St. Bartholomew’s Parish Church, Wilmslow

In 1971, two curates at St Bartholomew’s Church in Wilmslow, Rev. Derek Lowe and Rev. Bruce Peel, heard the heavy church door open and close after evensong, followed by footsteps along the aisle and the creak of a pew as if someone had sat down. When they went to greet the visitor, the church was empty. The incident followed a report from the neighbouring George and Dragon Hotel, where a barman saw a white-shrouded figure in the cellar. A priest hole is said to run between the 12th-century church and the hotel, and a former verger also claimed to have…