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Moving Out #34

MOVING OUT:      And so the day arrived a month or so after our wedding when my dad had to leave Hoar Cross Hall. Ten years after moving in he was now moving out, leaving his dream home for my mum to live in alone. Gavin moved with him and Piers was away at school most of the time. It was a mammoth task as he had so much stuff to move, especially from the basement. He had some heavy machinery too that he’d brought with him from his alabaster days, including a band saw which we used to saw up logs for the huge fireplaces in the main rooms. He had bought a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent which had some outbuildings for a workshop and there he moved to start a...

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 haunted house is even more scary!! That first winter at Hoar Cross Hall was like that. The attic rooms were on the floor above our bedrooms – there were about fifteen rooms which had been used for the servant girls to sleep in. 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 those d...

Ghouls Galore #18

One of the great things about living in a stately home is that you can have a wild party with the loudest of music – and no-one will hear it! I was now going out with Kev, whom I had met at college. Mum was a bit disappointed that my sensible boyfriend and I had parted company after 18 months of an on/off relationship but she accepted Kev into the fold and eventually met all the other members of the band. I think she wanted to put her mind at rest that they were a bunch of nice lads and not a drug crazed rock band eating bats! Which of course they were! No – I’m only kidding! After the awful split up at Christmas my parents were now living at each end of t...

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...

Ghouls Galore! #18

One of the great things about living in a stately home is that you can have a wild party with the loudest of music – and no-one will hear it! I was now going out with Kev, whom I had met at college. Mum was a bit disappointed that my sensible boyfriend and I had parted company after 18 months of an on/off relationship but she accepted Kev into the fold and eventually met all the other members of the band. I think she wanted to put her mind at rest that they were a bunch of nice lads and not a drug crazed rock band eating bats! Which of course they were! No – I’m only kidding! After the awful split up at Christmas my parents were now living at each end of t...

Like Father, Like Sons #19

As previously 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...