Story Search Results

An Englishman's Home is his Mansion! #2

AN ENGLISHMAN'S HOME IS HIS MANSION! My parents took vacant possession of Hoar Cross Hall in 1970 <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> the whole process of moving house was done over the summer months. We lived about 20 miles away in an old vicarage with a large garden <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> lots of outbuildings. This house was about 200 years old <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> they say Bonnie Prince Charlie marched past it on his way to battle back in the day, for all you history buffs out there! Actually I love history <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> I think my interest was fuelled by living in these historic houses as a child. My dad used to be a racing driver in the 1950s <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> before that he did motorcycle racing, often at nearby Donnington Park. During the 1960s...

A Bit Of Background #1

A BIT OF BACKGROUND: It was the summer of 1970, Mungo Jerry was at the top of the hit parade <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> we were about to move house.  But not to any old house – to a 70 roomed mansion in 20 acres of grounds!  For years my dad had collected antiques, ever since he was a young boy of 12, <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> it was his dream to own a large house where he could put them on show to the general public.  In the 1970s he owned the largest private collection of arms <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> armour in the country <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> his dream was about to be realised; but little did we know what a nightmare would unfold before us. Hoar Cross Hall was the home of the Meynell Ingram family who originated from Leicestershire.�...

DIY Stately Home #4

We moved into Hoar Cross Hall during the summer holidays <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> my parents quickly realised they had a lot of work on their h<Span class='highlight'>andSpan>s to make the place habitable as well as to earn some money from it. As previously mentioned, there was an East Wing <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> a West Wing to the house. My dad decided to convert the first floor rooms of each wing into three separate apartments; he had done this at our previous house. This would generate income from rents until we got the main house open to the public. It wasn’t a big job to convert the rooms as the East Wing had four main rooms <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> two bathrooms already there, which would have been used as guest bedrooms in Victorian times. H...

More Tea Vicar? #12

MORE TEA VICAR?   During the long summer holidays it was easy to get bored.  As there was no public transport from Hoar Cross <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> no children living nearby, we three children had to make our own entertainment <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> we were always having adventures <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> getting up to mischief – a bit like the Famous Five, but without a dog!  We would roam around the village or explore the basement.  My dad was a hoarder <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> had kept all sorts of stuff over the years including gas masks <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> field phones from World War 2.  The old Servants Hall was now my dad’s workshop <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> he spent a lot of time down there restoring antiques to sell.  He had one of the field phones in his...

Moving Out #32

MOVING OUT:       <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> so the day arrived a month or so after our wedding when my dad had to leave the Hall.  Ten years after moving in he was now moving out, leaving his dream home for my mum to live in alone.  Gavin moved with him <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> Piers was away at school most of the time.  It was a mammoth task as he had so much stuff to move, especially from the basement.  He had some heavy machinery too that he’d brought with him from his alabaster days, including a b<Span class='highlight'>andSpan> saw which we used to saw up logs for the huge fireplaces in the main rooms.  He had bought a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent which had some outbuildings for a workshop <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> there he moved to st...

Moving house to a mansion #1

MOVING HOUSE TO A MANSION:       My parents took vacant possession of Hoar Cross Hall in 1970 <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> the whole process of moving house was done over the summer months.  We lived about 20 miles away in an old vicarage with a large garden <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> lots of outbuildings. This house was about 200 years old <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> they say Bonnie Prince Charlie marched past it on his way to battle back in the day, for all you history buffs out there!  Actually I love history <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> I think my interest was fuelled by living in these historic houses as a child.  My dad used to be a racing driver in the 1950s <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> before that he did motorcycle racing, often at nearby Donington Park.  During the...