Staff at Ye Olde Man and Scythe in Bolton spotted the spooky spectre
when they checked the cameras on Friday morning and found they had
mysteriously stopped recording at 6.18am
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Spooked staff at one of the oldest pubs in Britain believe they have caught a ghost on CCTV.
The
chilling footage, which appears to show a shadowy figure flickering
into view by the bar, was filmed at Ye Olde Man and Scythe in Bolton.
Manager
Tony Dooley spotted the spectre when he checked the cameras on Friday
morning and found they had mysteriously stopped recording at 6.18am.
"I
came down and saw a glass smashed on the floor so I was instantly
suspicious and went to check the CCTV and found it has stopped working,"
he told the Manchester Evening News.
"We checked the footage and it revealed this figure.
"To
be honest I was a bit concerned - I'm a bit of a sceptic when it comes
to ghosts but you become more of a believer when you see things like
that."
The pub, which dates from 1251, is the fourth-oldest pub in
Britain and is reputedly haunted by the Seventh Earl of Derby, James
Stanley.
The royalist, whose family originally owned the inn, is said to have
spent the last hours of his life there before he was beheaded in 1651
towards the end of the Civil War.The chair he sat in before he was taken outside and executed is still in the pub today - and some say so is he.
Hundreds of soldiers and civilians were also killed outside the pub in the Bolton Massacre of 1644.
With
such a bloody history, it has long been considered a hotspot for
paranormal activity and a psychic evening held there in 2006 reportedly
found it to be haunted by at least 25 spirits.
Among them is said
to be a woman who hung herself in the cellar several centuries ago as
well as an eight-year-old girl and a phantom dog.
"There have always been rumours it is haunted and we've had psychic readings done here in the past," said Tony.
"Occasionally you hear things and wonder if it's just the building settling down or whether it's something else.
"It's the fourth-oldest pub in Great Britain so it's had its fair share of deaths and whatnot."