![Beatles fans stunned over Eleanor Rigby book in Liverpool]( "Beatles fans stunned over Eleanor Rigby book in Liverpool")
Beatles fans stunned over Eleanor Rigby book in Liverpool
by Angela Johnson
Published Mon 24 Nov 2008 13:34
Last updated: 24 Nov 2008
A school textbook bearing the signature of "Eleanor Rigby" has been unearthed in Liverpool.
The astonishing find comes as a page from a wages ledger bearing the name "E Rigby - scullerymaid " is going up for auction and expected to fetch more than £100,000.
The identity of the "E Rigby" on the salary ledger is unconfirmed but it is thought that the document it must have been sent to McCartney at some time by a well-wisher.
But research has shown that the identity of the Eleanor Rigby signature in the textbook is that of the person generally recognised as the inspiration for the Beatles song.
She is Eleanor Rigby Woods (Born Eleanor Rigby Whitfield), the wife of a railway foreman who was born in a cottage in Woolton, Liverpool, less than a mile from Paul Mc Cartney's childhood home.
A tombstone bearing the name "Eleanor Rigby" in St Peter's Church. Woolton, has been a place of pilgrimage for Beatles fans since it was identified the 1980s.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney met at a fete held at St Peter's Church and even sunbathed in the same churchyard which Lennon called the "bone orchard".
Beatles experts suggest the name was subliminally planted in McCartney's sub-conscious memory and inspired him when he wrote the 1966 hit "All the Lonely People".
In fact the full birth name of "Eleanor Rigby" was Eleanor Rigby Whitfield.
At the age of 35, in 1930, she married railway foreman Thomas Woods and became Eleanor Rigby Woods.
Eleanor's mother (Mary Elisabeth Rigby) married joiner Arthur Whitfield and Eleanor was christened "Eleanor Rigby Whitfield" apparently to continue the Rigby name.
Eleanor Rigby Whitfield married Thomas Woods on 28th December 1930 in Woolton, Liverpool.
And Eleanor's signature on the marriage certificate is an exact match of her signature in the Geography text book , which also bears the signature of her sister Hannah.
Experts are now expected to value Eleanor Rigby's textbook and it is thought that the battered volume could fetch many thousands of pounds if it were put up for auction.
But Alice Bennett, the woman who found it when she moved into Eleanor's old home in Vale Road, Woolton, is in no hurry to sell.
Instead she has put it in a bank vault for safe keeping.
She found the book "Gills Oxford and Cambridge Geography" mouldering in the former brick coal shed at the rear of the two-bedroomed terraced cottage.
University worker Miss Bennett said: "When I moved into the house, in 2003, my next-door neighbour told me that Eleanor Rigby used to live here.
"I thought he was joking and I often tell my friends the same thing but didn't really believe it was true until I saw the signature on Eleanor's marriage certificate.
"It came to light a couple of years ago when I was clearing out the junk from the old out-house in the back garden.
"I discovered the book on the ground amongst the mess and rubble.
"It is an old and worn geography book with the name "Eleanor R. Whitfield" signed on the first page.
"Inside the back cover there is the signature of Eleanor Rigby Whitfield and also Hannah Whitfield."
Further research carried out in Liverpool shows that Hannah Whitfield was Eleanor's younger half-sister who also attend Woolton High School, a name which is also written into the cover of the book.
Added Miss Bennett: "When I found it the thought crossed my mind that it could have belonged to Eleanor Rigby, but seeing the surname Whitfield I was not sure.
"I decided to keep the book safe rather than toss it away.
"So I filed carefully and I have only told a few of my friends about it up until now.
"I'm a huge Beatles fan, and I adore the lyrics to All the Lonely People.
"It's really wonderful to know that I have this unique piece of 'Eleanor Rigby' memorabilia.
"It's a little piece of history and I am not sure how much it might be worth but I don't want to sell it in any case.
"But after reading that Eleanor Rigby's signature is due to be sold for #500,000 getting this book valued and insured is a must.
"The thought of hoards of tourists and Beatles fans knocking on my door is nerve-wracking, I don't really want any publicity, but I'm very excited."
ELEANOR RIGBY'S FAMILY HISTORY
Eleanor Rigby Whitfield was born on 29th August 1895, the daughter of journeyman joiner Arthur Whitfield and Mary Elizabeth Whitfield (formerly Rigby).
Her place of birth was the family home of Mary Elizabeth's parents stonemason John Rigby and his wife Frances Rigby.
Eleanor's mother was clearly devoted to her grandfather and insisted her daughter take his surname as her second name.
That is why her name it appears as "Eleanor Rigby" on the family gravestone.
Eleanor's father died while she was still a child and shortly after Eleanor's 15th birthday, her mother remarried, a man named Richard Heatley.
That marriage produced Eleanor's two half-sisters, Edith and Hannah Heatley and Hannah's name is also written in the geography textbook unearthed in Liverpool.
Eleanor lived through the First World War and remained at the family home until she married railway foreman Thomas Woods, 17 years her senior, late in life for those days, aged 35.
It appears the marriage was childless and Eleanor Rigby Woods died on 10th October 1939 at the family home in Vale Road, Woolton, after she suffering a stroke.
She was buried "along with her name" in the family plot of the grandfather who had doted on her as a child, at St Peter's Church, Woolton .
Ironically her half-sisters Edith and Hannah Heatley were "lonely people" who lived alone yards from each other in Vale Road, Woolton.
They both died, childess and apparently unknown to any living blood relatives, in 2001, leaving their fortunes to Robert Donnellan, the husband of a family friend.
