Restored grave of Elizabeth Pigot, early friend and mentor of poet Lord Byron, unveiled and blessed at Southwell Minster

After years spent illegible and forgotten, the grave of a close friend of Lord Byron — who was key to the publication of his first poetry — has been restored to its former glory.

Elizabeth Pigot (1783 - 1866) was close friends with the famed poet during his teenage years living at Burgage Manor in Southwell, between 1803 and 1808, but until recently her grave had been lost to the elements.

The pair struck up a friendship in July 1804, when Elizabeth, who lived opposite the manor, was 21 and Byron 16 years old. He was known to slip out of a front window to visit without his mother knowing, but despite his affairs with many others in the town their relationship was always platonic.

Elizabeth was described as being like an ‘older sister’ to him, with an inscription in a book of poetry gifted to her in 1806 by Byron reading ‘L’amitie est l’amour sans ailes’ — ‘friendship is love without wings’.

While often overlooked in Byron’s story, Elizabeth is considered to be the first in a series of intelligent women — including Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, Lady Byron, and Teresa Guiccioli — who managed Byron’s poetic output, and was pivotal in encouraging him to publish his first collections of poetry.

Her gravestone is to the south side of Southwell Minster, and thanks to sponsorship from Byron expert and author, Geoffrey Bond, has now been restored by D and M Masons Ltd to make it easily located and legible to visitors.

Mr Bond said: “Elizabeth really was vital in encouraging the young Lord Byron to write — she was involved in the genesis of his poems.

“She also encouraged him, with [her uncle] the Reverend John Thomas Becher, to get his poetry published in Newark.”

To mark the restoration, the Interim Dean of Southwell Minster, the Reverend Canon Dr Neil Evans, conducted a short blessing ceremony on Tuesday (November 4) in the grounds of the cathedral.

Attended by Mr Bond, his wife Dianora Bond, stonemasons Michael Wright and Adam Wright, and verger Andy McIntosh, the ceremony included prayer and thanks.

The Interim Dean said: “Today we gather to give thanks for the life of Elizabeth Pigot who lived her life at the Burgage, Southwell.

“She befriended the young Lord Byron, and was a mentor and champion of his poetry… we give thanks for a life well lived, for her own creativity, and her role as a patron of the arts.”

He also offered thanks to Mr Bond and the stonemasons for their support and hard work in the restoration.

A well-educated woman and artist herself, Elizabeth read Byron’s early poems and encouraged him to have them printed by S and J Ridge Printers in Newark — the building they operated from in the Market Square now marked by a metal plaque.

Byron’s first four volumes of poetry; Fugitive Pieces, Poems on Various Occasions, Hours of Idleness and Poems Original and Translated, were printed there under the influence of Elizabeth, and she also continued to help with the production of his poetry whilst he lived in Southwell by copying and amending his drafts.

However, their connection ended when he moved to his ancestral home of Newstead Abbey, with Elizabeth continuing to live in Southwell for the rest of her life.

Mr Bond added: “That’s why Byron Manor and Southwell is so important, it is the location of his first poetry. He couldn’t live at Newstead Abbey until he was 21.”

Made from Nottinghamshire sandstone and weighing around half a ton, the restoration of Elizabeth’s grave was no easy feat — requiring four stonemasons and specialist hydraulic lifting equipment to remove it.

Not only that, but it was so weathered the stonemasons had to trace the lettering with a thumbnail to identify the correct gravestone, as only an approximate location was known based on historical records kept by the cathedral’s verger.

After it was identified and removed from the churchyard, the process of restoration included the stone being machine-ground to level the surface before being painstakingly hand-carved by specialist craftsmen to recreate the exact lettering originally carved into the grave.

Michael Wright, joint partner with his son, Adam Wright, at D and M Masons Ltd, said: “We know it is local stone, from somewhere between Mansfield and Bulwell, similar to the stone on the walls of the Minster and the chapel where Byron is buried in Hucknall.

“It was totally illegible, we had to make sure we’d got the right one — we found the name Pigot by running a finger over it. We knew it was somewhere around here, the verger’s book gave an idea of the location.”

The Nottinghamshire-based stonemasons have a ‘long professional association’ with Mr Bond which began with a request to hand-carve a Byron quote at the National Justice Museum, Nottingham, 30 years ago.

The restoration is part of a wider campaign by Mr Bond — a collector of Byron memorabilia and author of three books about the poet — to highlight the importance of Southwell and Newark in Byron’s literary story, as his connection to Newstead Abbey is more famously known.