Story Search Results

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...

Eat, drink and be merry! #10

EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY!        We were now in our third year at the Hall and our lives were always busy keeping on top of the weeds and general upkeep of the house.  My dad expected us children to help as much as possible, which we hated, and much of our time was spent trying to hide from him to get out of doing the chores.  But sometimes we didn’t mind and we happily pulled an old trolley into the woods every now and then to collect wood for the fires and sometimes as a family we would spend a day clearing parts of the woods and grounds.  My mum had hired a lady from the village to help with the housework and we had also taken on a retired chap calle...

Ghouls Galore! #19

GHOULS  GALORE!      One of the great things about living in a stately Home is that you can have a wild party with the loudest of music – and no-one will hear it!  I was now going out with Kev, whom I had met at college.  Mum was a bit disappointed that my sensible boyfriend and I had parted company after 18 months of an on/off relationship but she accepted Kev into the fold and eventually met all the other members of the band.  I think she wanted to put her mind at rest that they were a bunch of nice lads and not a drug crazed rock band eating bats!  Which of course they were! No – I’m only kidding!  After the awful split up at Christmas my pare...

The Graveyard Shift! #25

THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT!       Life carried on at the Hall as best it could in difficult circumstances.  My dad continued to go to Arms and Armour Fairs to buy and sell antiques and we also went to a mediaeval banquet in Cheshire one night, although it wasn’t anywhere near as good as ours!  Once or twice we took my dad out with our friends to Derby, where he originated from, and that seemed to cheer him up.  But he really needed to get away from the house for longer periods of time and when he saw a boat advertised for sale at Caernarvon he jumped at the chance and bought it.  It was an ex lifeboat called The Bembo so quite sturdy, although in need of a li...

The tax man cometh! #29

THE TAX MAN COMETH:   My parents’ court case was finally over and my dad had six months to leave the house.  In the meantime my mum had to find the funds to buy him out and he had to find another house to live in.  He also had an awful lot of stuff to move too!  He eventually found a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent but as it was obviously a lot smaller he had to get rid of a lot of his possessions and one of the first things to go was his Lotus Elite.  He advertised it in the local paper but instead of getting a phone call from a likely buyer, the first call was from the local tax office.  Back in those days they used to check advertisements in the news...

The Kitchen Maid's Story #35

THE KITCHEN MAID’S STORY:      If you were young, free and single – oh, and very well-to-do – the 1920s was the decade to live in!   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...