IT was a crime that has remained unsolved for over 500 years.

But visitors to Smithills Hall on Saturday and Sunday got a chance to find out exactly who murdered a foreign merchant staying at the historic house in 1480.

As part of Bolton Festival, medieval re-enactment company Knights in Battle were at the hall inviting people to turn time detectives.

The company used real characters from the hall's history and wove a fictional story around them so that visitors could discover that the foreign merchant was really an Austrian nobleman in disguise who had been slain by a Lancastrian spy.

Detectives were given clue sheets to help them and then invited to interrogate the 26 characters roaming around the hall in period costume. Visitors also got to see the way folk from that period ate and lived, with everyone present from Sir James Harrington, Under Sheriff of Lancashire to a humble peasant.

It is the Sheffield based company's third visit to Smithills Hall and they love their trips here.

"We always enjoy it here. It is a really nice spot and really nice people," commented "Sir James".