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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...

the Tax Man Cometh #29

...grounds, the Church of the Holy Angels, and have the reception in the Hall – with all those bottles of champagne that my dad had been saving for years! the year was now 1980 and we set a date in August, a couple of months before my dad had to leave. It was strange having to meet up with the vicar who we had had such a fall out with when we were youngsters, when we had lit all the candles in the Church one day to brighten it up. I hoped he didn’t remember! I also hoped he didn’t know that it was Gavin and I who had sabotaged the many Christmas and Easter high teas at the vicarage after the Church services, when we would take the sandwiches apart and put th...

Here comes the bride (Part 1) #30

...HERE COMES the BRIDE (Part 1)   Our wedding preparations were going quite well.  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 help or advice from my mum as most brides do.   Kev’s parents had eloped after the war and got married in a register office with two witnesses dragged off the street, so they had no idea what you did to pla...

Hoar Cross Hall - A bit of History #54

...ent:   'the Church of the Holy Angels'   If you would like to follow my story from the beginning click here and please feel free to share with your friends. Follow me on a personal tour of my childhood home on YouTube.OUT NOW!!  'My Dad Bought a Mansion' book is available on Amazon.  ...

the Tax Man Cometh! #26

...My parents’ court case was finally over and my dad had six months to leave the family home, Hoar Cross Hall. In the meantime my mum had to find the funds to buy him out and he had to find another house to live in. He also had an awful lot of stuff to move too! He eventually found a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent but as it was obviously a lot smaller he had to get rid of a lot of his possessions and one of the first things to go was his Lotus Elite. He advertised it in the local paper but instead of getting a phone call from a likely buyer, the first call was from the local tax office. Back in those days they used to check advertisements in the newspapers and...

Growing up in a stately home #1

...ily built the Church of the Holy Angels in the grounds of the hall in memory of her husband. This is the Church that I got married in almost a hundred years later. On Hugo’s death Emily inherited many large estates and they say she was a double millionairess – which 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...