Story Search Results

VENTURES NEW #10

VENTURES NEW: We were now in our third year at the hall and our lives were always busy keeping on top of the weeds and general upkeep of the house.  My dad expected us children to help as much as possible, which we hated, and much of our time was spent trying to hide from him to get out of doing the chores.  But sometimes we didn’t mind and we happily pulled an old trolley into the woods every now and then to collect wood for the fires and sometimes as a family we would spend a day clearing parts of the woods and grounds.  My mum had hired a lady from the village to help with the housework and we had also taken on a retired chap called Mr Hickman to do some...

LET THE BANQUET COMMENCE! #11

...that the hall was ready for the guests to be seated. (A halberd is a long wooden pole with a spear on the end).   It all sounded very grand and exciting and I was on hand to show people to their tables along with my mum.  The night started off really well and people were enjoying the festivities and singing.  Four of us were serving the beer and wine all evening which was included in the price – however, I think we served too much as everyone was completely sloshed by the end of the evening!  They’d also had a cup of mead at the start of the meal.  Things started to get out of hand as people were throwing apples across the room, instead of eating them...

The Graveyard Shift..... #24

...THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT...... Life carried on at the hall as best it could in difficult circumstances.  My dad continued to go to arms fairs to buy and sell antiques and we also went to a mediaeval banquet in Cheshire one night, although it wasn’t anywhere near as good as ours!  Once or twice we took my dad out with our friends to Derby, where he originated from, and that seemed to cheer him up.  But he really needed to get away from the house for longer periods of time and when he saw a boat advertised for sale at Caernarvon he jumped at the chance and bought it.  It was an ex lifeboat called The Benbow so quite sturdy, although in need of a lick of paint and...

WHODUNIT IN THE LIBRARY? #25

...orrendous hallucinations.  My dad was already visiting a psychiatrist each week and my mum took me to see one too!  Our family really was falling apart at the seams!  However, the feud went on and my dad was still selling items from the house unbeknown to my mum.  He had a beautiful wooden musical box which played pretty tunes when wound up.  My mum had hidden it away in her old bedroom under lock and key so my dad asked up to break into the room so he could get it back.  We managed to unlock the door using a credit card on the Yale lock (sliding the card between the door and the lock would push the lock inwards) and when we got inside we found the musica...

RACE TRACK ‘AFTER PARTIES’ #27

...RACE TRACK ‘AFTER PARTIES’ Because my dad used to be a racing driver he was often invited to parties and open days at various racing circuits.  He naturally knew lots of racing people and on this particular occasion he was invited to an Open Day at Donington Park.  Tom Wheatcroft, a local entrepreneur, had bought Donington Park in the 1970s as he owned the largest collection of Grand Prix cars in the world at that time.  In 1973 he opened a museum there to house them all and called it the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition.   Donington became the favoured home of the British round of the MotoGP motorcycling championships but he was really hoping to bring F...

See You In Court! #28

...SEE YOU IN COURT - The saga of my parents’ split continued as we grew up in our stately home, although their behaviour was anything but stately for most of the time!  Seven years of arguing and fighting were about to come to an end and the solicitors had finally agreed on a date to go to court.  We carried on helping my dad to run the hall and he still went to his boat in Caernarfon at weekends to get away from the house but we were all getting weary of it now.  We were young adults and wanting to get on with our own lives.  After five years together we were hoping to get married at some point so we were glad that it was finally going to be sorted out one...