Story Search Results

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 Hoar Cross 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 feeling a tingling down my spine and goose bumps all over as I felt the atmosphere closing in on me -  and...

More tea vicar? #12

MORE TEA VICAR?   Life at Hoar Cross Hall was always busy but during the long summer holidays it was easy to get bored.  As there was no public transport from Hoar Cross and no other families 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 his own gas mask and some field phones from World War 2.  He had served in the army as a dispatch rider during the war in North Africa, mixing with Ameri...

Hysterical Productions! #13

...�The next day, when cleaning up, we would find all sorts of things which people had left behind: scarves, perfume, money, 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 usually...

Alice - the ghost in the mirror

...the next day, he was told that no children were staying at the hotel at that time.  Again, on a separate occasion, the barman looked into the mirror and saw the child standing behind him but when he turned round she was gone. When author Graham Phillips went to the hall to research the Alice story, he took a photograph of the mirror and many people said they could see a little girls’ face in the bottom left hand corner of it.  How strange!  Is this the real Alice looking through the glass back at us?  What do you think?   If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, click here and please feel free to share with your friends....

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! In the early seventies I became quite interested in rallying and thought that I might like to have a go at that when I left school.  I was quite the tomboy in those days and something like that would have suited me well, although it was very much a man’s world back then.  My parents took us all to see the annual...

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