REGARDING the Darwen Moors article (LET, November 24), how much longer are we to be wrongly informed of the murder of "old Aggie" at Stepback in 1860.

I believe this story originated in the 1930s in the Darwen News, which ceased publication many years ago.

The facts were incorrect but the story has been repeated ever since and included in displays at the Information Centre.

For the past 60 years I remember tales of Old Aggies being a favourite spot in the past for picnic parties and it was said that she provided ale and refreshments.

Agnes Singleton married late in life and was listed as a handloom weaver.

She was still alive in 1861, the year after the robbery.

John Doran, 20, Thomas Atkinson, 22, John Warden, 23, were charged with committing assaults on John and Agnes Singleton. An abridged version of a case held at South Lancashire Assizes, Liverpool, says that on November 5, 1860 the elderly inhabitants of the cottage near Stepback awoke to a noise. John Singleton lighted a candle.

Three men entered the room, one with a gun, one with a hammer.

They threatened to kill them unless they delivered their money.

They would allow his wife Agnes Singleton five minutes to pray.

She showed them a box containing a five pound note. The old man gave them a purse.

The three men, previously known to be poor, were later seen to have money in considerable sums. A £5 note was found on one of the prisoners.

The day before the robbery they were served beer at the Greenway Arms and had no money to pay. Next morning they had plenty of money.

Doran and Atkinson were sentenced to 20 years penal servitude, Warden to 10 years.

The Census held the following year shows that the cottage at Stepback was still occupied by John Singleton and Agnes Singleton. The cottage was shown as unoccupied in the 1871 census.

A full copy of the court reports and copies of census records are held in a bound volume in Darwen Reference Library.

JON ASPIN, Earnsdale Avenue, Darwen.