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Mediaeval Mayhem!

MEDIAEVAL MAYHEM!     It was the end of the summer season at Hoar Cross Hall in 1973 and rehearsals had started for the new venture of Mediaeval Banquets.  All the cast would come around to the house each week for rehearsals and my mum and one or two other ladies were busy making the skirts and blouses for the wenches.   My mum also made about 200 bibs which the guests were going to be wearing as eating five courses with a dagger can be quite messy!   We had a King, a Jester, a Fire-eater, a Halberdier, an organist and various wenches and serving ladies.  To launch the banquets my parents decided to hold a Press Reception about a month before and so we...

Ventures New #9

VENTURES NEW!       We were now in our third year at Hoar Cross 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...

Here Comes the Bride (Part 2) #33

HERE COMES the BRIDE (Part 2):    And so our wedding day at Hoar Cross Hall arrived bright and clear, all thoughts of solicitors, legals, fights and arrests behind us! Myself and my bridesmaids went to get our hair done in the morning and Kev slapped a piece of steak on his jaw to bring the swelling down after the rather unfortunate fight at his stag do. Fortunately, the bruise didn’t show up too much on the photos! Gavin drove my dad’s Mercedes Benz car all the way down the drive and back up the road to the church – this was one of the drawbacks of having a church in the grounds; you don’t get to drive all through the town with everyone looking at you...

Calendar Girls and Front Covers #7

CALENDAR GIRLS AND FRONT COVERS During our time at Hoar Cross Hall people would occasionally hire the house for a day’s filming or whatever. During the summer of 1973 a photographer from London hired the house and grounds for a day and he brought two models with him, one English and one German - they were taking photos for a glamour calendar! We children were told to keep right out of the way as they were taking photos in the gardens as well as the house. Naturally we wanted to see everything that was going on and my younger brother Gavin especially was very keen to watch – so much so that he found a pair of binoculars to follow all the proceedings! We mana...

Like Father, Like Sons #20

As mentioned in earlier blogs my dad used to be a racing driver during the 1950s and ran his own team in the 1960s, travelling all over Europe in his trusty Volkswagon van with his two mechanics and driver. He didn’t have big sponsorship money behind him and most of it was done on a shoestring but he came back with lots of funny stories of their van breaking down or some rural ‘hotel’ that they had stayed in. From each country that he visited he always brought me back a doll dressed in the traditional costume of that country. there was quite a collection and I still have them; I used to put them on display in the Library when our house was open to the publ...

Here comes the bride (Part 1) #27

Now my dad was having to move out of Hoar Cross Hall we had decided to bring our wedding forward so that we could get married in the church in the grounds and then have the reception afterwards in the Hall, which was after all our family home. the wedding preparations were going quite well and as we knew lots of musicians it wasn’t hard to find a local band and a DJ to do the disco. A friend of my dad’s offered to do the catering and the bar was set up with plenty of kegs from the local brewery in Burton on Trent. I had two bridesmaids and we all went to Birmingham one day to choose our dresses and shoes – it was all kept very simple really as I had no hel...