The Rake Inn, Littleborough

The old Grade II listed coaching house which has been known as The Rake Inn, Hayrake and now The Rake Mediterranean Tapas Restaurant, dates from the very late 17th century and has been a public house since at least 1734, when Abraham Whitehead was the landlord. As the building dates from four decades after the Civil War, it might be strange to associate it with the ghost of a Laughing Cavalier.

In 1967 the Rochdale Observer reported that The Rake Inn was haunted. At this time the landlady was Annie Turton who described seeing “a big fellow with a big round face and his big cavalier’s hat held in front of him and wearing a lovely amber brooch.” He is said to appear to anybody called Anne living at the Rake.