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Here Comes the Bride (Part 1) #29

HERE COMES THE BRIDE (Part 1)     After the court case my dad was given 3 months to move out of Hoar Cross HAll. We had decided to bring our wedding forward so that we could get married in the Church of the Holy Angels in the grounds and then have the reception afterwards in the HAll, which was after All our family home. The wedding preparations were going quite well and as we knew lots of musicians it wasn’t hard to find a local band and a DJ to do the disco. A friend of my dad’s offered to do the catering and the bar was set up with plenty of kegs from the local brewery in Burton on Trent. I had two bridesmaids and we All went to Birmingham one day to c...

Here Comes the Bride (Part 1) #32

HERE COMES THE BRIDE (Part 1):   Now my dad was having to move out of the HAll we had decided to bring our wedding forward so that we could get married in the church in the grounds (the Church of the Holy Angels) and then have the reception afterwards in the HAll, which was after All our family home. The wedding preparations were going quite well and as we knew lots of musicians it wasn’t hard to find a local band and a DJ to do the disco. A friend of my dad’s offered to do the catering and the bar was set up with plenty of kegs from the local brewery in Burton on Trent. I had two bridesmaids and we All went to Birmingham one day to choose our dresses and...

Here comes the bride (Part 1) #27

Now my dad was having to move out of Hoar Cross HAll we had decided to bring our wedding forward so that we could get married in the church in the grounds and then have the reception afterwards in the HAll, which was after All our family home. The wedding preparations were going quite well and as we knew lots of musicians it wasn’t hard to find a local band and a DJ to do the disco. A friend of my dad’s offered to do the catering and the bar was set up with plenty of kegs from the local brewery in Burton on Trent. I had two bridesmaids and we All went to Birmingham one day to choose our dresses and shoes – it was All kept very simple reAlly as I had no hel...

The Graveyard Shift #23

Life carried on at Hoar Cross HAll as best it could in difficult circumstances. My dad continued to go to Arms and Armour Fairs to buy and sell antiques and we also went to a mediaeval banquet in Cheshire one night, although it wasn’t anywhere near as good as ours! Once or twice we took my dad out with our friends to Derby, where he originated from, and that seemed to cheer him up. But he reAlly needed to get away from the house for longer periods of time and when he saw a boat advertised for sale at Caernarvon he jumped at the chance and bought it. It was an ex lifeboat cAlled The Bembo so quite sturdy, although in need of a lick of paint and a bit of TLC. Th...

Huntin', Shootin' and Fishin' #6

HUNTIN’, SHOOTIN’ AND FISHIN’ :            Most stately homes have the obligatory hunting, shooting and fishing and ours was no exception during the Meynell family’s time there.   We participated in none of these but the Meynell and South Staffs Hunt used to meet locAlly to do a spot of fox hunting.  They would All gather at different venues around the area and enjoy a drink before setting off.  One of their usual places was the Meynell Ingram Arms Public House at the bottom of the village.   In February 1972 they had their ‘meet’ at the HAll.  We, as the host family, got All dressed up to meet and greet them and local helpers served dri...

Hoar Cross HAll - a bit of history #17

If you love to read up on the history of old houses then you'll love to hear about All the generations of people that lived at Hoar Cross HAll.  Hoar Cross was part of Needwood Forest, the 11th century lands of Henry de Ferrers. The land was passed down to Henry’s son and subsequent various people over the course of 500 years ending with the Webb family, around the 1730s, who bought the land and house known as the Manor of the Cross. This was quite a large house built on a hill near YoxAll (which is the village next to Hoar Cross). In 1740 the manor house was demolished and later the Hon. Charles Talbot bought the estate for £17,000. EventuAlly it was sold t...