DETECTIVES were this week trying to piece together the movements of popular bank worker Charles Lennon, who died in hospital some 18 hours after being found slumped unconscious in a Salisbury underpass.

Mr Lennon, a 50-year-old cashier with Lloyds TSB in Salisbury, was discovered just before 6am on Monday, lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the Castle Road underpass, just a few yards from his home in Nelson Road.

He had what police described as "substantial head injuries" and was rushed to Salisbury District Hospital.

Mr Lennon, a bachelor, was transferred to Southampton General Hospital and placed on a life-support machine.

His condition deteriorated and he died during the early hours of Tuesday.

Police are treating his death as a mystery and said they were considering several theories as to his death, and had not ruled out that he might have been the victim of an assault on his way home from a pub the night before.

They also said there was a possibility he was struck by a passing vehicle or vehicles as he made his way home from his regular Sunday night haunt, the Old Castle Inn at the top of Castle Road.

But the most likely theory was that he stumbled and had perhaps fallen down the 30ft drop into the Churchill Way West underpass.

Immediately after a passer-by discovered Mr Lennon unconscious on Monday morning, police sealed off the underpass and later closed Castle Road between the roundabout and Ashley Road while officers made a detailed search.

Their search for clues led to lengthy jams as traffic was diverted along Ashley Road and Churchill Way.

Police said a number of witnesses had come forward but they still wanted to speak to anyone who might have seen Mr Lennon as he made his way home.

Arfon Ellis, manager of the Old Castle Inn, told the Journal that Mr Lennon had left the pub about 10.15pm on Sunday.

Mr Ellis said: "Mr Lennon was a regular here and always came on Sunday evenings with a couple of friends.

"He normally left about 10.15pm or so, usually with his friends, who gave him a lift home, but last Sunday he arrived with one friend who left early. Mr Lennon left on his own and he was fine when he left here. He was not a heavy drinker."