Cornmarket - The Pizza Poltergeist at Lockup Yard

(Written By Milly Wong)

On the fateful night of June 13th 1879, PC Joseph Moss, aged just 26, was shot and fatally wounded whilst booking in a prisoner at the police station on Lock Up Yard. His young life was taken by the so-called son of a gentleman, Gerald Mannering, who had been on a drinking spree and had fired off a loaded pistol in a drunken frenzy.

Mannering miraculously escaped the death penalty, which many believe to be the reason behind the negative energy that remains in Lockup Yard to this day.

Nowadays, Lockup Yard is home to Derby's famous Fish Market. Over the years, many workers at the market have reported apparitions of a 'Victorian policeman' watching them as well as the sound of 'patrolling footsteps' when nobody else was around.

There has also been a report from a young lady who worked at the Deep Pan Pizza restaurant, which is located next to the fish market on Lockup Yard. She worked at the restaurant during the 1990s, claiming to have experienced what can only be described as terrifying.

Staff would often arrive at work in the mornings to find pizza boxes strewn across the kitchen and heavy sacks of flour moved from their original positions. The hot water taps would mysteriously turn themselves on and off, pictures would regularly fall from the walls and staff would occasionally hear the sound of a lift moving up and down in the empty lift shaft.

The young lady also reported that on one occasion, a stranger visited the restaurant with her family and asked, "Do you still have your poltergeist?" Apparently, the lady had worked at the same premises some 20 years previously when the building was used as tearooms.

The cells still exist in the cellar of the building. Maybe these are the cells that used to lead to the labyrinth of the Guildhall Catacombs where many prisoners would have made their dark journey to the courts to be sentenced, and then trudged back to the lock-up to be executed, transported, or imprisoned.

Whether the restaurant is haunted by the spirits of prisoners that once awaited execution or the spirit of PC Moss, forever in search of justice for his untimely death, just be aware that next time you visit Deep Pan Pizza on Lockup Yard, you might just experience more than the ham and pepperoni you bargained for.

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The entrance to Lockup Yard