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Hoar Cross Hall - a bit of history #17

...in those days. Hugo Charles went on to marry Georgiana Pigou of London in 1819 and their eldest son Hugo Francis was the last of the descendants of Sir Arthur Ingram to inherit Temple Newsam. He married the Hon. Emily Charlotte, daughter of the 1st Viscount Halifax, in 1863 and together they built the present Hoar Cross Hall to be their family home. Hugo Francis Meynell in the 1800s   The Hall took nearly 10 years to build and was completed in 1871, although Hugo and Emily had already moved in before that. After their marriage they had lived at Old Hall while a temporary home was being built for them at Cross Hayes, between Yoxall and Hoar Cross. There...

See you in Court #27

...p early today aren’t you?” to which we just nodded and carried on to our bedrooms!We consoled ourselves by spending a lot of time in the Meynell Arms, the local pub in the village. When we walked in of an evening, everyone was keen to know the latest updates on the divorce and we would spend half an hour telling them all the news – it was like a real life soap opera! On Tuesday nights a bunch of the local businessmen would all meet up for a drink. These men were all middle aged, respectable professionals but on a Tuesday night they turned into a bunch of wild animals! We loved it of course, being young and wanting to forget our miserable home life – what...

Moving Out #32

...And so the day arrived a month or so after our wedding when my dad had to leave Hoar Cross Hall. Ten years after moving in he was now moving out, leaving his dream home for my mum to live in alone. Gavin moved with him and Piers was away at school most of the time. It was a mammoth task as he had so much stuff to move, especially from the basement. He had some heavy machinery too that he’d brought with him from his alabaster days, including a band saw which we used to saw up logs for the huge fireplaces in the main rooms. He had bought a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent which had some outbuildings for a workshop and there he moved to start afresh. He carried o...

Moving On - the end of an era #33

...the next day at the Hall plus a tour of all the rooms new and old. It was quite fascinating to see the spa and treatment rooms which are now in the  basement. The pool is in the old Servants Hall which in turn became my dad’s workshop and the treatment rooms are in other parts of the old servants’ quarters – it was barely recognisable! In 2005 we went back again with my mum and two of our children, Lee and Hannah. Again, it was great fun to explore the house and grounds and show my children where I had lived as a child. I was particularly fascinated to see the attic rooms as these had always looked so spooky and were obviously haunted – how strange to...

A New Year Calamity! #35

...The New Year’s Eve Balls at Hoar Cross Hall were usually the highlight of the year. After twelve months of hard work, especially running the Mediaeval Banquets twice a week through the winter, we were always ready to see out the year in style with a big new year party. In those days it was always black tie for the men and long dresses for the ladies – usually around 500 people bought tickets for an evening of entertainment with a dance band, disco and a meal. At midnight a man dressed in traditional Scottish regalia, including a kilt and sporran, would pipe in the new year with his bagpipes. Down the Long Gallery he would slowly walk and into the Ballroom wi...

Hickleton Hall and the Meynells #38

...in those days. It must have been a bustling household with so many little ones running around keeping the nursemaids on their toes! Hickleton was not as huge as Hoar Cross Hall, probably half the size, but it did still have servants quarters, stables and even a brewhouse. One of the last brewhouses to operate within a country house was at Hickleton.  Apparently, payments for staff beer ('beer money') was a further perquisite to their wages. This was, in part, a quaint survival from the days when servants drank beer instead of tea. Many houses had a brewhouse. Beer was particularly important when the water supply was unreliable and unsafe. Servants might enjoy...