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 monthly 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 1970s 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 monthly instalments of my story, published on a Friday.
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*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 family home throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
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.
More memories
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 1990s. 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: Hoar Cross Hall
