WHEN Settle's Brewery and the Rose and Crown pub in Cross Street was mentioned in Looking Back some time ago, among those who wrote to me about it was Mrs Anne Edwards (nee Settle), of Newton-le-Willows.

She has now sent me these two pictures taken in Bolton. One of them is of a Daimler, on which the "body" could be swapped. It was generally the brewery dray onto which for transport the coach body could be hoisted.

"During the summers of the 1920s and 1930s," she writes, "the 'coach' would take the regular customers from each Settle's pub in turn on a day out to Blackpool. This particular picture was taken outside the Rope and Anchor in Kay Street, about 1930.

"On these occasions W.T. Settle would stand at the door of the coach and give each man (only male customers went on these outings!) a new shilling (5p) which would buy his ale all day.

"William Settle, my father and the son of W.T. Settle, always went on these outings, as being teetotal all his life he would take over from the usual driver on the return journey -- at one time before he was old enough to have a driving licence."

Mrs Edwards lists the Settle's pubs as the Rose and Crown, Rope and Anchor, Red Lion, Skenin' Door, British Oak, Alfred the Great, and Britannia.

The other picture shows the Red Lion pub, but signs outside advertised Booth's Ales, not Settle's. Why?

Mrs Edwards says that W.T. Settle, who was born in 1868, was the son of Rachel Settle and Robert Booth, who were not married at the time of his birth. Robert left Rachel and married another woman (she had £100), and they bought the Rose and Crown. Robert brewed the beer at the back of the pub, and after his wife died he married Rachel (in about 1878), and they had two more boys, Albert and Daniel.

Rachel took over the brewing together with another man employed as a full-time brewer. However, when W.T. was 13-years-old, Rachel and the brewer had an argument, and he referred to W.T. as her "b.... son". He was dismissed on the spot, and on his return from school, young William was told he would henceforth have to stay at home and assist with the brewing.

Rachel died aged 54, but she had made her husband Robert sign an agreement to enable William to take over the Rose and Crown pub/brewery, buying out the part-shares of his brothers, which he did.

Other pubs were bought, and when the Rope and Anchor in Kay Street came into the fold, Daniel Booth moved in as licensee. Throughout this time the beer was still sold under the name of Booth's Ales, but Albert Booth, who had moved into the Red Lion in Thynne Street, had always been jealous of W.T.'s ability, raised the point during a minor disagreement at the Rose and Crown when he said: "What are you doing with Booth's Ales sign on your pub when your name isn't even Booth?"

William, normally a quiet, placid man by nature, immediately picked up a stool, smashed the window and said: "It will have Settle's Ales on it tomorrow", and it did - from that day, all the pubs had the signs changed from Booth's Ales to Settle's Ales.

One last story from Mrs Edwards. She says that the three Settle/Booth brothers and their families were always close knit, and when Norman Booth, son of Daniel, qualified as a master baker, W.T. Settle loaned him the money to buy his first shop in Farnworth. Norman quickly repaid the loan with profits from the shop and fees for singing engagements (he was a trained baritone).

"He then saw the potential to set up a bakery producing pies, pasties and steak puddings, which he did with a second loan from Uncle Bill, who guaranteed that all seven pubs would sell his pies -- thus Fullomeat Pies, Hypatia Street, was born, and by 1965 when Norman died, aged 55, they had 30 vans supplying pubs/chip shops around Bolton, Manchester, and, of course, Bolton Wanderers."