Story Search Results

The Graveyard Shift #23

...sentially English and the local gentry were quite eccentric – even to the point of one gent bringing a horse into the pub one lunchtime and standing with it in the bar while he sipped his G & T ! Only in rural England!   Don’t miss next week’s exciting instalment:    'Whodunit in the Library?'   If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, click here and please feel free to share with your friends.   Please subscribe to  my youtube channel and follow me around my childhood home where I bring my blogs to life!  Click here for the tour.  ...

Race Day Parties! #25

...speak any English so Janine would ‘translate’ for me, then we would jabber away in jibberish to each other pretending to speak Swedish, while the VIPs would look on in amazement. I don’t know what we would have done if we’d actually met a Swedish person – luckily we didn’t! We had lots of good days out at Mallory Park as it was quite a small circuit in a nice setting, there being two lakes in the middle of the track – one for fishing and one for boating. Janine and I as Grid Girls   Janine also came along with me to the Silverstone Grand Prix when Mediaeval Banquets (the business my parents ran from the Hall) sponsored a racing car there. W...

Hoar Cross Hall - Life Below Stairs #35

...and full English breakfasts! Everything had to be made from scratch of course so the cooks must have been cooking something or other from dawn until dusk. It must have been exhausting! In the grounds there were around 20 gardeners and groundsmen who helped to keep the constant weeds down and tend to the rose bushes and hedges. This in itself would have been a full time job. The kitchen gardens and greenhouses would have provided a lot of the produce they ate as well as the pheasants and other game birds that were reared to be eaten. There was also a carp pool for their fish stock. In total there were about 50 servants employed by the Meynell family which inclu...

The Kitchen Maid's Story #36

...course in English Literature, history, philosophy, and drama. She graduated in 1984. In 1991, she paid a visit to Hoar Cross, spending a pleasurable week as a guest in the Spa Hotel, above stairs! What a strange experience that must have been for her, albeit enjoyable! Her life had now come full circle which just goes to show that you should never give up on your dreams and you’re never too old to do something new!   Don’t miss next week’s instalment:   'What the Butler Saw!'   If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, click here and please feel free to share with your friends. Follow me around my childhood home in my 'Tour of the...

Royal visitors at Hoar Cross Hall #10

...aditional English country house with weekend parties full of gracious living and good company.” The people who came to the parties were usually young aristocrats such as Lady Diana Legge and her sister Lady Elisabeth Bassett, who was lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother from 1959 – 1993, when she retired at the age of 85! Lady Elizabeth Bassett (in the dark dress) 1930s   However, the Meynell family also spent a lot of time at their Laughton estate to economize on the costs of running Hoar Cross. With the Second World War looming the days of house parties were coming to an end and life would never be the same again. Dressing up during weekend parti...

Royal Visitors at Hoar Cross Hall #20

...aditional English country house with weekend parties full of gracious living and good company.” The people who came to the parties were usually young aristocrats such as Lady Diana Legge and her sister Lady Elisabeth Bassett, who was lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother from 1959 – 1993, when she retired at the age of 85! Lady Elisabeth Bassett (in the dark dress)   However, the Meynell family also spent a lot of time at their Laughton estate to economize on the costs of running Hoar Cross. With the Second World War looming the days of house parties were coming to an end and life would never be the same again. After the war ended in 1945 there was on...