The Spine Chilling Murder at Derby's Market Hall and Lock up Yard

An eerie tale ofc murder, police chases and a ghost that still haunts the Derby Market Hall and Lock up Yard.

Derby Market Hall (also known as The Guildhall) has a youngish ghoul. That's right a ghoul that's over 170 years old (172 years old to be precise) This was all because of a night of drunkenness, murder and justice.

The events of that fateful night begin with a police chase after a 23 year old called Gerald Mainwaring and Annie Green decided to drink heavily at the Royal Hotel on Victoria Street.

The young couple proceeded to then raucously drive through the streets of Derby in a horse drawn carriage, which then led to a furious batch of police officers trailing after the drunken pair through Derby's streets.

They finally stopped the chase to get some more refreshments (the perpetrators did not the police). However stopping meant that the police could catchup with the two joyriders and took them down to the station. However, in the 1800s the police would not search the people until they were back at the station.

This meant that the huge mistake the officers had done would lead to some ghostly events. Annie Green was furious that they had both been caught and arrested. She tried to escape, so, they restrained her and this led to Gerald being infuriated and eventually producing a revolver and he shot 5 shots into officers.

The fatal error of not searching them beforehand led to the death of the youngest officer in the room. 26 year old PC Joseph Moss. Whilst their were 2 other injuries from that night, 2 other police officers recovered fully, however, PC Moss died a day later from his injury.

The murder trial took place a week after the murder and the jury was sympathetic to Gerald, leading to a hung jury. The court therefore decided to flip a coin to decide whether to hang him or imprison him. The coin was flipped and he was sentenced to death by hanging. However, when a report from the Derby Telegraph reached the Home Secretary they forced the sentence to be imprisoned for life.

However, this is where our ghost comes in. As for when the debts for the dead are left unsettled, they will come back to haunt the living. So since that day of murder, PC Moss still walks the Lock up Yard and the newly refurbished Market Hall to this very day.