Spooky Stories Of Central Manchester

In the first years of the 19th century pubs had the most curious sports and entertainments. These included chasing a greased pig to try and catch it by the tail or shinning up a greased pole to retrieve a leg of lamb. In a pub on a street called Smithy Door, close to where Harvey Nichols is they once advertised a show featuring six turkeys which danced in the country style, three cats which sang in the Italian manner and lastly and most importantly for this tale, a pig, a quite extraordinary pig which indicated the time by a pocket watch. This just appears as a bit of entertainment in the pub, history doesn't actually record how this was done but it does record the story of one William Rutter who was a well-known drinker in the pubs in this area. It seems that on many subsequent occasions Rutter on leaving the numerous pubs in this area would encounter a pig dressed in a full suit standing upright on its hind legs with a large pocket watch. On enquiry this would obligingly tell Mr Rutter the hour.