Although my blogs are about living at Hoar Cross Hall, I would just like to give a bit of background about my dad’s racing career in the years leading up to moving to the Hall as this will set the scene for later instalments of my story.
As mentioned in my first blog my dad used to be a racing driver but he actually started off racing motor cycles in the 1930s. Because of this he became a despatch rider during the Second World War and spent a lot of time in North Africa. After the war he started racing motor bikes at nearby Donington Park and he raced there up to the beginning of the 1950s. After that he moved onto cars and drove a Cooper 500cc (which is the equivalent to Formula 3) along with the likes of Graham Hill and Sterling Moss. At the end of the 1950s he moved into Formula 2. Of course in those days it was completely different and much more ‘fun’, unlike more recent times where it has become a big money business. My dad didn’t have a rich family to support him or financial backers and probably did it all on a shoestring knowing him! He told me that he would always ‘take it easy’ and wasn’t too bothered about winning; drivers always got their ‘start’ money and he was satisfied with that. Accidents meant expensive repairs!
During the 1960s he raced Lotus Elites and I have never forgotten the time, aged just 5 years old, when he took me for a spin around Mallory Park. I remember it all very clearly, even now. He strapped me into the car, watched by the mechanics in the pits. My poor mother was worried to death and kept asking if I’d be alright! My dad was his usual self, flouting the rules, and continued to do a few laps around the circuit with me clinging petrified to the side of the seat - I have been terrified of speed ever since – can you imagine that happening today!
My dad would spend a lot of his time tinkering about on the car once it was back home and then take it for a test drive around the village in the early hours of the morning while everyone was asleep – except for the local policeman who was always coming round and telling him off! By the mid sixties he probably felt too old to be racing and so took on a driver, firstly Philip Robinson and then Chris Meek. He was now into Formula 2 and I remember that Martini sponsored him and we were always getting boxes of Martini bottles arriving at the house. My brothers Gavin and Piers were both named after racing drivers (Gavin Youl and Piers Courage) and all our Godparents were racing drivers although sadly many were killed in those days and I would hear my parents talking about another one who’d died, often one of their friends.
Also in this picture is Tim Parnell (third from left), a well known racing driver and family friend and Philip Robinson (far right), who drove for my dad in the 1960s.
Incidentally my Godfather was Pat Ferguson, who drove for Lotus and came 10th in the 1963 Le Mans 24-hour race but who was also known for attempting to escape from Colditz Castle (the infamous German prisoner-of-war camp) during World War 2. He’d already escaped three times from the Nazis which is why they sent him to Colditz, a place supposedly escape-proof. He quickly became popular with the inmates when he built a 'still' and made illegal alcohol! However, numerous escape attempts were made including one of the most daring of all time, which my Godfather was a key part of. They actually built a glider in the attic of Colditz Castle which they planned to escape in and if you have seen either of the films you will be familiar with this story – you may have heard of them: “The Colditz Story” and “Escape from Colditz” !
When we moved to the Hall in 1970 my dad was still involved with racing and had taken on another driver, Brian Henton. In 1971 they went off to Israel with their F Super Vee to do a race around the streets and were gone for about 2 weeks. Brian eventually went on to become the European Formula 2 Champion years later. One of my dad’s last trips was in 1972 when he took an old BRM to put on display in Milan. Gavin went along with him this time and tells me how they travelled over the Alps in a Volkswagon van with the car on a trailer behind – what an amazing experience for a 10 year old! The car then went on display in the Hall once they returned.
Every year we would go to the Grand Prix which was usually held at Silverstone. My dad had kept his old Volkswagon van as it was useful for transporting furniture etc from auction houses and we would pack this up and go off for the weekend. Gavin and I would sit on chairs in the back of the van and every time we went round a corner our chairs would tip over to the side and we’d be hanging on for dear life – my mum would sit in the front with Piers on her knee! No seatbelts then or child seats – I dread to think how we would have survived an accident! My dad would always get passes for the Paddock which was the area where all the racing car teams were next to the pits and only a privileged few would have these. At Silverstone there was a place called the Doghouse Club (long gone now) off the Paddock where the drivers’ families and guests would go to watch the race – my mum once told me I was nearly born in the Doghouse Club! Once when we were there Gavin and I had to share a pass so I went into the Clubhouse first, which was up some wooden steps, then, when the security man wasn’t looking, I threw the pass out of the window to Gavin, who was waiting down below, so he could then show it to the man and get in himself! That was us, up to our tricks again!
When we were a bit older we walked round the whole race track at Silverstone and Brands Hatch during the evening after the racing had finished. They were happy times and we had a lot of fun mixing with all the drivers and racing people and of course camping out in the van was exciting too. Motor racing attracted glamorous people and there were always model-like girls hanging around the pits. Each team had its own Grid Girls who would walk onto the starting grid looking beautiful and sexy and have their photos taken next to the team car before the start of the race. (This finally came to an end in 2017). Often celebrities of the day would appear at race circuits and I had my photo taken with Alvin Stardust (the pop singer) and Joe Bugner (one of the top 5 heavyweight boxers in the world at that time) and on another occasion with the actor who played ‘Jaws’ in the Bond films – he was huge!
When I was 15 we were, as usual, at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and we met up with my dad’s old driver, Chris Meek. Chris hadn’t seen me for a few years and couldn’t believe how grown up I’d become! This was a man who was extremely good looking and was always surrounded by pretty girls in typical 70s style! He whisked me off for a tour of the circuit on a small fun motor bike – the only trouble was that it was our last day and we were already in the queue to get out. Chris told my dad that he would take me for a quick ride round while he was queuing but when we got back my dad had gone as he had to move with the queue and wasn’t able to stop anywhere along the road.
After realising I’d been left behind Chris told me I’d have to go home with him to Leeds. Next thing I know we’re being taken in a chauffeur driven car to a small airfield near the track where he kept a light aircraft! I had no idea he had a plane but climbed aboard and enjoyed a trip to Leeds by air, marvelling at how small everything looked on the ground! Of course I had nothing with me as my suitcase had gone home with my dad and I had to wear my tee shirt and jeans to go out later for a meal in a fancy restaurant. Next day Chris drove me home in his Lotus at high speeds down the motorway – I don’t think I even wore a seatbelt as I was only used to my dad’s 40mph van! Still, it was all very exciting for a 15 year old girl and an experience I’ve never forgotten!
Another thing race circuits had were hospitality tents which contained lots of free food and drink which is great when you’re a kid – and my dad would always help himself to free bottles of champagne which he said he was keeping for me when I got married! But that’s another story!
When Gavin was older my dad encouraged him to race too and he went on to run his own World Championship Team travelling all over the world. He also took Piers go-kart racing at nearby Chasewater Park in Cannock – more about that in future blogs!
Don’t miss next week’s instalment: 'Ventures New'
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Viv Wilson | 29th October 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
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!! As we approach Hallowe'en my mind has gone back to that first winter at Hoar Cross Hall and all the scary things that happened - and that was without any trick or treaters in those days! We quickly realised that we weren’t the only inhabitants of the house when we moved there in the 1970s. 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 the attics to close it but there would be no windows open or even loose. They were all tightly shut as they had been for the previous 20 years, when the house had stood empty. 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 we would hear people walking along the attic corridor (the attic, by the way, was the floor right above our bedroom floor) and then at other times we could hear heavy furniture being dragged about – yet there was nothing up there as the rooms were all empty! How strange! 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. And why is it that these things always happen in the middle of the night? When it’s dark. When we feel most scared? I often woke up at 3am whether there were noises or not – or perhaps there had been a noise and that’s what had woken me up – who knows? I also loved reading books about old houses, mysteries and ghosts but when you actually live in one in real life, it’s a bit different! The spooky attic The first few years at Hoar Cross Hall were the worst ones for spiritual activity - maybe we'd disturbed the ghosts who were used to an empty house and not one with children running about everywhere! Our family consisted of my mother, father and two younger brothers; my parents being members of the Historical Society were keen to buy a house to show my dad's huge arms and armour collection along with many antiques. But we hadn't bargained with the house being haunted! My mum was often 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 for help. She floated all around the bed scaring my mum half to death. Frantically she tried to wake my dad while the ghoulish girl reached out - by the time my dad was awake the child was fading away and he missed it all! If you haven’t already worked it out, long nighties and mop caps were the ‘go to’ fashion trend back in the Victorian days! She saw her a few times on the staircase too just standing in the corridor before fading away. This made me terrified to go upstairs to bed on my own and once inside my room I would lock the doors and burrow down under the blankets so I wouldn't see or hear anything - quite forgetting that ghosts can walk through walls! The haunted bedroom corridor When I got older it was great to have parties in the attics as we could play our rock music really loud and no-one would hear it! My dad had made the west wing of the house (the old Victorian nurseries) into an apartment which we rented out and it was here that my 18th birthday was celebrated as we had become friends with the people that lived there. As everyone had heard about the ghost stories at the Hall, we made an ouija board and tried to contact the spirits. Most people had had a few spirits of a different kind by then and we sat around the table watching the glass move aroun...
Viv Wilson | 24th September 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
With the new Downton Abbey film out this month I thought I would do a comparison of the two family homes, Downton and Hoar Cross Hall, the latter being my old family home for those of you who are new to these blogs. Although Downton Abbey is fictional, the house on which it is based is not, it being Highclere Castle in Hampshire which was built in 1679 and is owned by the Earl of Carnarvon. Hoar Cross Hall was the original home of the Meynell Ingram family who first came from Leicestershire and was built in 1863. Hugo Meynell of Quorndon was the High Sheriff of Staffordshire and Member of Parliament for Lichfield and the family owned considerable property in Staffordshire, Shropshire and Derbyshire. He bought the Hoar Cross estate in 1793 and built a hunting lodge there known as Old Hall and founded the Meynell Hunt. It seemed the family lived here for many years until Hugo’s grandson, also Hugo, got married in 1863 and decided to build the present Hall for him and his wife, Emily Charlotte. The house took nine years to build and was eventually finished in 1871. Hugo and Emily had already moved in, but their new life together was soon to be cut short by a tragic accident. Fourteen months earlier at Birch Wood on their estate Hugo had a horse riding accident and had been bed-ridden ever since – he died in May of that year. They had no children and Emily built The Church of the Holy Angels in the grounds of the hall in memory of her husband. This is the church that I got married in over a hundred years later. On Hugo’s death Emily inherited the family's many large estates and they say she was a double millionairess – which in those days was a huge amount of money! Emily Charlotte The original site of Highclere Castle was recorded in the Doomsday Book of 1086 when an Anglo-Saxon king granted the estate to the Bishops of Winchester and in the 14th century a palace was built there by the Bishop. However, it was confiscated during the Reformation by Henry VIII. Later it was rebuilt in 1679 by Sir Robert Sawyer, Attorney-General to Charles II and looks to have stayed in his family ever since. The Downton Abbey story seems to be very similar to the Highclere Castle one actually! In the early part of the 20th century Downton is owned by the Earl of Grantham who marries an American heiress to save the family home. At about the same time Highclere was owned by the Earl of Carnarvon who also married the heiress to the Rothschild fortune and received a very large dowry. (In case you're wondering, a dowry is a sum of money or property given by the bride's family to the groom's family upon their marriage, and has historically been practiced by various cultures over the years). During the First World War, Highclere opened the house up as a hospital with the then Lady Carnarvon assisting as a nurse. In the Downton story Lord Grantham opens up the house to be used as a hospital for injured officers and some of the family assist in nursing them back to health. The Meynell family at Hoar Cross Hall also offered their home to be used as a hospital but were told that it was unsuitable owing to its isolation and inaccessibility in the country. However, Lady Mary Meynell opened her London home in Lennox Gardens to be used as a Military Hospital for officers during the First World War. Indeed, her own son, Francis, stayed there for a while recovering from severe wounds to the back in 1917, something which he never really recovered from resulting in his early death in 1941 at the age of 52. Hoar Cross Hall was too remote Although these aristocratic families seemed to live very charmed lives (and a lot of them did!) they also ran their estates to provide food and farm the land. This also gave local people much needed employment although being a domestic servant in those days could be quite hard with long hours and not much down time. However, they were families like the rest of us with the...
Viv Wilson | 19th August 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
When Hugo and Emily Meynell built Hoar Cross Hall it included a whole estate with it, namely kitchen gardens, greenhouses, stables, a farm and cottages. This was quite common in those days as the estate supported the house with food etc and also gave employment to local people. Old Hall (their original home) was also on the estate and was accessed via a private road, which ran from the main road. By the time the 1970s came along the stable block and Old Hall were private houses and another part of Old Hall had been made into a children’s home. Emily Meynell had started this home in the Victorian days, calling it ‘The Home of the Good Shepherd’ but it was for boys only at that time. When we were there it was a mixed home and run by a husband and wife couple. They used to have fetes there in the summer and we would sometimes go round to play with the children, as they had lots of climbing frames and slides. The private road also joined up to our woods near the driveway and this is the road I walked along every day, up to the main road, to catch the bus to school in nearby Uttoxeter. It was about half a mile but I hated walking through the woods, especially in the winter when the mornings were darker. One day, whilst walking round Uttoxeter at lunchtime, I saw a newspaper board telling everyone about a streaker that had run through the town the day before – what was this? A man running naked for the fun of it? On further investigation I found that this was the latest craze from America – but why anyone would want to do it in our cold country was beyond me! Streaking comes to Britain! I was not an academic by any means and hated my schooldays. I was constantly being teased for being too thin, too quiet or for living in a stately home. (This was from the teachers too!) so when it was time for 'skools out for summer' I was more than ready to leave! By now the Mediaeval Banquets, which my parents ran in the house, were proving a huge success and as package holidays were becoming very popular my parents decided to book a two week holiday abroad. My dad had always wanted to go to Greece to see all the temples but was a bit disappointed when he got there. Most of the temples were in ruins and once you’ve seen one ruin you’ve pretty much seen them all! The Acropolis was quite impressive though. I loved being abroad – the weather was so hot and the sea was always warm. Cold climes don’t suit me as I feel the cold so much so I would always be outdoors as soon as the sun was out - most of my summer holidays were spent in the gardens weeding whilst listening to Radio 1 on my little portable radio, although usually I dreaded the school holidays as it meant I was stuck at home for six weeks, rarely seeing my friends. Ticket to the bullfight Because of the success of the banquets it meant we could go abroad every year and other holidays included trips to Majorca, Portugal and Spain. I remember in Majorca going on a lovely train ride through orange groves and gardens to the Caves of Drach – the scenery was stunning with mountains watching over us from their great height. In Portugal we went to see a bull fight which I found both thrilling and frightening all at once. The matadors came so close to the bull but I hated that they had to stab them first to make them angry – it seemed so cruel. In Spain we went to a club one night to see some flamenco dancing and they pulled me up onto the stage to join in which was fun, if unexpected! We also went on a day trip to Morocco and walked around the Kasbah, which was the local market (see header picture). I remember hoards of children following us around trying to sell us things. My dad noticed one of the stallholders smiling at me and said for a joke “You can have her for two camels”. Well, the man never left our side after that – he took it very seriously and followed us all round the market trying to n...
Viv Wilson | 25th June 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
With the summer season well and truly upon us and Wimbledon almost here, I thought a blog about tennis might be in order! The game of tennis first started in the Mediaeval days and involved hitting a ball with a bare hand and later with a glove. By the 16th century the glove had become a racquet and the game had moved to an enclosed playing area and the rules had stabilized. This was known as ‘real tennis’. The word tennis came into use in English in the mid-14th century from French, via the Anglo-Norman term Tenez, which can be translated as 'hold', 'receive' or 'take', a call from the server to his opponent indicating that he is about to serve. It seems that royalty and the upper classes played tennis a lot, with Henry VIII making the biggest impact as a young monarch, playing the game with gusto at Hampton Court! However, the game was actually invented in Birmingham (England) and is the direct descendant of what is now denoted ‘real tennis’ or ‘royal tennis’ and continues to be played today with more complex rules. Many original courts still remain at Oxford, Cambridge, Falkland Palace in Fife, Scotland and Hampton Court Palace. Wimbledon itself is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and arguably the most famous. Since the first tournament 148 years ago in 1877, The Championships have been hosted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London and take place over two weeks in late June – early July. Tennis became popular because of the waning interest in croquet and the Club decided to organise a tennis tournament to pay for the repair of its pony roller, used to maintain the lawns. It must have been popular as its still going strong! Although you may enjoy the tennis I think people love the strawberries and cream too that are famously served there! Or you may like a tour around the museum - check it out here Wimbledon Many stately homes would have had tennis courts including Hoar Cross Hall. However, when we moved there in the 1970s you couldn’t see them at all as the grass had grown long and wild and it looked liked a wilderness. In fact, we didn’t even know that there were tennis courts there until Mrs Meynell, the previous owner, told us! Mowing the old tennis courts in 1984 Of course, back in the 1930s the younger members of the Meynell family often played on them during their weekend house parties (see header picture). One young man who became a close friend of the Meynell family made regular visits to Hoar Cross and recalled the happy times he spent there as “.....the last days of the traditional English country house with weekend parties full of gracious living and good company.” The people who came to the parties were usually young aristocrats such as Lady Diana Legge and her sister Lady Elisabeth Bassett, who was lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother from 1959 – 1993, when she retired at the age of 85! (see below) Lady Elizabeth (in the dark dress) Am-dram at a weekend house party on the tennis courts! I remember Mrs Meynell recalling a funny story about when they moved out of the Hall to a smaller house in the neighbouring village. Apparently her husband had come home one day to tell her he’d bought the house (without even consulting her) and the reason was that it had hard tennis courts, 'so much better than our grass ones' he told her! How different things were in those days – however, the servants were very pleased about the move as it meant less rooms to clean! And also less mowing now that they had hard courts! Don't miss next month's blog: 'Summer Balls and Garden Parties' If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, please click here and feel free to share with your friends.Follow me on a personal tour of my childhood home on YouTube. Click here to view and subscribe to my channel.OUT NOW!! 'My Dad Bought a Mansion' book is available on Amazon....
I have been saying for some time now that my book is about to hit the Amazon market -well, the time has finally come and
'My Dad Bought a Mansion' is out now for all to see and buy!
A compilation of all my blogs plus a few spicy extras! Along with over 100 original photos’ including some historical pics over 100 years old.
Hope you take the time to check it out and give me some feedback, and if you buy it, then a big 'Thank-you' from me - Enjoy!