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Panto Pranks! #76

...e Meynell pub in the village and the pantomime was the topic of conversation.  People talked about it for weeks afterwards and for a short while it replaced the other 'theatricals' that were going on at the Hall, namely my parents divorce!  Yes, my parents had split up three years before and were living at each end of the house while their solicitors tried to come to some sort of an agreement.  My father was still trying to keep the house open to the public during the summer and my mother was running the Mediaeval Banquets during the winter.  Neither of them were on speaking terms other than by rude notes pushed under each others doors, and this is how our f...

Hoar Cross History #65

...gram Arms pub was actually a farmhouse dating back to the seventeenth century.  Before it was known as the Meynell Arms it was a coaching inn called the Shoulder of Mutton.  The name was changed in the 1860s when Emily and Hugo Meynell-Ingram were married and built the Hall and it has been thus ever since.  Nowadays it is a high quality bar and restaurant - a far cry from its farmyard origins!  (see header picture) Next to the Meynell pub was a blacksmith’s Forge.  Here in the 1860s worked blacksmith William Tooth who lived in the village with his wife Mary; he had worked on the ironwork of the Hall during its construction and was the village ‘smithy�...

Midnight pool parties #22

...the local pub.  Every time we went in everybody wanted an update on what was going on at the Hall with my parents and their quabbles.   It was a bit like a local soap opera!   We had also become engaged and I stayed at Kev’s house in the week so I could get to work easily having failed my driving test a couple of times; weekends were spent at the Hall.   Hoar Cross and the surrounding villages were a bit of a Birmingham commuter belt area and a lot of the families were quite well-to-do.  We met up with a crowd of young people in the Meynell every weekend whose fathers were stockbrokers, barristers and local gentry; most of their houses had swimming poo...

Panto Pranks! #23

...e Meynell pub in the village and the pantomime was the topic of conversation for weeks afterwards.  As well as our large crowd of younger people there was also a crowd of older men who were always in there.  One of them asked Kev if he could sell his wife’s car (as Kev was always buying and selling things in those days).  Kev readily agreed and a few days later drove the car up to the Hall and parked it on the drive.  The next day my mum pushed a note under my dad’s lounge door telling him to move the car at once.  My dad as usual ignored the note from my mum, saying we had every right to park on the drive as much as her!  So we left the car where it w...

Midnight pool parties #21

...the local pub.  Every time we went in everybody wanted an update on what was going on at the Hall with my parents and their quabbles.   It was a bit like a local soap opera!   We had also become engaged and I stayed at Kev’s house in the week so I could get to work easily having failed my driving test a couple of times; weekends were spent at the Hall.   Hoar Cross and the surrounding villages were a bit of a Birmingham commuter belt area and a lot of the families were quite well-to-do.  We met up with a crowd of young people in the Meynell every weekend whose fathers were stockbrokers, barristers and local gentry; most of their houses had swimming poo...

Panto Pranks! #22

...e Meynell pub in the village and the pantomime was the topic of conversation for weeks afterwards.  As well as our large crowd of younger people there was also a crowd of older men who were always in there.  One of them asked Kev if he could sell his wife’s car (as Kev was always buying and selling things in those days).  Kev readily agreed and a few days later drove the car up to the Hall and parked it on the drive.  The next day my mum pushed a note under my dad’s lounge door telling him to move the car at once.  My dad as usual ignored the note from my mum, saying we had every right to park on the drive as much as her!  So we left the car where it w...