A "RARE and important" soldier's letter sent to a Bolton girl more than 160 years ago is going up for auction and is expected to fetch as much as £1,800.

The letter, complete with envelope, addressed to Miss Stanton at 16 Dukes Alley, Bolton-le-Moors -- a town centre address that no longer exists -- was written by Bombardier Stanton, serving with the B Company Third Battalion Artillery.

It was sent from Moulmein in Burma on Shrove Tuesday, February 23, 1841.

It is thought the letter spent five-and-a-half months travelling by ship via India and the Cape before arriving in London. It was taken by stagecoach to Bolton, arriving on August 3.

The letter, which is currently part of a private collection, will be auctioned at Spink of London on Thursday.

Spink auctioneer Nick Startup said the main value of the letter came from two unusual postmarks on the envelope.

-- the Soldiers and Seamens Letter By Ship mark and the Moulmein Free Burmese mark., which is very rare. Also the fact that it is a soldier's letter adds to the value."

Mr Startup thought it likely that the soldier would have been serving as part of a British garrison between the 1825-27 First Burmese War and the Second, which started in 1853.