PITMAN turned pop manufacturer Robert Ryder (featured recently on this page) had further claims to fame which have been brought to my notice by a local lady who married Robert's great-grandson and by a Yorkshire-based lady who happens to be a great-grandchild of the Victorian soft-drinks king.

Beryl Davies of Africander Road, Moss Bank, explains that as well as being a Tory councillor, Robert was Mayor of St Helens around 1880-90.

But his name echoes on, more than a century later, chiefly because of the rather ornate mineral water bottles (bearing his name and his pithead-gear motif) which are dug up from time to time by gardeners and treasure hunters.

The frequency with which these surface gives some indication of the size of that booming business -- with its catalogue of non-alcoholic products -- that pint-sized Robert (just 5ft tall) established in Ashcroft Street, Fingerpost, during Victorian times.

And Beryl adds another interesting snippet of information. "He is buried in the churchyard of St Peter's Church, Parr", she says, "and I, too, have a bottle with the same motiff on as was found by your earlier correspondent".

Over to Mrs J. Clitheroe of Cambridge Drive, Otley, who writes: "My mother, Robert's grandaughter, said that after he died her uncles, James and John, sold the business. One went to Canada and the other to Goole".

And that, apparently, was the end of the Ryder clan's connection with quenching the town's thirst.

THANKS, ladies, for adding those extra pieces to the fascinating 'pop king' jigsaw.