Cornmarket - Ghostly Greetings

(Written By Milly Wong)

It has never ceased to amaze me that whenever I walk across the junction of St Peter's Street and the Cornmarket with a friend or relative, they are surprised when I tell them that they are walking across the site of Derby's first county gaol that was flooded by the Markeaton Brook in 1610, resulting in the slow and agonising drowning of three prisoners that were trapped in their cell.

There have been many stories shared by Derby residents over the years that claim to have heard the chilling cries of several men pleading for help at that junction during ungodly hours when there was nobody else around.

It then came as no surprise to me when a young lady that used to work at Clinton Cards, just yards from the site of the 1610 gaol flooding, wrote to me about an abundance of ghostly experiences reported in the building.

She told me that when she started employment at Clinton Cards she had been warned about the resident ghost that had been christened 'Freddie' by the other employees.

She thought her colleagues were playing around with her until the day finally came that she had no choice but to use room that Freddy was said to reside in. She claims that while she was working alone one day she came back to a box of items she'd left earlier to find the contents strewn across the room.

More disturbingly, she recalls sitting in the staff room one day when she heard a terrifying noise. It became louder and louder and it moved around the room. She claims that it could only be described as a wailing or moaning sound.

When the young lady fled the room to find her colleagues on the shop floor, she was told that what she had experienced was Freddy expressing his anger at having been disturbed earlier. From then on she refused to sit in the staff room alone and she eventually resigned from her job.

Could Clinton Cards possibly be haunted by the spirits of the prisoners that perished in the flood at Derby's first County Gaol? Who knows? But one thing is for sure... stay away from the store room or Freddy won't be pleased!

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The Cornmarket/St Peter's Street Junction

Clinton Cards can be found situated just 2 doors away from the junction