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Growing up in a stately home #1

...in those days was a huge amount of money! And so we moved to this house with all its history and tragedies in the summer of 1970. Old Hall - the original home of the Meynells   My family consisted of my mum and dad and two younger brothers and the five of us were about to take on a stately home in the middle of nowhere, or so it seemed to me! It was actually in the middle of Staffordshire but in an incredibly small village, more like a hamlet, with a church, a school, a few cottages and a village pub. The local bus service had just come to an end the month we moved in so there was no public transport either or a village shop! Of course, to us three kids...

Things That Go Bump In The Night! #3

...  THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT: Going to sleep in a big old house is quite scary when you’re young but going to sleep in a big old house that’s haunted is even more scary!!  That first winter at the Hall was like that.  Every time there was a windy night I could hear a window banging in the attic – all night long it kept me awake.  The next day I would go upstairs to close it but there would be no windows open or even loose.   They were all tightly shut as they had been for 20 years.  I remember standing there in the attic rooms, the hairs prickling the back of my neck and quickly legging it back downstairs!  On other nights I would hear peopl...

More Tea Vicar? #12

...MORE TEA VICAR?   During the long summer holidays it was easy to get bored.  As there was no public transport from Hoar Cross and no children living nearby, we three children had to make our own entertainment and we were always having adventures and getting up to mischief – a bit like the Famous Five, but without a dog!  We would roam around the village or explore the basement.  My dad was a hoarder and had kept all sorts of stuff over the years including gas masks and field phones from World War 2.  The old Servants Hall was now my dad’s workshop and he spent a lot of time down there restoring antiques to sell.  He had one of the field phones in his...

Hysterical Productions #16

...The next day, when cleaning up, we would find all sorts of things which people had left behind: scarves, perfume, a £1 note, cigarettes and even a set of false teeth left on the mantelpiece!  I had found a little hidey hole in the wooden panelling in the Long Gallery; a small 6” square door which pushed open when pressed in the right place and I would keep things in there which I found – especially the cigarettes! In the middle of all this busyness my dad still found time to go to Arms and Armour Exhibitions, one in particular in Birmingham around the time of the IRA bombings, and also the Racing Car Show at London’s Olympia.  This was something we us...

Like Father Like Sons #20

...s!  Nowadays Gavin is freelancing in Formula 2 and the endurance series but this still means that he gets to travel all over the world, although not quite like our dad travelled!    Of course, it all sounds very glamorous but he usually only gets to see the airport, a hotel and the race track!  Still, a lot of people would be happy with that! Piers at Donington Park Circuit When Piers got a kart for his 10th birthday he also wanted to get into kart racing, although this one only had a modified lawnmower engine in it so not very fast!  Mostly he just drove it up and down the long drive at the Hall but one day the steering arm broke and he crashed hea...

See You In Court! #28

...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 mad men!  We loved it of course, being young and wanting to forget our miserable home life �...