This is the tragic tale of a drunken brewer and an open sewer. The story of the Manchester rat people is indeed a sorry tale. A tale is told that in 1642 a young mother named Mary Melcrinckle laid her twin babes - Joshua and Jemima - by the city well while she stooped to draw water. If only she had seen the local innkeeper, in a drunken state of merriment, snatch for her children and attempt to perform a juggling act with them. Alas! The fine ale he had imbibed did not make him sure of catch and both infants fell into a nearby open sewer, where they were swiftly swept away, never to be seen again.

The brewer was hanged by an angry mob that afternoon. Mary Melcrinkle spent the rest of her life searching for her offspring but to no avail.

It is said, however, that the twins survived and were brought up in the sewers by rats, and when they came of age produced their own offspring. Generations of rat people are said to have lived and died in Manchester's sewers in their vast underground city. There have been many alleged sightings of rat people over the years with the last in 1972, when a Mr Albert Tumble found the body of a rat-child in his garden, which he said was "indistinguishable from that of a rat".

The picture on the left shows an artists impression of a rat person bringing the fabled rat-copter safely to land at the opening of the Great Rat Tunnel.