Story Search Results
Did you mean:
country life
?
181 results for Country Life
found
within the Story
6 displayed out of 181 (1.05seconds)Page 10 of 31
The Graveyard Shift #23
Posted by Viv Wilson on 10th October 2021 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall,Meynell,Library,Boat,solicitors,Police
Life carried on at Hoar Cross Hall as best it could in difficult circumstances. My dad continued to go to Arms and Armour Fairs to buy and sell antiques and we also went to a mediaeval banquet in Cheshire one night, although it wasn’t anywhere near as good as ours! Once or twice we took my dad out with our friends to Derby, where he originated from, and that seemed to cheer him up. But he really needed to get away from the house for longer periods of time and when he saw a boat advertised for sale at Caernarvon he jumped at the chance and bought it. It was an ex Lifeboat called The Bembo so quite sturdy, although in need of a lick of paint and a bit of TLC. Th...
Ghostbusters #8
Posted by Viv Wilson on 18th May 2022 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall,Meynell,ghostbusters,attics,basement,spooky,Victorian,Downton Abbey,Bridgerton,keeping up with the aristocrats,kenny ball and his jazzmen,Gothic,motor racing
People were always coming to Hoar Cross Hall to either hire the house or to have a look around. In 1973, because of all the media interest in our ghosts, we had a couple of professional ghost hunters asking to stay over one night to try and find the source of the noises. They brought cases full of recording equipment and set it all up in one of the attic rooms. Rather them than me I thought! Then I had a brilliant idea and went off to tell my brother Gavin all about it. As mentioned in my first blog the attic and basement had a row of bells which the family used to summon the servants. Before the three men arrived we spent all day trying out all the bells to see...
Ghostbusters! #8
Posted by Viv Wilson on 3rd December 2018 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall,attic,ghost hunters,Meynell,spooky,kenny ball,peter cushing,new years eve
GHOSTBUSTERS! People were always coming to the Hall to either hire the place or to have a look around. In 1973 a couple of professional ghost hunters asked to stay over one night to try and source the noises we heard in the attic. They brought cases full of recording equipment and set it all up in one of the attic rooms. Rather them than me I thought! Then I had a brilliant idea and went off to tell my brother Gavin all about it. As mentioned in my first blog the attic and basement had a row of bells which the family used to summon the servants. Before the two men arrived we spent all day trying out all the bells to see which ones were which....
The Schoolroom Maid's Story #34
Posted by Viv Wilson on 9th June 2019 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall,Spanish Ambassador,London,Lichfield,Meynell,Earl and Countess of Bradford,Weston Park,Skegness
THE SCHOOLROOM MAID'S STORY: For the first 75 years of the Hall’s history about 50 servants were employed by the Meynell family in the house and grounds. Among these was a young girl of fifteen who started work in 1920 as a Schoolroom Maid. Her name was Miss Inez Sophia Large and she had connections to Hoar Cross through her grand-parents, William and Mary Tooth, who lived in the village where William was the blacksmith; his smithy was just along from the Meynell public house. He had worked on the ironwork of the Hall during its construction in the 1860s. Inez’s aunt, Constance Madeley, was the wife of the landlord at the Buffalo Inn, in ne...
Suits you Sir! #22
Posted by Viv Wilson on 23rd September 2022 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall,Meynell,Bodley,suits of armour,Long Gallery,downton abbey,The Crown,Queen,Parrot,banquet,breastplate,church of the holy angels
When we moved to Hoar Cross Hall in 1970 the organ in the private chapel wasn’t working as the house had been empty for 20 years. It was such a shame as it had been designed by George Bodley, the famous organ maker of the 19th century. The chapel itself had been added about 25 years after the house was built at the staggering cost of just under £1000! When one of the visitors to the house said he could fix the organ, my dad readily agreed. This chap really loved organs and volunteered his services free of charge just for the love of mending this musical work of art; my dad was over the moon! Alas, after removing all the pipes and laying them out in the baseme...
Get me to the church on time! #30
Posted by Viv Wilson on 25th November 2022 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall,Meynell,church of the holy angels,burton on trent,birmingham,ghost,downton abbey,historic houses,stag and hen party,suits of armour
My dad was having to move out of Hoar Cross Hall and we had decided to bring our wedding forward so we that we could get married in the church in the grounds and then have the reception afterwards in the Hall, which was after all our family home. The wedding preparations were going quite well and as we knew lots of musicians it wasn’t hard to find a local band and a DJ to do the disco. A friend of my dad’s offered to do the catering and the bar was set up with plenty of kegs from the local brewery in Burton on Trent. I had two bridesmaids and we all went to Birmingham one day to choose our dresses and shoes – it was all kept very simple really as I had no...