`I call Derby `The Dead Center of England,’ ” says Richard Felix, founder and director of the Derby Heritage Centre. He is referring not only to the town’s geographical position, but to its asserted proclivity for, well, ghosts. Felix, a charismatic, dark-haired man of 40 or so, has torn loose from other duties in his busy history museum/art gallery/tea room to talk with me. He is a man with a mission: the promotion of Derby as a fascinating place to visit. And his particular fascination is with the “living-challenged” residents of Derby–the ones who haven’t figured out they’re dead yet.
“We have actually got more ghosts than York,” says Felix enthusiastically, referring to York’s reputation as a place of haunts. “They’ve got only 140 rumored sightings; we’ve got well in excess of 150 first-hand evidence sightings–that’s people we’ve talked to.”
But Derby is more than a ghost town; it’s also a town with charm and history–lots of it. Situated two hours north of London, just off the M-1 motorway, Derby (pronounced Darby) is a thriving suburban area of neat little shopping malls and red brick row houses built “after the War.” The city core reaches back before the time of Elizabeth I. Rolls Royce and the Royal Crown Derby Porcelain Co. are long-time residents, cranking out fine airplane engines and fine bone china. In the downtown area, narrow cobbled lanes wind past 200-year-old pubs and Thai food take-away shops, and encompass a Stone Age road built long before the Roman army established camp on the banks of the River Derwent.
Major events on the site include a scuffle between the Vikings and Princess Aethelflaed of Mercia, in which she lost three princes–and a battle that didn’t happen, which changed English history. In a 1745 bid to re-establish the Stuart line–and, incidentally, Roman Catholicism in England–Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a k a. Bonnie Prince Charlie, landed in Scotland from France, fought his way down to Derby and sent out skirmishing squads to secure his way across the river and thence to London. But a turncoat adviser persuaded the prince to delay–just long enough to allow the Duke of Cumberland to gather an opposing army. The unexpected opposition, together with a lack of Catholic support, convinced the prince to turn back, ending the rebellion.
The Derby Heritage Centre, in the middle of the historic downtown area, was a focal point during Bonnie Prince Charlie’s stay in Derby: he used it as garrison for his Scots troops. But the Heritage Centre had a colorful history long before that. The building, a long shell of weathered gray stone with blackened, sagging wooden ceiling beams, was chartered as Derby School by Mary Tudor and completed in 1560. It was owned by Anthony Babington (a Catholic squire who lost his head–literally–for plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I and place Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne), and then by Sir Walter Raleigh, who was Elizabeth I’s golden boy for a while but who also came to a messy end. Four years ago the building became the Heritage Centre. And times have been interesting ever since.
“You see that chair?” asks Derek Bell, a volunteer at the Heritage Centre. “At the center table on the right there?”
I do. It is a white plastic garden chair, out of place in this centuries-old beam-and-post building with tapestries on the rough stone walls. But the chair has been pressed into service in the tea room, alongside more formal wicker chairs and charming little tables with crisp fruit-patterned linens.
Derek Bell shakes a gnarled finger at the offending chair.
“About a month ago,” he says, “Richard and I walked in at 9 in the morning, taking off our coats and passing the day, as one does, and we watched the chair in that position move out across the gangway–very, very slowly. Completely of its own accord.”
I imagine the empty chair doing a skittering dance across the scarred oak plank floor. As a good skeptic, I know I should immediately brand my informant a kook. But Derek is a retired engineer, and his encyclopedic knowledge of local history and russet-and-silver beard give him an aura of trustworthiness. A chill begins strolling up my spine.
Er, really? I remark. Has he ever experienced anything else unusual?
“Oh, yes,” Derek says happily. “Most of the building is haunted.” He reels off the story of a tea-room helper who found the miniature creamers being “flicked about” one day by invisible hands. “We had security cameras put in a few months ago now. Of course, the servicemen put the cameras in overnight (to avoid disturbing the museumgoers). But they came downstairs about 3 in the morning and said to Richard that they weren’t going to carry on working any more.” He pauses dramatically. “They were being watched by a little boy in brown.”
Richard Felix grins at my expression and turns to a thick wooden board, leaned casually against a wall. “If you want a real tale, you see this is a fairly innocuous piece of board.” With that introduction, I am sure it’s not innocuous at all. And I’m right. The 6-foot-long board of split and blackened oak–complete with centuries of graffiti–is, in fact, the platform upon which the last half of the dreaded sentence of “drawing and quartering” was once carried out, right here in Derby. After being hanged, the subject was bound upon this board–often still alive–and disemboweled. “A lot of sensitives feel it and say it’s slimy,” says Derek.
So much historic and ghostly lore can hardly be absorbed in one museum visit. Accordingly, a couple of years ago Felix started his Ghost Walks. Four nights a week, he takes groups on walking tours of downtown Derby: through the dark tunnels under the old Guild Hall; into The George, a centuries-old pub where a skull was found in the basement (and where bar glasses occasionally shatter spontaneously in patron’s hands); into the dank cells of the Old Prison, built in 1756. So popular are the Ghost Walks that even at 10 pounds (about $16.50), the walks are booked solid four months in advance. Felix tries to squeeze in foreign visitors at short notice, but nothing can be guaranteed.
But of all the destinations on the Ghost Walk, Derby’s Old Prison has a special place in Felix’s heart. He mentions proudly that he located the prison’s execution pit during archeological excavations. Under Felix’s direction, a new exhibit and tour titled “The Hangman” will open on the site in 1998. The Old Prison is also the scene of some of the more interesting ghost sightings.
Felix says that, during a Ghost Walk about three weeks before, four women suddenly bolted from a cell of the Old Prison. “And I thought, `What the devil?’ For I was talking when they went. And I actually cut my talk short, for it upset me–I thought they were being rude. But I went outside, and one woman’s got tears running down her cheeks, for they were really frightened. Anyway, one woman came to me and said, `That incident in the prison–it was set up, wasn’t it? That man . . .?’ “
When Felix asked what the man looked like, the woman gave the same description that had been given at four previous sightings in the same place: “Bald, thick-set, the most evil eyes. She thought he was part of the show, for we do things, you see, to make people jump. But he bloody wasn’t.”
Still, don’t count on that much excitement during the usual Ghost Walk. As Felix says, “I don’t see things on the tour. And I always tell them at the start, don’t expect too much. Ghosts don’t favor an audience.” And yet, who knows what one might find on the right night in the Dead Center of England? For although ghosts in general may be reclusive creatures, the ghosts of Derby are not quite as shy as some.
IN AND AROUND DERBY
Centre basics: The Derby Heritage Centre museum and tea shop is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; admission is free. Volunteers also help with genealogical searches. Call 011-44-1332-299321.
Ghost Walks are held Monday-Thursday evenings (except Christmas, Boxing Day and bank holidays); reservations recommended; about $16.50.
“The Hangman” exhibition and tour of Derby Old Prison is scheduled to open in 1998; call for times.
Derby Heritage Centre, Old Tudor Hall, St. Peter’s Churchyard, Derby DE1 2NN, England; same phone as above.
Other attractions:
– Royal Crown Derby Porcelain Co., Ltd., on Osmaston Road, has a museum open from 10 a.m.-noon and 2-4 p.m. Mondays-Fridays; free admission. Factory tours conducted by appointment. The factory shop is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays-Fridays; lots of seconds, some discounted lines, a wide selection of figurines.
– Derby Industrial Museum, on Silk Mill Lane (directly behind the cathedral), has a fine collection of Rolls Royce airplane engines and other memorabilia, a walk-through history of Rolls Royce and collections relating to the Industrial Revolution. Located on the site of the first factory in England, a 1770 silk mill.
– Derby Museum & Art Gallery, on the Strand, has frequently changing exhibitions.
– Chatsworth House & Gardens, in Derbyshire, is a fine example of the stately houses of England. Large art and furniture collection; magnificent 100-acre garden; 1,000-acre park landscaped by Capability Brown, on the banks of the River Derwent. Home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Open daily from Easter through Oct. 31.
General information: Derby Tourist Information Centre, Assembly Rooms, Market Place, Derby DE1 3AH, England; 011-44-1332-255802; Web site, www.derbycity.com; e-mail, derby.tourism@derby-city-council.gov.uk
