The George and Dragon on Church Street is Wilmslow’s oldest pub, built around 1770 and Grade II listed. It stands next to St Bartholomew’s Church, with which it is said to be connected by an underground passage, one of four tunnels said to run beneath the building. Local tradition also holds that a gallows once stood behind the pub, and that bodies were carried through the tunnel to the church for burial.
In April 1971, barman Cliff Hatch fled the cellar after turning to find a white-shrouded figure towering above him before passing clean through him. Landlords Albert and Margaret Taylor, who had experienced doors and windows moving and unexplained footsteps on the upper floors, believed him. Mrs Taylor offered a cheerful explanation: a friendly priest, perhaps, making use of the old passage.
The Taylors left in 1976, but the activity apparently did not. When the next landlord arrived in 1977, he was told the poltergeist came with the premises. In August 1999, two eighteen-year-old members of staff filmed what they later described as a bald-headed figure in the kitchen on a video camera after closing time. The bar manager, who had been woken up to watch the footage, remained sceptical. “The locals say the pub is haunted,” he said, “but I think it’s the locals that haunt the pub.” The George and Dragon closed in 1999 and is now offices.
