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Rags to Riches #16

RAGS TO RiCHES:        My family originated from Derby and my parents were married there in July 1952.  Mum was 19 and dad was 36 so quite a bit older.  They both lived in Derby and were very arty; my dad went to the Derby Sketching Club in his free time and my mum attended art college.  i’m not sure ighlight'>where they met but it was either at something art related or at a dance, as was usual in those days.  My dad was a sculptor by trade; i think his interest was sparked by seeing all the beautiful alabaster in italian churches during the war.  After the war he set up his own business making alabaster lamps, bowls and candlesticks among other things (see hea...

Skools out for Summer #16

When Hugo and Emily Meynell built Hoar Cross Hall it included a whole estate with it, namely kitchen gardens, greenhouses, stables, a farm and cottages. Old Hall (their original ighlight'>home) was also on the estate and was accessed via a private road, which ran from the main road. By the time the seventies came along the stable block and Old Hall were private houses and another part of Old Hall had been made into a children’s ighlight'>home. Emily Meynell had started this ighlight'>home in the Victorian days, calling it ‘The ighlight'>home of the Good Shepherd’ but it was for boys only at that time. When we were at the Hall it was a mixed ighlight'>home and run by a husband and wife couple. They used to...

Rags to Riches #63

My family originated from Derby and my parents were married there in July 1952.  Mum was 19 and dad was 36 so quite a bit older.  They both lived in Derby and were very arty; my dad went to the Derby Sketching Club in his free time and my mum attended art college.  i’m not sure ighlight'>where they met but it was either at something art related or at a dance, as was usual in those days.  My dad was a sculptor by trade; i think his interest was sparked by seeing all the beautiful alabaster in italian churches during the war. My parents on their wedding day - 1952   After the Second World War he set up his own business making alabaster lamps, bowls and candles...

Skools out for summer! #14

SKOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER!       When Hugo and Emily Meynell built Hoar Cross Hall it included a whole estate with it, namely kitchen gardens, greenhouses, stables, a farm and cottages.  Old Hall (their original ighlight'>home) was also on the estate and was accessed via a private road, which ran from the main road.  By the time the seventies came along the stable block and Old Hall were private houses and another part of Old Hall had been made into a children’s ighlight'>home.  Emily Meynell had started this ighlight'>home in the Victorian days, calling it ‘The ighlight'>home of the Good Shepherd’ but it was for boys only at that time.  When we were there it was a mixed ighlight'>home and run by a hu...

Victorian Society #93

Victorian society was built around Queen Victoria’s reign, loosely between 1820-1914.  it was characterised by a class-based society and Britain being the most powerful empire in the world. Hoar Cross Hall was built in 1870, at the height of the Victorian era, and boasted up to seventy rooms, twenty-five of them for the servants, approximately fifteen for the kitchens and utility areas, leaving around thirty rooms for the family and their guests.  During this time a lot of people, particularly women, went into domestic service and the Housekeeper at the Hall earned about £50 a year, while a housemaid earned £15 a year – quite the difference!  By all ac...

Hickleton Hall and the Meynells #38

This lovely Grade ii listed Georgian house in South Yorkshire was once the childhood ighlight'>home of The Honourable Emily Charlotte Meynell who married Hugo Meynell of Hoar Cross and who, together with Hugo, built Hoar Cross Hall to be their family ighlight'>home in 1873, a hundred years before my family lived there.  The original house was called Hickleton Palace and had been built for Judge Francis Rodes in the 16th century but in 1745 Hickleton Hall was built just to the south of this house after the estate was bought by Godfrey Wentworth in about 1730. Thirty years later he extended the house and added two low wings, one either side, and a servants wing (see header picture)...