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More Tea Vicar? #12

Life at Hoar Cross Hall was always busy but during the long summer holidays it was easy to get bored. As there was no public transport from Hoar Cross and no other families living nearby, we three children had to make our own entertainment and we were always having adventures and getting up to mischief – a bit like the Famous Five but without a dog! We would roam around the village or explore the basement. My dad was a hoarder and had kept all sorts of stuff over the years including gas masks and field phones from World War 2. The old servants Hall was now my dad’s workshop and he spent a lot of time down there restoring antiques to sell. He had one of the f...

Rags to Riches #15

...with the servants. However, before they could be married the son went off to the First World War and caught tuberculosis - he sadly died so my grandmother had to bring my dad up alone with help from her own parents, and without getting married (this is where my dad gets his double-barrel surname from). When my dad was about 4 years old my grandmother married a sailor and they had a little girl, my Aunty Dorothy. He told me how his grandparents brought him up but how poor they were and because of this they had to go to the market at the end of the day to get food and vegetables at give-a-way prices. This was 1920s Britain and many families lived like this. I alw...

The Haunting of Hoar Cross Hall #32

...d how the servants complained about sleeping up there. Then she told them about someone knocking on their bedroom doors in the middle of the night. After that she told them about a little girl that used to run around the house, who could be heard giggling, of a room in the basement where the door always got stuck and the handle could be seen moving on it’s own. So many stories! Viv sat listening in amazement, enraptured. “Did you find out who the little girl was?” she eventually asked. “Oh yes,” answered Mrs Meynell. “She lived here during the Victorian days and had been left alone in the west wing nursery one evening after she’d been put to bed....

The Kitchen Maid's Story #36

.... For the servants it must have been quite exciting being in the big city and seeing all the sights and one of the benefits was that on their half day they would be allowed out until 10pm instead of 9.30pm! Once the season was over and Jenny returned to the Hall she was busy in the kitchen straightaway. She tells how there were visitors arriving and her statement below shows the implications for the staff of a large country house:- “I don’t know who they were, but they were a lady and gentleman, a valet and lady’s maid, a grown-up daughter, and a very young child. Young enough to have a nanny. That meant three extra in the dining room, two extra in the s...

Moving Day Arrives #2

...xury with servants waiting on us hand and foot just because we lived in a stately home – if only they knew the reality!! At least we got electric blankets for our beds – what a luxury that was. Fortunately this temporary way of living didn’t last forever! Dad clearing snow on the roof   That first winter it snowed quite heavily and as the snow melted we discovered that the roof leaked – quite a lot actually and in quite a lot of places too! All down the Long Gallery there were buckets placed under dripping water and my poor dad spent most of his time on the roof finding and mending the holes. If anyone came round to see him it became a bit of a j...

Eat, Drink & Be Merry #11

...ut ‘the servants’ we had and the haunted attic! The Americans would hang on my every word! The front of the tankard The JCB tankard   During that summer my parents auditioned for a King, a jester, entertainers and singers and by August they had a team of ‘am-dram’ actors ready to start rehearsals. They also advertised for wenches and serving girls of which I became one – at 14 years old this became my new weekend job! But the banquets were about to change all our lives - for better and for worse.   Don’t miss next week’s instalment: 'Mediaeval Mayhem'   If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, click here and plea...