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THE RENOVATIONS BEGIN #4

...s time at auction houses buying and selling antiques and so he went back there again to source carpets and kitchen equipment.  He also installed huge electric heaters to keep our new tenants warm.  The West Wing was smaller than the East Wing so was made into a two-bedroomed apartment.  The tenants entered the house through the basement entrance and used the spiral staircases to get to their homes – so they were a bit like the servants of old, neither seen nor heard by us! The next change to make was to our own rooms so we could move downstairs and have a bigger kitchen.  The only space was in the East Wing off the Chapel Corridor – yes, this house boas...

Motor Racing Days #9

...etc from auction houses and we would pack this up and go off for the weekend.  Gavin and I would sit on chairs in the back of the van and every time we went round a corner our chairs would tip over to the side and we’d be hanging on for dear life – my mum would sit in the front with Piers on her knee!  No seatbelts then or child seats – I dread to think how we would have survived an accident!  My dad would always get passes for the Paddock which was the area where all the racing car teams were next to the pits and only a privileged few would have these.  At Silverstone there was a place called the Doghouse Club (long gone now) off the Paddock where th...

Motor Racing Days #9

...etc from auction houses and we would pack this up and go off for the weekend.  Gavin and I would sit on chairs in the back of the van and every time we went round a corner our chairs would tip over to the side and we’d be hanging on for dear life – my mum would sit in the front with Piers on her knee!  No seatbelts then or child seats – I dread to think how we would have survived an accident!  My dad would always get passes for the Paddock which was the area where all the racing car teams were next to the pits and only a privileged few would have these.  At Silverstone there was a place called the Doghouse Club (long gone now) off the Paddock where th...

Motor Racing Days #8

...etc from auction houses and we would pack this up and go off for the weekend. Gavin and I would sit on chairs in the back of the van and every time we went round a corner our chairs would tip over to the side and we’d be hanging on for dear life – my mum would sit in the front with Piers on her knee! No seatbelts then or child seats – I dread to think how we would have survived an accident! My dad would always get passes for the Paddock which was the area where all the racing car teams were next to the pits and only a privileged few would have these. At Silverstone there was a place called the Doghouse Club (long gone now) off the Paddock where the driver...

VENTURES NEW #10

...at local auctions and occasionally made trips to London for sales at Sothebys or Christies auction houses.  I once went with him and we spotted the actor Rodney Bewes from The Likely Lads TV programme – he pulled up next to Sothebys in his Rolls Royce! My dad’s antique collection continued to grow as he couldn’t resist a bargain and he would often go to a sale to get one thing and come back with something else – much to my mother’s annoyance!  Once he was meant to get more Bentwood chairs for the café and he came back with hundreds of silver spoons as he thought they would be more useful to sell to the visitors!  He loved a bargain as he was very...

See You In Court! #28

...SEE YOU IN COURT - The saga of my parents’ split continued as we grew up in our stately home, although their behaviour was anything but stately for most of the time!  Seven years of arguing and fighting were about to come to an end and the solicitors had finally agreed on a date to go to court.  We carried on helping my dad to run the Hall and he still went to his boat in Caernarfon at weekends to get away from the house but we were all getting weary of it now.  We were young adults and wanting to get on with our own lives.  After five years together we were hoping to get married at some point so we were glad that it was finally going to be sorted out one...