Situated just off New Line, Bacup  Stubylee was the home of the Holt family built around 1808. The Holt estate originally covered the all the South side of the River Irwell from Cowpe across Brandwood Moor to Shawforth and then Sharneyford. John Holt was the only child of  James Holt and his second wife Ann daughter of John Heyworth of Greensnook.

 

John married Judith Maden  daughter of  James  Maden of Greens, on 25th June 1828. John became  the second Magistrate of Bacup  in 1838 and was one of the Poor Law Guardians.  As such he became a target for the hand loom weavers anger in 1843  on a dark February night a friend approaching Stubylee through the extensive grounds and thick shrubberies surrounding the house was shot at. The would be assassin was never found even though the Chief Constable of Preston offered a reward of £200 for information leading to the arrest. Judith was suffering from influenza at the time and it is thought the shock of this incident helped to shorten her life and she died in March 1843. Followed six months later by Julia , Judith and Johns eldest daughter who died of Typhoid at the age of twelve.

 

John died in 26 December 1856, leaving two children James Maden Holt born in 1829  and Emily Sarah Holt born in 1836. James Maden Holt  became a J.P in April of 1858 and became the first Bacup-born local MP when the North East Lancashire constituency was formed. His wife Anna whom he married in 1870 was the daughter of the Rev James Haworth of Penistone, Yorkshire.  For five years James served on the local board and at the General Election of 1863 he was returned to the House of Commons as an Independent Conservative, and sat for the North East Division of Lancashire for twelve years. In 1876 he introduced the cruelty to Animals Bill to prohibit the practice of vivisection. years.