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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 and no children living nearby, we three children had to make our own entertainment and we were always having adventures and 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 and had kept all sorts of stuff over the years including gas masks and field phones from World War 2.  The old Servants Hall was now my dad’s workshop and he spent a lot of time down there restoring antiques to sell.  He had one of the field phones in his...

Coming Of Age #21

...t near to Hoar Cross the car was still a little way behind us and we began to think that it might be following us as you never saw many cars out there late at night!  As we got to the Lodge and the entrance to the Hall we decided to suddenly turn right onto the private road and as we did so Kev switched off his lights hoping that the car wouldn’t see us.  We didn’t have any reason to worry but we thought it would be fun to lose them, as you do when you’re young!  Alas, it had seen into our cunning plan and promptly turned onto the private road too.  However, we were one step ahead of them as we knew these roads intimately and we turned into the woods a...

The Kitchen Maid's Story

...THE KITCHEN MAID’S STORY:      If you were young, free and single – oh, and very well-to-do – the 1920s were the decade to be a part of.   The upper classes had lots of time on their hands and enjoyed post-First World War delights such as the theatre and jazz clubs. Not so for the lower classes, in particular a young girl who was to become the kitchen maid at Hoar Cross Hall in the 1920s.  The depression after the First World War brought stark poverty to her home and many like her.  Her name was Jean Rennie, and she was extremely intelligent having won a scholarship to Glasgow University to study French and music.   However, the £5 bursary she g...

What the butler saw!

...three at Hoar Cross.  They were constantly leaving to better themselves as butlers were usually picked from footmen but they would only consider men who were tall and well built.  John Barnaby was the first footman at this time and he left in 1932 to be succeeded by Albert Kennard.  George Barnaby, his brother, was the second footman.  All were tall and good looking! The daughters of the family were often attracted to fine, upstanding footmen.  The butler would have to keep an eye on them as mixing with the family was unheard of.  However, the girls would find ways of being in the same place as the footman, especially if they went out on a carriage ride...

My Dad Bought A Mansion! #1

...MY DAD BOUGHT A MANSION!    It was the summer of 1970, Mungo Jerry was at the top of the hit parade and 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, and 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 and armour in the country and 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 Leiceste...

More Tea Vicar? #13

...MORE TEA VICAR?         Life at Hoar Cross Hall was always busy but during the long summer holidays it was easy to get bored.  As there was no public transport from Hoar Cross and no other families living nearby, we three children had to make our own entertainment and we were always having adventures and 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 and had kept all sorts of stuff over the years including gas masks and field phones from World War 2.  The old Servants Hall was now my dad’s workshop and he spent a lot of time down there restoring...