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Meet the Neighbours - Sudbury Hall #79

Continuing the series on neighbouring houses to Hoar Cross Hall, let me introduce you to Sudbury Hall, which is about 7 miles away and on the border of Staffordshire and Derbyshire.  The manor of Sudbury was listed in the Doomsday Book following the Norman Conquest in 1086, so a lot older than the Hall, and is a Grade I listed building.  The Vernon family came to Sudbury after a 16th century marriage between Sir John Vernon, from Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, and the Sudbury heiress, Ellen Montgomery.  It seems the Vernon family have stayed in the Hall for generations right up until the 20th century when the 10th Baron Vernon transferred the Hall and its princip...

The Tax Man Cometh #29

My parents’ court case was finally over and my dad had six months to leave the family home, Hoar Cross Hall. In the meantime my mum had to find the funds to buy him out and he had to find another house to live in. He also had an awful lot of stuff to move too! He eventually found a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent but as it was obviously a lot smaller he had to get rid of a lot of his possessions and one of the first things to go was his Lotus Elite. He advertised it in the local paper but instead of getting a phone call from a likely buyer, the first call was from the local tax office. Back in those days they used to check advertisements in the newspapers and...

The Church of the Holy Angels #55

Many stately homes had churches built near them or even a chapel inside them, as was done at Hoar Cross Hall. However, the church that was built in the grounds of the Hall became known as 'The Cathedral of the Midlands' due to its magnificent structure and is generally regarded as one of the finest Victorian churches in the country. It resembles a cathedral in miniature, being more like an English minster than a humble village church. When Emily Meynell Ingram's husband, Hugo died in 1871 from a hunting accident, she wanted to keep his memory alive. They had only been married for eight years and she had no children to comfort her and so in 1872 she commissioned...

The tax man cometh! #29

THE TAX MAN COMETH:   My parents’ court case was finally over and my dad had six months to leave the house.  In the meantime my mum had to find the funds to buy him out and he had to find another house to live in.  He also had an awful lot of stuff to move too!  He eventually found a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent but as it was obviously a lot smaller he had to get rid of a lot of his possessions and one of the first things to go was his Lotus Elite.  He advertised it in the local paper but instead of getting a phone call from a likely buyer, the first call was from the local tax office.  Back in those days they used to check advertisements in the news...

Aristocratic travels # 39

ARISTOCRATIC TRAVELS:   Emily Charlotte Meynell, the original owner of Hoar Cross Hall, was probably one of the wealthiest independent women of the late 19th century in Britain.  Her property included country Estates around the Midlands, a London house in Eaton Square and a villa in Florence.  For many years she owned a yacht, the latter a fully-crewed schooner of 380 tons.  The family had large financial resources in addition to their Estate income, through which they were sustained until well into the 20th century. Emily cruised the Mediterranean every springtime in her yacht and occasionally crossed the North Sea to the Netherlands and Germany in the su...

The Tax Man Cometh! #28

THE TAX MAN COMETH:       My parents’ court case was finally over and my dad had six months to leave the family home, Hoar Cross Hall. In the meantime my mum had to find the funds to buy him out and he had to find another house to live in. He also had an awful lot of stuff to move too! He eventually found a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent but as it was obviously a lot smaller he had to get rid of a lot of his possessions and one of the first things to go was his Lotus Elite. He advertised it in the local paper but instead of getting a phone call from a likely buyer, the first call was from the local tax office. Back in those days they used to check adverti...