Charlotte Burne records a village tradition, which she says has no genealogical support, that one of the Madam Pigotts of Chetwynd was an unloved wife. When her baby was born her husband showed no concern for her, and told that she was in danger said "one should lop the root to save the branch". Neither mother nor child survived.
Her spirit was then said to leave a trap-door in the roof of the old Chetwynd Rectory at midnight and wander through the park and lanes towards Edgmond, turning over a large boulder as she passed. Her favourite spot was Cheney Hill, also called Madam Pigott's Hill, where a twisted tree root was known as her Armchair. There she combed her baby's hair on moonlit nights, and if a belated rider passed, she and a black cat would spring up behind him until a running water stopped them.
Twelve neighbouring clergy were called to lay her by reading psalms, and the curate of Edgmond, Mr Foy, who died in 1816, was credited with succeeding. Even so, ten or twelve years after his death a party went for a rector when a fresh alarm arose. Gypsies told Frank Groome a version in which she was a Miss Pigott thrown from her horse, and it was laid in Chetwynd Pool.
An old woman at Eccleshall told Burne she had seen a pale figure in the garden at Chetwynd as a child in the early 19th century. The pin is approximate, between Chetwynd and Edgmond. Cheney Hill is also mentioned in other Shropshire folklore.
Comments