Madam Pigott

 

Shropshire and Newport in particular are no strangers to tales of the weird and paranormal. One of those stories that are told is that of Madam Piggott the white lady of Newport. 

The story of poor lady Pigott is told thus. The young Lady met and married squire Pigott of Chetwynd Park. However from the start things were not happy for the newlywed Lady Pigott her husband only wanted a son from her so whenever he could he would dissappear to London for days or weeks at a time to find fun elsewhere with others. Over time Lady Pigott became angry, bitter and resentful of her husband and by the time she became pregnant she was very ill and weak. She had a very difficult pregnancy during which she heard a matter of fact conversation between the physician and the husband where the husband was told that he would only be able to save one of them not both. Without a second thought the husband chose his unborn child. Hearing the callousness with which her husband made this decision with her dying breath she cursed him and then both her and her child died (clearly the physician was overly confident in his abilities, as he saved neither of them).

After this the spirit of  Madam Piggotts pale phantome was seen in multiple locations by multiple witnesses often in and around the grounds of the old Rectory at Chetwynd on moonlit nights holding a tightly wrapped infant and making an awful wailing noise. People have also claimed that she has jumped on the saddle with horse riders and tried to throw them off. She became more and more aggressive and bothersome until it was decided that twelve churchmen would try and banish her forever. This was much harder said than done and after many a long hour only one churchman a Mr Foy was left standing the others giving up through exhaustion. Although not completely successful Mr Foy was able to shrink the menacing spirit down small enough to be captured in a bottle (much like the djinn or demons have been trapped). The bottle was disposed of in to Chetwynd pool and hoped to have never been seen again and for a time all was quiet.

Some time after the death of Mr Foy there was a very cold winter where Chetwynd pool froze and a child skating there broke the ice and happen to spot the bottle. Intrigued they opened the bottle releasing an even more furious spirit to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting towns people. Although details are thin on the ground Madam Pigott was captured again and not wanting to make the same mistake was buried in Newport cemetery where she was never seen or heard of again........................

 .............or was she?

Recent accounts have seen the spirit switch horse saddles for passanger seats in cars where witnesses have claimed she has appeared next to them while driving on the A41 to Drayton. A witness also reported seeing a strange creature or phantom while walking home along the same road early one morning. The frightening witnesses sprinted all the way home terrified of what would happen if this 'thing' caught up to them.

The last investigation in to this legend ended in an uneventful all night vigil where exactly nothing was seen or heard.

This has all the hallmarks of a classic 'white lady' sighting. Some might say the story is even generic but who knows most legends have some grain of truth to them.

Maybe if you find yourself travelling alone on the A41 on the way to Drayton on a moonlit night you might look to your empty passenger seat and find you're not that alone after all. 

You can read more about Madam Pigott here, here and here.

Until next time

Stay safe

Thanks for reading.

RTI