyptian Mill which was built just off Blackburn Road in 1861. Numerous rows of terraced streets were in the process of springing up in the shadow of the new mill and at number 1 Egyptian Street, on the corner with Pen Street, stood the Stanley Arms.

This was one of three pubs in Bolton by that name (the others were on Derby Street and on Chorley Old Road).

For many years the pub was in the hands of Samuel Leach and his family. Samuel was originally a weaver from Tottington, but he moved to Bolton in the 1840s. Together with his second wife Hannah, whom he married in 1850, he took over the Stanley Arms in the 1860s and it was the start of a family association lasting some 30 years.

By 1881, Samuel had retired. Hannah had passed away and the Stanley Arms was being run by his daughter, Mary Spencer, and her husband Richard, whose family were also publicans. His father had run the Dog and Partridge on Moor Lane.

Samuel died at home on 26 October 1887, but it was a time of tragedy  that must have left the pub's very future in doubt.  Mary had died a few months before Samuel and Richard Spencer died in early 1888. Samuel left an estate worth £3602 to his son, Miles, who was described as his only next of kin. Miles was living in Hull at the time, but he returned to Bolton to continue the running of the pub. However, when he died in 1897 and the link with the Leach family was broken.

The Stanley Arms had its own brewery for many years but it was later sold to Joseph Sharman’s brewery at Mere Hall, less than half a mile away from Egyptian Street. Sharman’s were taken over by George Shaw of Leigh in 1927 and Shaw’s were in turn taken over by Walker Cain Ltd in 1931.

The Stanley Arms closed in the early sixties [1]. The area was cleared later that decade and new housing built in place of the old rows of terraces.

Egyptian Mill remains. It ceased to be used as a textile mill around 1960 – around the time the Stanley Arms closed so perhaps the two events were related. But the mill has been used for storage since 2010.

[1] Bolton Pubs, 1800 – 2000, by Gordon Readyhough. Published by Neil Richardson (2000).