Madam Pigott

Madam Pigott (also spelled Piggott) is a ghost said to haunt Chetwynd Park and the nearby town of Newport in Shropshire. Her legend closely resembles that of other White Ladies found in British folklore.

The story begins with the Pigott family, once residents of the Chetwynd Park estate. Squire Pigott, the head of the household, was known to be cold and indifferent toward his wife. When Madam Pigott became pregnant, her labor proved difficult. The attending doctor told the squire that he could only save either the mother or the child, not both. The squire’s response—"one should lop the root to save the branch"—suggested a preference for the baby’s life. In the end, both mother and child died.

Unable to rest, Madam Pigott’s spirit returned. Every night at midnight, she was seen emerging from a skylight at the Old Rectory in Chetwynd. She became associated with several local landmarks, such as Cheney Hill—later called Madam Pigott’s Hill—and a twisted tree root known as Madam Pigott’s Armchair. Her ghost was said to wander between Edgmond and Newport, sometimes combing her child’s hair or leaping onto the backs of passing horsemen. However, she could not cross running water, and would vanish if a rider passed over a stream.

Her presence caused such fear that twelve clergymen gathered to exorcise her by reading Psalms. Eleven eventually gave up from exhaustion, but one—Mr. Foy of Edgmond—persisted and succeeded in banishing her. Still, her spirit returned years after Foy’s death and had to be laid to rest once more.

The folklorist Georgina Frederica Jackson documented the tale in the 19th century, noting that a local informant in 1883 claimed to have seen the ghost himself. Sightings have continued well into modern times, including a report from 2014 placing her near the A41 between Newport and Market Drayton.

A Romani variant of the legend offers a different origin: in this version, Miss Pigott died after being thrown from a horse at Chetwynd End. Her spirit was initially trapped in a bottle and cast into Chetwynd Pool. After a skating accident, the bottle broke, releasing her ghost once again. Like the local tradition, this version describes a group of twelve priests who attempted to banish her, finally succeeding after much effort.

Madam Pigott shares characteristics with other White Ladies in British ghost lore, such as the Silky of Black Heddon. Silky was known to haunt remote roads, leap onto horses, and linger near a favored tree called Silky’s Chair—echoing Madam Pigott’s spectral habits.