Welcome To Derby Ghost
Capital Of England --Ye Olde Dolphin Inn
Ye
Olde Dolphin Inn
Ye
Olde Dolphin Inn
This is Derby's oldest public house, dating back to around 1530.
Of course, due to its great antiquity, it has various ghosts associated
with it including a blue lady who walks through the old lath and
plaster walls. She has been seen by many customers in the pub and also
in the tea rooms upstairs. The most intriguing part of the Dolphin is
its 18th-century extension on the left-hand side of the building in
Full Street. This was not always part of the Dolphin, being originally
a doctor's house.
In the 18th century, it was customary for doctors to have bodies
delivered to their homes for the furtherance of medical science. Part
of the sentence of execution in those days was that afterwards, the
body of the criminal would be delivered to 'ye surgeons' for
dissection'. Many condemned prisoners were more in fear of the
dissection then the death sentence.
Before the introduction of the new drop, around 1760, the victim was
delivered to the hangman on a cart. The executioner then placed the
halter around the victim's neck and the cart was driven away, leaving
the condemned man swinging. it could take anything up to 20 minutes for
the person to die of slow strangulation from the weight of their own
body, unless, of course, the executioner happened to be feeling
particularly generous, in which case he would climb to the top of the
scaffold or tree and put both feet on the hanging person's shoulders
and push down, or with his assistant, take a leg each - and this is
where the saying 'pull the other leg' comes from - and pull down, thus
tightening the rope around the neck and hastening the end.
Because of the length of time it sometimes took for the accused to die,
some who were hanged and then delivered to the surgeons in the
Shirehall in St Mary's Gate, woke up on the dissecting slab.
These poor wretches would be taken off and placed in a corner where a
careful eye was kept upon them to see if they would later die or
recover A particular incident of this kind apparently happened in the
cellar under the doctor's house, which is now part of the Dolphin.
One morning, so we are led to believe, our doctor came eagerly down
into the cellar after a body had been delivered. He pulled the body on
to a table and ripped the shroud from it, only to find life still
present. No one knows what happened - whether the doctor died from
shock; whether the person died; or the doctor in fact plunged his
scalpel into the body; or even if the person recovered - but many
bodies were dissected in that cellar under the Dolphin, and to this day
it is haunted by a poltergeist which turns the taps of the beer kegs
off in that part of the cellar.
Because of the unearthly atmosphere, two members of staff normally go
down together, as no one wishes to venture there alone.
Ye
Olde Dolphin Inn