Ye Olde Dolphin Inn
his 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.
n 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.
efore 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.
ecause 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
Shire
Hall in St Mary's Gate, woke up on the
dissecting slab.
hese 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.
ne 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.
ecause of the unearthly
atmosphere, two members of staff
normally go down together, as no one
wishes to venture there alone.
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The information on this page is supplied courtesy of Wayne Anthony (author) and Richard Felix (local historian).
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