Story Search Results

Alice - the ghost in the mirror #26

...new home, Hoar Cross Hall, and there it hung over the fireplace in the Library for many decades until the Meynells left in the 1950s.And so herein lies the connection between Alice and the Hall! Fast forward to the 1990s when Hoar Cross Hall had a new owner, Steve Joynes. He converted the Hall into a Spa Hotel and managed to source a lot of the original furniture from the Victorian era when Emily Meynell (nee Wood) lived there with her husband, Hugo. He found the original mirror which came from Hickleton Hall and now it hangs over the fireplace in the Library, just as it did all those years ago.But it seems that the ghost of Alice may have come with the mirror....

The Chinese Room #71

...The Chinese Room is the last in the series of the rooms that were open to the public at Hoar Cross Hall during the 1970s.  It had three doorways and was entered from the Ballroom, the Long Gallery and the Entrance Hall and was originally the Dining Room of the house when the Meynell family lived there.  The centrepiece of the room is the 18th century carved wood mantelpiece, incorporating classical figures and floral decorations, with a carved and painted armorial overmantel.     As you can probably guess from the name of the room, the main theme was oriental  armour, tapestries and furniture, including a Burmese Palace Chair.  The oriental armour was a...

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...

Mediaeval Weaponry #84

...When we moved to Hoar Cross Hall in the 1970s, my father owned the largest private collection of arms and armour in the UK at that time!  He owned about 20 suits of armour and numerous items of ‘arms’, which is another word for weapons.  The word ‘arms’ comes from the Latin ‘arma’ which means ‘tools of war’; this word passed into the English language from the French in 1200.  Mediaeval weapons consisted of halberds, double-edged swords, daggers, battle axes, Crossbows and longbows to name but a few, these being the most common.  Knives were also used but mainly for eating and repairing, although I’m sure they got to be used as weapons too...

Anyone for Tennis? #96

...including Hoar Cross Hall.  However, when we moved there in the 1970s you couldn’t see them at all as the grass had grown long and wild and it looked liked a wilderness.  In fact, we didn’t even know that there were tennis courts there until Mrs Meynell, the previous owner, told us! Mowing the old tennis courts in 1984   Of course, back in the 1930s the younger members of the Meynell family often played on them during their weekend house parties (see header picture).  One young man who became a close friend of the Meynell family made regular visits to Hoar Cross and recalled the happy times he spent there as “.....the last days of the tradition...

The Grand Opening #5

...And so we move into 1971 and the preparation of Hoar Cross Hall so we could open it to the public by Easter. During the run up to buying the house my dad had been buying furniture, carpets and paintings like crazy and I remember our previous home being jam packed with chaise longues, sideboards and carved chests as well as all the suits of armour that he already had. This furniture was now set out in all the rooms. My mum’s collection of Victorian costumes were on display in the Ballroom as well as my dad’s collection of silver plated ‘display’ armour, which hung around the panelled walls; the suits of armour and the many paintings they had lined the Lon...