Welcome To My Life Story: Growing Up In A Stately Home

My Name is Viv Wilson (née Bickerton-Jones)

...and I grew up in a 70 roomed stately home in Staffordshire called Hoar Cross Hall. I've always been an avid diary writer and in my blog I'm going to be using extracts from the diaries I've kept all my life. I will be posting on a weekly basis, so subscribe and see what life was like living in a house like this - not quite like Downton Abbey!

How it began...

It was the summer of 1970, Mungo Jerry was at the top of the hit parade and we were about to move house, but not to any old house – to a 70 roomed mansion in 20 acres of grounds! For years my dad had collected antiques, ever since he was a young boy of 12, and it was his dream to own a large house where he could put them on show to the general public. In the 1970's he ran a motor racing team and owned the largest private collection of arms and armour in the country and his dream was about to be realised; but little did we know what a nightmare would unfold before us.

Click here to read from the beginning, and don't forget to subscribe to get the weekly instalments of my story, published every Monday.

Viv Wilson (Bickerton-Jones

*If you visited, or worked at the hall during the 70's, have any interesting facts about Hoar Cross in general, or came to any of our events (or parties!), please get in touch through the contact form below!

from the album

My Home

Hoar Cross Hall

This was my home throughout the 1970's until I left in 1980 to get married.

Me and my Brothers

ON THE TERRACE

I had an unusual young life surrounded by antiques and fast cars.

Hoar Cross Hall

in its heyday

The hall was originally built for the aristocratic Meynell-Ingram family.

Life At The Hall

Latest Posts View All

The Grand Opening #5

By Viv Wilson in Life at The Hall, Growing Up In a Stately Home | 7 days ago

THE GRAND OPENING: And so we move into 1971 and the preparation of Hoar Cross Hall so we could open it to the public by Easter. During the run up to buying the house my dad had been buying furniture, carpets and paintings like crazy and I remember our previous home being jam packed with chaise longues, sideboards and carved chests as well as all the suits of armour that he already had. This furniture was now set out in all the rooms. My mum’s collection of Victorian costumes were on display in the Ballroom as well as my dad’s collection of silver plated ‘display’ armour, which hung around the panelled walls; the suits of armour and the many paintings they had lined the Long Gallery and other rooms. The old Dining Room was renamed The Chinese Room as my dad had quite a collection of Chinese armour, swords and wall hangings – and even a Burmese Palace Chair. Display cabinets bought in sale rooms showed off smaller items. The biggest excitement though was seeing our house advertised on the local TV channel! The Damask Room was turned into Lady Dorothy’s Boudoir complete with an 18th century four poster bed, an original bed complete with canopy and hanging curtains slept in by aristocrats throughout the centuries. I used to love lying on the bed with the curtains closed imagining myself in another era – once I lay down on the bed and fell asleep. When I awoke and climbed out from behind the drapes it was to a roomful of visitors staring open mouthed at me! In another room my dad had his racing car surrounded by displays and photos of his racing career. The Entrance Hall was turned into a café area next to the kitchen, which had once been the old Butler’s Pantry, and my job was to bake scones and make sandwiches for the hungry visitors and groups that often came for a day out. Although I would make the scones earlier in the day, we would always leave a few in the oven so that there was a lovely smell of home baking floating around the place – ...

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Doing up a stately home #4

By Viv Wilson in Life at The Hall, Growing Up In a Stately Home | 28th June 2020

DOING UP A STATELY HOME: We moved into Hoar Cross Hall during the summer holidays and my parents quickly realised that they had a lot of work on their hands to make the place habitable as well as to earn some money from it. As previously mentioned, there was an East Wing and a West Wing to the house. My dad decided to convert the first floor rooms of each wing into three separate apartments; he had done this at our previous house. This would generate income from rents until we got the main house open to the public. It wasn’t a big job to convert the rooms as the East Wing had four main rooms and two bathrooms already there, which would have been used as guest bedrooms in Victorian times. He made these into two one-bedroom apartments with a bit of stud walling here and there and made small kitchens in the spaces which connected the lounge and bedroom, probably once used as cupboard space. The spiral staircase with it’s green baize door opened onto the inner landing next to the apartments and this is how the servants would have accessed these rooms when bringing the family breakfast trays in the mornings. Where children were to be seen and not heard, servants were to be neither seen nor heard by members of the family and all the areas to the house were accessed via the spiral staircases and then inner hallways and corridors so they could go about their duties quickly and quietly. My dad spent a lot of his time at auction houses buying and selling antiques and so he went back there again to source carpets and kitchen equipment. He also installed huge electric heaters to keep our new tenants warm. The West Wing was smaller than the East Wing so was made into a two-bedroomed apartment. The tenants entered the house through the basement entrance and used the spiral staircases to get to their homes – so they were a bit like the servants of old, neither seen nor heard by us! The Chapel The next change to make was to our own rooms so we could move dow...

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Things that go bump in the night #3

By Viv Wilson in Life at The Hall, Growing Up In a Stately Home | 22nd June 2020

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT! Going to sleep in a big old house is quite scary when you’re young but going to sleep in a big old house that’s haunted is even more scary!! That first winter at Hoar Cross Hall was like that. Every time there was a windy night I could hear a window banging in the attic – all night long it kept me awake. The next day I would go upstairs to close it but there would be no windows open or even loose. They were all tightly shut as they had been for 20 years. I remember standing there in the attic rooms feeling a tingling down my spine and goose bumps all over as I felt the atmosphere closing in on me - and I quickly legged it back downstairs! On other nights I would hear people walking along the attic corridor (the attic was the floor right above our bedroom floor) and then at other times I could hear heavy furniture being dragged about – yet there was nothing up there as the rooms were all empty! Other members of the family heard it too and also people that stayed overnight, so it wasn’t the imaginings of a frightened child. There was also nobody else in the house at that point, apart from our family and they definitely weren’t walking about the house at 3am. I loved reading about old houses, mysteries and ghosts but when you’re actually in the middle of it in real life, it’s a bit different! My parents also heard noises from their bedroom. It sounded like a room full of people talking, like at a party. They couldn’t work out if it was birds nesting under the eaves so they slept in another room down the corridor to see if they still heard it – and sure enough, they did! What was going on? Had we disturbed some lost souls forever wandering in the attics? The haunted attic corridor One night my mum was woken up by the sight of a little girl ‘floating’ over the bed. She said the girl was wearing a long nightdress and mop cap and seemed to be stretching her arms out to my mum as if she was asking ...

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More memories

Memories

Hoar Cross Hall
My Dad with the Ferrari
The Long Gallery Hoar Cross Hall
Me and my brothers Gavin and Piers on The Terrace
Stepping Stones
Me and Kev on the staircase
About to fly from Silverstone
Racing Driver Chris Meek
Chris Meek with his plane at Silverstone
Me and my brother Gavin on the lawn
Stepping Stone Pond
Hippy Days at Hoar Cross Hall
Family Photo
Cadwell Park Race Track
My mum and my two younger children, Lee and Hannah, visiting the Hall in 2005
Mum at the grave of the child who's ghost was seen at the hall
Hoar Cross Hall circa 1920

Hoar Cross Hall Today

Hoar Cross Hall is a Grade II listed building situated in 50 acres of countryside in Staffordshire, not far from The National Forest and about 30 minutes’ drive from Stafford.

After my family sold the hall it was turned into a Luxury Spa Resort and hotel in the 1990's. It now offers a range of spa breaks and treatments and can be hired for weddings and conferences.

Many of the old servants quarters have been converted into the spa facility and look a lot different to when I lived there. If you want to see what it looks like now, take a look at the current Hoar Cross Hall website: https://www.hoarcross.co.uk

Google Map — Maker Ln, Burton-on-Trent DE13 8QS, UK