A RETIRED bank manager has hit upon a little goldmine after exploring the tales behind some of Cheshire's most notorious murders.

Countless hours of leafing through dusty archives, newspaper cuttings and long-forgotten church records has been a labour of love for 68-year-old Alan Hayhurst.

And fellow true crime aficionados can share in the spoils of his endeavours with the publication of his latest book, Cheshire Murders.

Local readers will be especially fascinated by his accounts of two capital crimes from Lymm - set against vastly different backdrops.

One salacious tale focuses on what happened when a butler to the Rector of Lymm took up with a 'lusty' older woman.

The manservant in question, John Thornhill, was proud of his position, in the service of the Rev Peter Egerton Leigh, who was also Archdeacon of Salop, as well as his role at St Mary's.

Thornhill was engaged to the Egerton Leigh's maid, Rebecca Clark, so it remains a mystery quite why he fell for the buxom charms of mother-of-two, Sally Statham.

Before too long, Ms Statham announced to the world that she was pregnant once more - and needed little prompting over who the father was.

Matters came to a bloody head when Thornhill asked Sally to discuss their affairs in The Dingle.

Alan recalls the couple's fateful meeting - and Thornhill's subsequent trial - after conducting painstaking research locally.

Another village snippet recounts the fate of Elizabeth 'Bessie' Taylor, who met a tragic end at the hands of an early serial killer, Severin Klosowski.

Bessie answered a newspaper advert for a housekeeper for Klososwki in London and her fate was sealed, as the book minutely details.

Alan, from Timperley, near Altrincham, says his passion for true crime and the minutiae of murder was evident from an early age.

He said: "I first got interested in crime when I was about 12.

"Back then you could get five books on your ticket at Birkenhead Public Library.

"I read my way around the shelf."