Story Search Results

Hallowe'en Hauntings #100

...� When I got older it was great to have parties in the attics as we could play our rock music really loud and no-one would hear it!  My dad had made the west wing of the house (the old Victorian nurseries) into an apartment which we rented out and it was here that my 18th birthday was celebrated as we had become friends with the people that lived there. As everyone had heard about the ghost stories at the Hall, we made an ouija board and tried to contact the spirits.  Most people had had a few spirits of a different kind by then and we sat around the table watching the glass move around the board, wondering who was pushing it.  Afterwards no-one admitted tha...

RACE TRACK ‘AFTER PARTIES’ #27

...nd we all got dressed up in our Sunday best, Kev wearing a jacket and me in a large floppy hat – we looked as if we were going to a wedding not a race meeting!  But dad assured us that we needed to look the part as there was a big party afterwards in a marquee with all the top racing people in attendance – ‘racing royalty’ we called them.  People like Bob Gerrard, who was one of the top racing drivers of the post war era – he and his wife were always very expensively dressed and hosted one of the marquee parties.  There was also a VIP marquee which we managed to sneak into when no-one was looking.  After ordering our drinks at the bar, Kev asked ho...

See You In Court! #28

...rents had got themselves into.   On the one side was my dad with his solicitor and Barrister plus Kev and I for moral support.   On the other side was my mum with her solicitor and Barrister and one or two of the banquet staff for moral support.  And so, there we all stood, our two little groups waiting in the corridor outside the court room.  The solicitors’ both giving out last minute instructions and conferring with their Barristers on this and that.  And then it was time; they called us in and we sat on either side of the room.  Then an incredible thing happened – six people, each carrying a huge pile of paperwork and files, all walked in after u...

THE TAX MAN COMETH #29

...ent on we got hungry and the chef decided to cook some chips for us all.  He went into the kitchen and saw that the chimney was on fire!  We all ran out of the pub and sure enough, there were flames pouring out of the top.  As the landlord only lived in the village the chef phoned him up and told him about the fire but he wouldn’t believe him!  He thought we were playing a joke on him and slammed the phone down.  Once more the chef rang him and told him that the pub was on fire – he must come straight away but once again he wouldn’t believe us and hung up.  Eventually we rang the fire brigade and then the landlord, who by now was very angry at being...

What the butler saw!

...when they got home.  I can hear all the giggling even now! The highlight of the year for these girls was an eagerly-awaited dance at the Servants’ Ball at Christmas time.  Let’s hope they didn’t get up to too much mischief when the butler wasn’t looking!   Don’t miss next week’s instalment:  Gardeners world at Hoar Cross If you want to follow my story from the beginning Click Here!...

The War years and beyond

...er things got back to some sort of ‘normality’; however, times had changed and women were no longer satisfied with being in domestic service.  The attics, which were once full of servant girls, were now empty and by 1950 the number of servants had fallen to just three or four with a few men working in the gardens.  Over the next twenty years the beautiful gardens gradually fell into a state of decay, which is how we found them when we moved there in 1970. By now much of the Meynell estate lands had been disposed of.  Local properties were sold to tenants and others.  The Hoar Cross estate, once the pivot of the local community and a source of employment...