Derby Gaol and Vernon Gate Prison
Derby Gaol was not a prison but a Georgian Gaol. More like being on remand you were only kept here until the trial. Then either whipped at the carts tail till your back is bloody, branded with a letter T for thief, transported or hanged.
When it opened in 1756 there was no segregation between old or young, male or female, tried or untried, sane or insane. You would be murdered for the coat off your back.
It was a place of terror, torment, pain, anguish, torture, execution, suicide and death. 56 people were hanged from this Gaol. The inmates of this jail were terrified of ghosts while they were in there. Proof of this are the number of witch marks scratched on the doors of their cells, to stop evil spirits (ghosts) from coming in.
In 1820 the Gaol was bursting at the seams and there were six prisoners in each cell for 23 hours a day with a bucket.
A new county prison was built eight minutes walk away. Still preserved is the wall of this prison with the dead room and execution room and a very haunted Martello tower with Stone spiral staircase leading to the top.
Due to the huge amount of death, torment, anguish and terror, the old gaol is said to be very haunted. The paranormal activity at the gaol seems to most frequently occur in June and July, and again between October and December. It ranges from doors opening and closing by themselves, through to full-bodied apparitions. The jail is said to be plagued by unexplained sounds including clicking, dragging, scraping and heavy bolts sliding across doors. In the debtors' cell the sound of something turning over on the straw bed has been heard, and misty shapes and streaks of lights have been seen.
Throughout the jail dark shadowy figures have been seen, including by the property's owner, a paranormal historian (a good one at that, might I add)! Despite guiding the public on ghost walks for many years, he had never seen a ghost until he took over the old gaol. He had his encounter one Friday afternoon while it was still daylight outside. While on a telephone call. He saw a grey figure standing at the counter of the ticket office, but promptly vanished never to show itself to him again.
Similar figures have been seen on many occasions. One visitors reported seeing two dead men hanging from a beam inside the cell. Another said he saw a figure hanging, suspended just above the ground and swinging slightly. Could these be the ghosts of two prisoners, he Jones brothers, who hanged themselves in the condemned cell the night before their execution?
Other guests have had strange experiences in the condemned cell , including the sensation of feeling sick, and discomfort in the throat or the feeling of being suffocated or strangled.
Perhaps the creepiest experience occurred in the the prisoners' day room, which is now a seating and table area with a cozy fireplace. The face of a dead person is said to have appeared over the face of a guest while thy were sat in the room.
