A PRODUCTION at the Octagon Theatre may have disturbed a troubled spirit from the English Civil War leading to all kinds of unexplained incidents at Bolton’s oldest pub.

Gas lines at Ye Olde Man and Scythe would suddenly turn off for no reason and bottles would smash in the cellar even though there was no-one there.

All this strange activity, back in 1989, prompted landlord Gary Osborne to blame the Octagon for his woes.

The theatre had staged The Lass at the Man and Scythe by Les Smith, a play based on the novel John o’ Gods Sending which told the story of the ‘massacre of Bolton’ in the English Civil War when royalist troops stormed the town.

The central character was killed during the fight for the town and his spirit was believed to haunt the pub. Estimates vary from around 100 to more than 1,500, as to the number of Parliamentarians who were killed in 1644 but Ye Olde Man and Scythe was certainly at the heart of the fighting.

The pub’s connection to the English Civil War didn’t end there.

Another legend has it that the Earl of Derby, who led the Royalist forces on that fateful day, spent his last night in the pub before he was beheaded for treason at the site of the market cross in Churchgate.

That was in 1651 at the end of the third English Civil War which saw Oliver Cromwell and his armies defeat the royalists.