A PUB landlady is so afraid of her own fictitious scary story that she refuses to venture down into her cellar.

But tomorrow Margaret Thompson will be asking punters to put down their drinks and do just that -- if they dare.

Staff at the Three Pigeons, on Blackburn Road, in Astley Bridge, have spent the last week creating a horror story.

And for one night only, the pub's cellar will be transformed into the horrific setting for a gruesome tale of murder and intrigue.

Tomorrow, on Hallowe'en, drinkers will be enticed into the pub's bowels to hear about Thomas and Mary Lawson.

They were a couple who ran the pub in the 17th Century but suffered tortuous conditions at the hands of the Roundheads.

The cellar is where they lived to escape their tormenters -- but, so the tale goes, their attempts at hiding were without success.

On one fateful night in October 1665, the hostelry was raided and screams could be heard until early morning.

Mrs Thompson said: "Even though I made the story up, I would sooner get somebody else to go down into the cellar to change the barrel.

"The staff have really got into the fun of Hallowe'en this year and last Friday night I heard them all gathered in the cellar telling each other stories and frightening themselves to death."

Rather than just tell the story, Mrs Thompson and her staff have been racking their brains to create a set which will draw on nearly all of their willing victim's senses.

They have produced chilling sound effects, worked out ways for water to continually drip from the ceiling and rehearsed a number of scary moments, many of which the team are remaining tight-lipped about.

Mrs Thompson said: "We've never done anything like this before but this time we're going to town.

"The pub itself will be lit with pumpkins and I've created a punch called Devil's Blood.

"It started small but the staff have been wonderful and they've been adding to it all the time.

"It's like a Hollywood set now."