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Motor Racing Days #64

...uring the 1960s he raced Lotus Elites and I have never forgotten the time, aged just 5 years old, when he took me for a spin around Mallory Park.  I remember it all very clearly, even now.  He strapped me into the car, watched by the mechanics in the pits.  My poor mother was worried to death and kept asking if I’d be alright!  My dad was his usual self, flouting the rules, and continued to do a few laps around the circuit with me clinging petrified to the side of the seat - I have been terrified of speed ever since – can you imagine that happening today!  Arriving at my brother's Christening in the Lotus Elite   My dad would spend a lot of his...

"He's behind you!" #66

...During the 1970s Hoar Cross Hall was used from time to time for local community activities and one such event was the production in 1978 of a traditional pantomime, ‘Midnight and a Journey back to Happiness’.   It was written by local people, Robert Leighton from Yoxall and the Hon. Alexandra Meynell, daughter-in-law of Mrs Jean Meynell whom we had purchased the Hall from.  The words and music were written by local songwriter, David Matthews, who had written songs for quite a few pop artists during the 1960s, his most famous being Matt Munro’s ‘We’re gonna change the world’.  So off to a good start there! For those of you who don’t reside in t...

Moving Into a Mansion #67

...uring the 1960s he ran his own team, Shardlow Motor Racing, travelling all over Europe to race at all the famous circuits, so the outbuildings were always full of bits of racing cars and engines!  All this stuff had to be moved and my dad did most of it by travelling back and forth each day with vans and trailers full of the contents of our house and outbuildings – an enormous undertaking!  He knew some students and used to pick them up en route to help and they also stayed on to help tame the gardens which were very overgrown, the grass standing about 2 feet high.  As I’m sure you can imagine, after 20 years of neglect, the gardens were a sorry sight ha...

Panto Pranks! #76

...During the 1970s Hoar Cross Hall was used from time to time for local community activities and one such event was the production in 1978 of a traditional pantomime, ‘Midnight and a Journey back to Happiness’.   It was written by local people, Robert Leighton from Yoxall and the Hon. Alexandra Meynell, daughter-in-law of Mrs Jean Meynell whom we had purchased the Hall from.  The words and music were written by local songwriter, David Matthews, who had written songs for quite a few pop artists during the 1960s, his most famous being Matt Munro’s ‘We’re gonna change the world’.  So off to a good start there! For those of you who don’t reside in t...

To the Manor Born #77

...rough the 1960s my dad ran his Shardlow Motor Racing Team from this house and the old stables and carriage house were always full of car parts and machinery.  Before he went on his European tours, racing at all the well-known circuits, he would test his racing car by driving it around the village in the early hours of the morning when no-one was about!  No-one, that is, except the local Police who would constantly arrive at our doorstep informing him very politely not to keep doing it!   I think they viewed him as an English eccentric – even if he wasn’t ‘to the manor born’. From this house we moved to Hoar Cross Hall in the 1970s and a whole new ad...

Like Father Like Sons #20

...LIKE FATHER, LIKE SONS  As mentioned before my dad used to be a racing driver during the 1950s and ran his own team in the 1960s, travelling all over  Europe in his trusty Volkswagon van with his two mechanics and driver.   He didn’t have big sponsorship money behind him and most of it was done on a shoestring but he came back with lots of funny stories of their van breaking down or some rural ‘hotel’ that they had stayed in.  From each country that he visited he always brought me back a doll dressed in the traditional costume of that country.  There was quite a collection and I still have them; I used to put them on display in the Library when our...