Stilton and Scrumpy Bread (Leopard Bread)

3 cups of plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
12 fluid ounces of cider
1 handful of chopped Stilton
1/2 handful of chopped parsley

Stir the flour, salt & baking powder together. Stir in the cider, cheese & parsley. Shape into any style loaf you like. Bake at 375f for 30 – 40 minutes until golden brown or the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

by Neil Crisp
(this tasty bread is also available at the Leopard, ready-made)

Are these the ghosts living in the Leopard?

Any landlord would be pleased to know their pub is packed with loyal customers – unless they’re the sort that don’t pay...

The Phoenix Centre Paranormal Investigation Team thinks it may have found over twenty-three individual spirits in the Leopard pub following a creepy night-time investigation.

The rooms of the pub – which dates back to the 1760s and was a major stop-off point for coach travellers – were crammed with old customers, members of staff and visitors to the pub.

Landlord Neil Crisp said: “They said there were a lot of ex-customers and members of staff who weren’t trapped here, they just wanted to stay”.

However, there was a darker side as the team thought they found a place in the cellars where orphans or street children had been trapped and perhaps ‘used’ for some purpose. The report says: “The feeling of orphans was very strong with a few team members. Abbey felt these were ‘street children’ who would have slept in the tunnels and the ones trapped here would have been caught because they wandered too close to the tunnels”. Burslem has a large network of tunnels originally built for the upper classes to move between buildings without having to go onto the street level.
“It was agreed that the group would take time to help these children cross over and, under the guidance of [team leader] Kendra Pinder this was done... afterwards everyone stated they felt the whole mood and atmosphere of the place had changed”.
The team are now investigating how much of it, including fires, hangings and incarcerations, could have grounding in history.

Customers have long reported ghosts in the Leopard, particularly in the men’s toilets in the cellar and the sound of a chambermaid running around upstairs. The investigation team may have pinpointed a ‘controlling man’ who didn’t like anybody else to be in the cellar and a chambermaid called Mary Ann Gray.