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Things that go bump in the night #3

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 I quickly legged it back downstairs! On other nights...

More Tea Vicar? #12

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 the 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 workshop and the other one w...

Queen Alexandra - my family #51

More photos from the album of Queen Alexandra in the run up to the Coronation showing members of the royal family at leisure in the early part of the 20th century.  Alexandra enjoyed photography as a hobby and in 1908 put together an album of her personal photos to be sold for charity. In it are photos of her husband King Edward VII and other royals spending time at Balmoral and Sandringham during their holidays – a rare insight into how the royal family spent their leisure time, which in those days would never have been seen before.     the Emperor of Russia's family This picture was taken on board the Emperor of Russia's yacht, 'Standart' as they sail...

Hoar Cross History #65

Hoar Cross Hall, where I grew up, is in the village of Hoar Cross, so small that it is almost a hamlet.  the only thing that defines it as a village is the fact that it has a place of worship which is the Church of the Holy Angels, built by Emily Meynell in the 1870s in memory of her husband, Hugo.  the name of the village was first recorded in 1230 and called ‘Horcros’ and may refer to a grey boundary cross which stood as a marker but is now long gone.  No-one is entirely sure if this cross is the point where the four wards of Needwood Forest once met, or whether it indicated the extent of the land owned by Burton Abbey.  Whatever the reason we shall ne...

Meet the Neighbours - Shugborough Hall #80

the next house in this series is a mere half hour from Hoar Cross Hall and we often visited it during the summer months and later, when my children were born, we’d take them for a visit too!  Seated on the edge of Cannock Chase this elegant house was once a manor house owned by the Bishops of Lichfield, until the dissolution of the monasteries around 1540.  Later it came into the hands of the Anson family, who were ancestors of the Earls of Lichfield, and stayed there for three centuries.  William Anson’s grandson, also called William, demolished the manor house in 1693 and built a three storey building in the Neo-Classical style which forms the central p...

Meet the Neighbours - Coombe Abbey # 81

Although this house isn’t quite so neighbourly to Hoar Cross Hall as the others in this series, it is loosely linked to the hall as it was the inspiration for the Mediaeval Banquets that my parents ran in the 1970s.  they went along one night, to one of their banquets, to see what the format was and saw immediately how popular they were and so decided to start their own brand of banquets.  the Coombe Abbey banquets were very traditional and had minstrels playing lutes etc while people ate their meal.  the entertainment too was typical of mediaeval amusement of the times and I remember my parents saying it was an enjoyable night out but not terribly lively!�...