TWO amateur film-makers and their families and friends have thrown new light on a 167-year-old murder on Bolton's moors which has baffled generations of residents.

The death of 20-year-old salesman George Henderson on a bleak track on Winter Hill in 1838 is commemorated by Scotchman's Stump, a memorial well-known to walkers.

Henderson, a native of Dumfries, was a salesman for a firm of Blackburn drapers. His job meant long hours tramping the roads around the area, selling and, more importantly, collecting large sums of cash.

On November 9, 1838, a heavy mist lay over the moors as the young man walked from Darwen to the Bolton area.

Just after noon that day, a youth, Thomas Whowell, heard a groan from a ditch at the roadside. There, he found a gruesome sight the young Scot lay dying in a pool of blood, shot in the side of the head.

James Whittle, a collier and spare-time poacher who lived nearby, was arrested but subsequently acquitted of the murder.

But even today, some still believe Whittle was guilty.

The story had long fascinated Mark Naylor, aged 51, of Willows Lane, Daubhill.

Now he and Steve Looker, aged 32, of Davyhulme, have spent the past two years working on a DVD which re-examines the mystery.

Mark got involved in amateur film-making through Steve, a fellow printer with an Eccles firm, and the two decided to make their film as authentic as possible.

They enlisted the help of Adlington-based local historian David Holding, who appears in the film explaining the historical sequence of events.

"We made all the costumes ourselves, mostly because of costs," said Mark.

"But this actually worked out well because they looked more authentic."

They also shot most of it in the studio of the printing firm CC Williams Ltd, with the help and co-operation of their boss, John Williams, and superimposed it on to footage of Winter Hill.

And the courtroom scenes were actually made in the Judge's Lodgings in Presteigne, North Wales.

The resulting 30-minute DVD is an historical look at the events of that fateful day.

Steve said: "We did enjoy making it although film-making is all about money and we need to get more sponsorship for our films."

They are now turning their attention to the 1910 mining disaster at the Pretoria Pit in Westhoughton when 344 people were killed and are looking for people with memorabilia or information about it.

l The Scotchman's Stump DVD is available at £9.99 from Rivington Barn and the tourist information office; The Gallery at the Last Drop Village, Bromley Cross; Sweetens Bookshop in Deansgate, Bolton, and at www.reelvisionfilms.co.uk