The Hauntingly Excellent Range
Hannah Bocking
Aged 16 when she was executed, Hannah Bocking is the youngest recorded person to be executed in Derby. She received the death sentence for poisoning another girl of a similar age - Jane Grant.
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The motive for murder was jealousy after Jane been given a job that Hannah had wanted. Hannah herself had been unsuccessful in getting the job due to her "unamiable temper and disposition".
Ten weeks prior to the murder, Hannah had purchased arsenic under the guise of needing it to poison rats, but her plan all along was to befriend Jane and murder her.
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This aim was realised when she gave Jane a slice of poisoned spice cake whilst they were out on a walk together, but although Jane died, it was not before she managed to implicate Hannah.
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Hannah's ghost is said to haunt the surviving parts of Derby's second County Gaol.
Related places to visit in Derby
LOCATION: Derby Gaol, 50 Friar Gate, Derby, DE1 1DF
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CONNECTION: Opened in 1756, the Gaol on Friar Gate was Derby's second County Gaol and it was here that Hannah was held. Once her sentence has been passed her execution took place outside the County Gaol on Friar Gate itself. On the day of her execution she was spotted saying prayers in the Gaol Chapel by another prisoner called Thomas Hopkinson. The site of this brought the previously stoic Thomas to uncontrollable tears.
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DIRECTIONS: Click Here.
LOCATION: Magistrates Court, 27 St Mary's Gate, Derby DE1 3JR
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CONNECTION: Opened in 1660 in Derby, this building was the location where Hannah's trial took place and where her death sentence was passed. It was also the location of the trial of Jeremiah Brandreth, Isaac Ludlam and William Turner in 1817 for their part in the Pentrich Uprising - the last attempt at armed revolution to occur in this country. All three of them were sentenced to death and were ultimately hanged until dead and then beheaded.
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DIRECTIONS: Click Here.
Derby History Walks
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Come and join us for a 90-minute walk full of revelations, curses, deaths, superstitions, evil doers and much more!!
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VARIOUS DATES
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5.30pm to 7.00pm - walk commences from the Derby Uncovered Heritage Centre at 11 Sadler Gate, Derby.
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Tickets are £10 per person.
Learn all about Derby's most notorious murders and murderers on Derby's murder walk - not for the faint-hearted!!
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VARIOUS DATES
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5.30pm to 7.00pm - walk commences from the Derby Uncovered Heritage Centre at 11 Sadler Gate, Derby.
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Tickets are £10 per person.
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True, but weird, Derby history including frogs falling from the skies, ghouls roaming the town, historic hot dogs, mummified cats & more.
VARIOUS DATES
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5.30pm to 7.00pm - walk commences from the Derby Uncovered Heritage Centre at 11 Sadler Gate, Derby.
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Tickets are £10 per person.
A walk full of tortured spirits who met a grisly end including both the murderers and their victims
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VARIOUS DATES
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5.30pm to 7.00pm - walk commences from the Derby Uncovered Heritage Centre at 11 Sadler Gate, Derby.
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Tickets are £10 per person.
