Two sites in Derby preserve the history of the city’s penal past, each telling a different chapter of punishment, execution, and imprisonment stretching back several centuries. The better-known of the two is the Friar Gate Gaol, whose original cells survive and are open to visitors. Authorised by the Derby Gaol Act 1756, the gaol operated on Friar Gate from 1756 to 1846 and was the scene of numerous hangings. The small attraction today displays reproduction newspaper accounts of executions on its walls, and a replica of a gallows – which once stood in front of the building – can be found in the gaol’s modest garden. A modern kitchen and bar have been added to the site alongside the historic cells.
Vernon Street Prison and its history
A short distance away, the frontage of the Vernon Street Prison still stands on Vernon Street, though the building behind it has been redeveloped for commercial use. The prison operated as the county gaol from 1843 to 1919, then served as a military prison until 1929 before being decommissioned. After demolition, the site became Derby Greyhound Stadium before eventually being converted to offices. The last public execution in Derby took place here in 1862, when Richard Thorley was hanged for the murder of Eliza Morrow. The last person to be hanged at the prison was William Slack on 16 July 1907, convicted of the murder of Lucy Wilson.
Notable prisoners and earlier gaols
Before either of these sites existed, Derby’s Cornmarket Gaol – no longer standing – held George Fox in 1652 on charges of blasphemy. Fox went on to found the Religious Society of Friends, widely known as the Quakers. It has been claimed that a Derby judge, Judge Bennett, was the first to apply the term “Quaker” to the movement, supposedly because Fox urged him to “quake for fear of the Lord”, though the word had already appeared in connection with other religious groups, making that origin uncertain. Among the notable prisoners held in Derby’s gaols were Jeremiah Brandreth, imprisoned for high treason, and Humphrey Berisford, a recusant.