A FASCINATING pre-Civil War document has been returned to Bolton’s oldest pub.

Parchment recording the sale of land in Bolton in 1639 has been bought by Ye Olde Man and Scythe in Churchgate — and will now take pride of place in the pub.

The precious “record of sale” document was displayed in the historic pub for a month in 2010.

It details the sale of five acres of land and buildings in Harwood, and the pub’s owner Richard Greenwood says the valuable artefact will fit in nicely at the pub, which dates date back to 1251.

He said: “The guy actually came up to the Chetham Arms in Chapeltown — one of my other pubs — and said he wanted to have a chat with me.

“He was saying he displayed the document there and he really wanted to see it back in the Man and Scythe.

“There are quite a few pictures up on the walls, dating back to Victorian times, and the history is something we emphasise about the pub. I have put this up in the front room as well and it goes really well.”

The document contains well-known Lancashire names, such as Greenhalgh, Horrock, Seddon, Bromley and Winstanley, as well as place names Long Meadow and Two Marshes.

It is believed to be one of two identical documents — one given to the buyer and one to the seller.

Those drawing up the papers would have written out the information twice on the same parchment and then cut them in two so only those two halves could be slotted together again.

Mr Greenwood bought the document from Belmont pensioner Ted Unwin, who previously loaned it to the pub, after he found it in a box of old books a few years ago.

Ye Olde Man and Scythe’s history, including the story that James Stanley, the seventh Earl of Derby, was executed outside the building for his part in the Bolton Massacre, is a central part of its appeal.

Mr Greenwood added: “This historic pub is the perfect place for the document.

“The amount of people who have said five generations of my family have been drinking in here is unbelievable.”