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A New Year Calamity! #30

...dent in a stately home near Lichfield back in the 70s when a ceiling moulding had fallen on somebody’s head. Imagine the looks on our faces when we realised it was my own home he was referring to – this inspection cost us £1500 - and all because of my dad! Happy New Year!!   If you’d like to follow my story from the beginning, please click here and feel free to share with your friends      ...

An Englishman's home is his Mansion! #2

...ived 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! 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 joke, when asked where he was, the answer was always ‘on the roof’! One day the local Council Tax in...

Motor Racing Days #9

...MOTOR RACING DAYS Although my blogs are about living at Hoar Cross Hall, I would just like to give a bit of background about my dad’s racing career in the years leading up to moving to the Hall as this will set the scene for later instalments of my story. As mentioned in my first blog my dad used to be a racing driver but he actually started off racing motor cycles in the 1930s. Because of this he became a despatch rider during the Second World War and spent a lot of time in North Africa. After the war he started racing motor bikes at nearby Donington Park and he raced there up to the beginning of the 1950s. After that he moved onto cars and drove a Cooper 5...

Ventures New! #10

...gally for stately home owners! In fact, he bought a suit of armour for my mum’s birthday present once, saying it was better to spend their money on an investment rather than flowers that would wither and die! I don’t think my mum was very impressed! Another time he bought an ancient Japanese funeral urn to put on display in the Chinese Room – to make it seem more authentic he filled it with ashes from the fireplace and placed a few animal bones in for good measure! The display sign read that it was the remains of a Samurai Warrior from the Far East! One Easter we decided to hire a small steam train to give rides to the families that came. It was set up on...

Ghostbusters #8

...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...

Mediaeval Mayhem! #13

...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...