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Ghouls Galore!

...nt at the Hall where we had got to know the latest residents there.  A large crowd of people would meet up at the Meynell, the local pub in the village, and then we would all troop up to the Hall at closing time and sneak into the west wing via the basement door, which was the way in for the people who lived in the apartments.  Up the spiral staircase we would all go and eventually we got to our destination, trying to beat the time switches which kept the lights on until we got there.  We were always terrified that the lights would ‘time out’ before we got to the next one along the basement passageway and everyone would be making ghostly sounds and chasin...

Ghouls Galore! #17

...nt at the Hall where we had got to know the latest residents there. A large crowd of people would meet up at the Meynell, the local pub in the village, and then we would all troop up to the Hall at closing time and sneak into the west wing via the basement door, which was the way in for the people who lived in the apartments. Up the spiral staircase we would all go and eventually we got to our destination, trying to beat the time switches which kept the lights on until we got there. We were always terrified that the lights would ‘time out’ before we got to the next one along the basement passageway and everyone would be making ghostly sounds and chasing each...

The Tax Man Cometh! #26

...THE TAX MAN COMETH:      My parents’ court case was finally over and my dad had six months to leave the family home of Hoar Cross Hall. In the meantime my mum had to find the funds to buy him out and he had to find another house to live in. He also had an awful lot of stuff to move too! He eventually found a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent but as it was obviously a lot smaller he had to get rid of quite a few of his possessions and one of the first things to go was his Lotus Elite. He advertised it in the local paper but instead of getting a phone call from a likely buyer, the first call was from the local tax office! Back in those days they used to check a...

Our mansion gets a facelift #4

...OUR MANSION GETS A FACELIFT! We moved into Hoar Cross Hall during the summer holidays and my parents quickly realised that they had a lot of work on their hands to make the place habitable as well as to earn some money from it. As previously mentioned, there was an East Wing and a West Wing to the house. My dad decided to convert the first floor rooms of each wing into three separate apartments; he had done this at our previous house. This would generate income from rents until we got the main house open to the public. It wasn’t a big job to convert the rooms as the East Wing had four main rooms and two bathrooms already there, which would have been used as g...

The Tax Man Cometh! #26

...My parents’ court case was finally over and my dad had six months to leave the family home, Hoar Cross Hall. In the meantime my mum had to find the funds to buy him out and he had to find another house to live in. He also had an awful lot of stuff to move too! He eventually found a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent but as it was obviously a lot smaller he had to get rid of a lot of his possessions and one of the first things to go was his Lotus Elite. He advertised it in the local paper but instead of getting a phone call from a likely buyer, the first call was from the local tax office. Back in those days they used to check advertisements in the newspapers and...

The origins of the stately home #43

...whilst a Hall could have up to 100 rooms (including servants quarters). Hoar Cross Hall had 70 rooms although the kitchens had been knocked down so it would have had maybe another 10 rooms on top of that – a lot to keep clean! A Palace could have up to 300 or more rooms. Typical rooms in a stately home would be a Long Gallery (for promenading along during the winter months), a saloon, a library, a drawing room, a snooker room and master and guest bedrooms. Rooms on each floor were laid out as follows:-   The basement - kitchens and sculleries plus male servants' bedrooms The ground floor - dining room and morning room The first floor - drawing room The...