Do you remember that Beatles song with the line "Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name, nobody came"?
A rather depressing song I think and not one that we had grown to get used to from the Beatles.
I have often wondered who Eleanor Rigby really was, if indeed she was a real person at all, or was she just somebody whose name was plucked out of mid air.
Well, I was playing some gigs recently in Liverpool, and although my evenings were busy, the rest of the day was free and so I decided to use my spare time to do some research into this and to try and find out if there really was an Eleanor Rigby.
I looked up a few points of reference in the local library, donned my Sherlock Holmes hat, and set off for a suburb of Liverpool known as Woolton.
A visit to the local church will take you through the church graveyard, and there one of the tombstones or headstones caught my eye.
What did I find there? A headstone dedicated to the memory of.....Eleanor Rigby.
So, having found this fascinating tombstone I then wondered if any of the Beatles might possibly have lived nearby. And guess what, John Lennon used to live as a child in Menlove Avenue, which is quite close to the church.
So I reflected for a moment about when I was a young boy. Odd as it might seem, one of the things that I and my friends used to do is to play games in our local churchyard, untill we were chased away.
Therefore it is not unreasonable to assume that John Lennon also probably often went into this churchyard, and would have seen the headstone dedicated to Eleanor Rigby.
Now unfortunately I only had a couple of days in Liverpool so I was not able to dig any deeper into this, but I intend to return soon and continue my research.
I want to spend some time going through the church records, and I would like to see what I can find out about the other people mentioned on Eleanor,s headstone.
If you are interested in this, and want to be kept updated on my findings then this is the best thing to do. Click on the link at the bottom of the page. This will take you to another page, and near the bottom you will find my email address. Just send me a little note asking to be kept updated, and I will do so whenever I have something new to share with you. - 15478
A rather depressing song I think and not one that we had grown to get used to from the Beatles.
I have often wondered who Eleanor Rigby really was, if indeed she was a real person at all, or was she just somebody whose name was plucked out of mid air.
Well, I was playing some gigs recently in Liverpool, and although my evenings were busy, the rest of the day was free and so I decided to use my spare time to do some research into this and to try and find out if there really was an Eleanor Rigby.
I looked up a few points of reference in the local library, donned my Sherlock Holmes hat, and set off for a suburb of Liverpool known as Woolton.
A visit to the local church will take you through the church graveyard, and there one of the tombstones or headstones caught my eye.
What did I find there? A headstone dedicated to the memory of.....Eleanor Rigby.
So, having found this fascinating tombstone I then wondered if any of the Beatles might possibly have lived nearby. And guess what, John Lennon used to live as a child in Menlove Avenue, which is quite close to the church.
So I reflected for a moment about when I was a young boy. Odd as it might seem, one of the things that I and my friends used to do is to play games in our local churchyard, untill we were chased away.
Therefore it is not unreasonable to assume that John Lennon also probably often went into this churchyard, and would have seen the headstone dedicated to Eleanor Rigby.
Now unfortunately I only had a couple of days in Liverpool so I was not able to dig any deeper into this, but I intend to return soon and continue my research.
I want to spend some time going through the church records, and I would like to see what I can find out about the other people mentioned on Eleanor,s headstone.
If you are interested in this, and want to be kept updated on my findings then this is the best thing to do. Click on the link at the bottom of the page. This will take you to another page, and near the bottom you will find my email address. Just send me a little note asking to be kept updated, and I will do so whenever I have something new to share with you. - 15478
