Story Search Results

Hickleton Hall and the Meynells #38

This lovely Grade II listed Georgian house in South Yorkshire was once the childhood 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 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)...

Bacon's 'Essay on Gardens' # 56

...ardens of Hoar Cross Hall were planned by Emily Meynell Ingram according to Bacon's 'Essay on Gardens'. Bacon's plan was one of magnificence and based on the Elizabethan garden with new ideas imported from France, Italy and Holland.  “The garden is best to be square, encompassed on all four sides with a stately arched hedge”. Yews were used extensively for hedges, but more for walks and shelter within the gardens, than to form the outer enclosure. In larger gardens, there were two or three gates in the walls with handsome stone pillars surmounted with balls. The gardens at Hoar Cross have some of these features, in particular the wrought-iron gates at the...

What the Butler Saw! #37

...Anyone who’s seen Downton Abbey will remember Carter the butler. He is exactly how a butler would have been in the 19th century and, strangely enough, the butler at Hoar Cross Hall during the early part of the 20th century was also called Carter! Although most big houses had a house steward who was in charge of accounts and general running of the household, a butler was more commonly engaged by the wealthy. He was usually a grand, authoritarian figure, commanding respect and awe and most of the servants would have been scared to death of upsetting him! He was dressed like a gentleman of the period and generally ran the household with an iron fist. As I said,...

An Edwardian Schoolroom Maid #40

...For the first 75 years of Hoar Cross Hall’s history about 50 servants were employed by the Meynell family in the house and grounds. Among these was a young girl of fifteen who started work in 1920 as a Schoolroom Maid. Her name was Miss Inez Sophia Large and she had connections to Hoar Cross through her grand-parents, William and Mary Tooth, who lived in the village where William was the blacksmith; his smithy was just along from the Meynell public house. He had worked on the ironwork of the Hall during its construction in the 1860s. Inez’s aunt, Constance Madeley, was the wife of the landlord at the Buffalo Inn, in nearby Newborough, and it was through her...

Hoar Cross Hall - Life Below Stairs #35

...This week I’ve done a history blog about the servants who lived at Hoar Cross Hall from the 1870s to the 1950s when the Hall became empty. They were an essential part of keeping a big house running but were often not appreciated by the aristocracy as they went about their day to day duties. The life of a servant in Victorian times was a hard one. They had to rise at 5am to clean and light all the fires and dust and polish the floors, then do a day’s work, often not getting to bed much before midnight. No wonder they didn’t live to a great age in those days! By the end of the 19th century there were nearly one and a half million servants; most young girls...

Royal visitors at Hoar Cross Hall #10

...pparently Hoar Cross Hall also had many well-known visitors over the years, including Queen Mary, her daughter Mary, the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of York (later to become King George VI and the Queen Mother). They may have visited during one of their tours of the Midlands and it may have only been for afternoon tea, but we do know that the Meynell family provided hospitality for Mary, the Princess Royal, probably in the 1920s and for whom a special bathroom containing a marble-enclosed bath was installed on the first floor of the house. So maybe the family came for tea whilst dropping off Princess Mary for her visit – at least the servants didn'...