Derby, England

This is right next to the Heritage Center, and was the first stop on our Ghost Tour of Derby. We were told that the pavement we were standing on covered many graves of plague victims. The plague hit Derby with a vengeance in 1349. Approximately one third of the population of the city succumbed. Almost every house had a red cross painted on the door, and the corpse carts were a common sight, announcing their arrival with the famous cry, "Bring out your dead!"
Fear of the plague was such that it often caused people who were unconscious to be cast ontp the cart along with the dead victims. This same fear prompted hurried burials, often in mass graves. There are reports from the time of the plague of people digging themselves out of shallow graves, pushing up lids of coffins and climbing out, and even of passers-by who saw ravaged hands sticking up out of the dirt of the cemetery. A disconcerting sight, to say the least.
With so many people dying so quickly, the cemeteries were filling up. First, the town began burying the dead vertically to conserve space. When that space was exhausted the town buried the plague victims at the boundaries of the town. One of these places is still called Deadman's Lane, off London Road.
Amazingly, the cemetery and burial grounds are not haunted by these unfortunate victims of plague, but there have been reports over the years of a vampire! He was first encountered at the end of Ascot Drive, and surrounded by the stench of rotten fruit. How this witness knew it was a vampire is not known, but reports have persisted of a vampire "haunting" the burial grounds of Derby.
This vampire tale may have its origins in the "living dead" plague victims, who rose from their coffins after being buried prematurely. I was reminded of the Mercy Brown case in Rhode Island. (More info. coming...)