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Hoar Cross Hall - Life below stairs #19

...staff at Hoar Cross were well treated it seems. The family showed their concern towards the female members of staff if they wanted to leave the house to attend a local dance, and always made sure they were escorted to and from the event by the footman. Young maids were well protected in those times as the family were always worried about ‘undesirable’ friendships starting up, either within or outside the household. But it seems that there was generally a good atmosphere in the house for most of the time. The children mixed freely with the servants and Lady Mary forbid them to call the servants by their surname only, as was usual in those days. She said it w...

Midnight Pool Parties #21

...t near to Hoar Cross the car was still a little way behind us and we began to think that it might be following us as you never saw many cars out there late at night! As we got to the Lodge and the entrance to the Hall we decided to suddenly turn right onto the private road and as we did so Kev switched off his lights hoping that the car wouldn’t see us. We didn’t have any reason to worry but we thought it would be fun to lose them, as you do when you’re young! Alas, it had seen into our cunning plan and promptly turned onto the private road too. However, we were one step ahead of them as we knew these roads intimately and we turned into the woods and soon...

Whodunit in the Library #24

...When we first moved to Hoar Cross Hall, growing up in a stately home seemed an idyllic way to live – and lots of fun if you’re a child. This rambling old house full of empty rooms and secret doors, wild gardens and woods to explore, was in some ways a dream come true for our family, certainly for my dad. But as we turned from children to teenagers the isolation and lack of public transport was frustrating. Coupled with this was my parents fighting and subsequent split, living at each end of the house and battling for the house and business through their solicitors. The effect this had on me, as the eldest child who perhaps saw more of it than my brothers, w...

Panto Pranks! #30

...During the 1970s Hoar Cross Hall was used from time to time for local community activities and one such event was the production in 1978 of a traditional pantomime, ‘Midnight and a Journey back to Happiness’. It was written by local people, Robert Leighton from Yoxall and the Hon. Alexandra Meynell, daughter-in-law of Mrs Jean Meynell whom we had purchased the Hall from. The words and music were written by local songwriter, David Matthews, who had written songs for quite a few pop artists during the 1960s, his most famous being Matt Munro’s ‘We’re gonna change the world’. So off to a good start there! For those of you who don’t reside in the UK an...

A New Year Calamity #34

...worked at Hoar Cross Hall - don’t miss next week’s instalment:  'Hoar Cross Hall - life below stairs'   If you’d like to follow my story from the beginning, please click here and feel free to share with your friends  Follow me around my childhood home in my 'Tour of the Hall' – click here to view and subscribe to my youtube channel. COMING SOON!!!  'My Dad Bought a Mansion' will be out in book form soon on Amazon - all my memoirs packed with lots of photographs from the times.Keep an eye out for it! ...

Growing up in a stately home #1

...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 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. Hoar Cross Hall was the home of the Meynell Ingram family who originated from Leicestershire. Hugo Meynell of Quorndon was...