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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....
Ghostbusters! #7
Posted by Viv Wilson on 27th July 2020 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall,ghost,Meynell,spooky,100 years,Dracula,Peter Cushing,Motor racing
GHOSTBUSTERS! People were always coming to Hoar Cross Hall to either hire the place 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 a...Ghostbusters #8
Posted by Viv Wilson on 1st February 1973 in Early Days | hoar cross hall,hoar cross hall blog,viv wilson,ghostbusters,scary,movie,story,ghost,ghost hunters,meynell,ghost stories
GHOSTBUSTERS! Later on in the year of 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 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 men arrived we spent all day trying out all the bells to see which ones were which. We found that one of the bell pulls in the Chase Dressing Room made one of the bells in th...
Mediaeval Mayhem! #11
Posted by Viv Wilson on 11th July 2021 in Growing Up In Stately Home | hoar cross hall,mediaeval banquets,fire eater,new year's eve,Lady Dorothy,100 years,teen,servants
It was the end of the summer season at Hoar Cross Hall in 1973 and rehearsals had started for the new venture of Mediaeval Banquets. All the cast would come round to the house each week for rehearsals and my mum and one or two other ladies were busy making the skirts and blouses for the wenches. My mum also made about 200 bibs which the guests were going to be wearing as eating five courses with a dagger can be quite messy! We had a King, a Jester, a Fire-eater, a Halberdier, an organist and various wenches and serving ladies. To launch the banquets my parents decided to hold a Press Reception about a month before and so we all gathered at the Hall one day in ea...
To the Manor Born #77
Posted by Viv Wilson on 22nd February 2024 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | shardlow motor racing,hoar cross hall,barons eden,Swarkestone Bridge,bonnie prince charlie,Alpheus Burgin,Rectory,River Trent,18th century,Dower House,Shardlow Hall,Shardlow House,Shardlow Manor,The Crown,Downton Abbey
Before we moved to Hoar Cross Hall my father had bought an old manor house in the village of Shardlow, near Derby, which had previously been a vicarage among other things. I think my parents must have had a love of historic buildings and indeed were members of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings and Monuments. My dad had a business in Derby at the time making alabaster items such as table lamps and candlestick holders and when he bought the manor house he moved his business there, as it had lots of outbuildings for all the alabaster equipment.
Some of my father's alabaster pieces
The house itself had about 17 rooms and was built i...
Hoar Cross Hall meets Downton Abbey #99
Posted by Viv Wilson on 24th September 2025 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall spa hotel,barons eden,downton abbey,Highclere Castle,Bishop of Winchester,first world war,Great War,meynell ingram,Shropshire,Leicestershire,Derbyshire,History,period drama,Servants,Suffragettes,my dad bought a mansion,Earl of Carnarvon,Tomb of Tutankhamun,Eqyptologist,Lord Grantham
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...