BACK in 1838, before any of us were born (and if I'm wrong on that, please let me know; it would make a wonderful story!) a Bolton firm made these magnificent gates to have pride of place at the palace of the Grand Sultan of Turkey in Constantinople - now Istanbul - on the banks of the Bosphorous.

How William Dean obtained the order is a mystery, says local historian Mr Denis O'Connor, of Forton Avenue, Breightmet. "However, he would be pleased financially, for the bill came to £20,000 for the ironwork, patterns £900, and suitable packing cases £150, a sizeable sum even today."

The gates, including the centre ornaments, were 35 feet high and 12 feet in width. Altogether, though, with the palisades which were 23 feet in length and supported by marble columns at each end, the weight was 40 tons.

Mr O'Connor has been looking into the history of the gates, and been in contact with the International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage. They have told him that the palace for which the gates were made was demolished to build the present one in 1870, and no-one knows what happened to the gates.

"There is a similar gate very close to the British Consulate in Istanbul," he has been told. "It is the monumental entrance to Galatasaray High School which was original built as a medical school in 1838.

"The tall door wings and their decoration seem very similar to the ones in the drawing, but the arrangement of the columns at the two sides of the doorway are different. Instead of single columns, there are pairs of columns on both sides of the entrance. The iron railings on both sides of the doorway are also similar but more ornate."

So what happened to the gates is perhaps still an enigma. But what a massive task it must have been for the Bolton firm making the gates, shipping them across to Turkey, and then erecting them.

Mr O'Connor tells me that the engineering firm of Crook and Dean started about 1816/17 as a partnership, and according to the Directory for 1824/25 operated from Independent Street, Folds Road. By 1826 their new foundry, named Union, had been opened on Folds Road near to what is now the St Peter's Way fly-over. Business was so good that by 1835 they had opened an additional works close to the bottom of Waterloo Street.

Besides general engineering, Crook and Dean built a locomotive which they named Phoenix, given its first trial run on the Bolton-Leigh railway (opened 1828) early in June, 1831. Unfortunately John Crook never saw it operate, for he died the day before this initial run.

The Bolton Chronicle of June 4, 1831, gives no details of the engine except that it was "extremely simple" in construction, and that it drew 12 carriages with 300 passengers, and that at one point it achieved 18mph, a creditable performance for the time.

After John Crook's death, William Dean assumed full control and re-named the works Phoenix, probably in memory of his deceased partner (and also possibly to avoid confusion with Peter Rothwell & Co., Union Foundry, in Blackhorse Street) and ran it until his death on January 12, 1840, the products including another locomotive, Salamander, of which no details are known.

William Dean's widow, Alice, took full control, sold off the original works and continued until her son Adam was able to manage the firm. She then retired and died at Sale, aged 78, in 1879, by which time the Deans no longer had the foundry; from 1860 onwards the Directories quote a number of firms on the site, including Hick Hargreaves.

The reminders of these works remain today in the shape of Phoenix Street, Dean Street, and a block of flat called Dean House.