McCartney Times

The deeds for Eleanor Rigby’s grave-space will go under the hammer at a Beatles memorabilia auction in Warrington next month. The deeds will be sold alongside a miniature bible dated to 1899 with the name Eleanor Rigby inside the front cover. The items are likely to sell for between £2,000 and £4,000. Also on sale will be the original score sheet for the song. The 51-year-old score sheet for the #Paul McCartney penned song was handwritten by producer George Martin and indicates that the music should include four violins, two violas, and two cellos.The inspiration for Paul McCartney’s famous character. Since the release of The Beatles single ‘Eleanor Rigby’, a double A-side with ‘Yellow Submarine’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby”s parent album ‘Revolver’ on the 5th August 1966, Paul McCartney has often been asked, “Who was Eleanor Rigby?” McCartney always maintained that it was simply a name that came to him and fitted with the song.However, it was later pointed out to McCartney that there is a grave inscribed with the name in the graveyard of St. Peter’s Church in Woolton, Liverpool. St. Peter’s Church was the site of the first meeting of McCartney and John Lennon at the Woolton Village Fete on 6th July 1957. McCartney conceded that he may have been subconsciously influenced by the name on the gravestone.However, Paul McCartney has also stated that the name “Eleanor” was taken from the actress Eleanor Bron, who starred in The Beatles’ 1965 film ‘Help!’, whilst “Rigby” derived from the name of a shop in Bristol named ‘Rigby & Evens Ltd, Wine & Spirit Shippers”, which he noticed whilst in the city to see his girlfriend at the time, Jane Asher, performing in the play ‘The Happiest Days of Our Lives’. In 1984, McCartney said, “I just liked the name.I was looking for a name that sounded natural. Eleanor Rigby sounded natural.”The latest of many Eleanor Rigby related items to be sold at auctionSo strong is the fascination with who Eleanor Rigby actually was that the grave deeds and a miniature bible, as well as #George Martin’s original score sheet, are just the latest in a long line of items relating to the character to be sold at auction. In November 2008, a 1911 salary register from Liverpool City Hospital containing the details of an ‘E. Rigby’, a 14-year-old scullery maid, sold for £150,000. On this occasion, Paul McCartney responded to the sale, telling the BBC, “Eleanor Rigby is a totally fictitious character that I made up. If somebody wants to spend money buying a document to prove a fictitious character exists, that’s fine with me.”Whether the Eleanor Rigby who was laid to rest in the grave in St. Peter’s church on 18th October 1939 was the inspiration for the song or not, the lucky buyer of the grave space will be granted 99 years worth of burial.Once these rights have expired, they must be purchased again before anybody else is buried there. According to UK law, human remains can only be disturbed after 75 years of their burial. Given that the last person to be buried in the grave was in 1949, whoever buys the grave deeds can be legally buried there in seven years time.

Source: Eleanor Rigby’s grave deeds to be sold at Beatles auction