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Anyone for Tennis? #96

With the summer season well and truly upon us and Wimbledon almost here, I thought a blog about tennis might be in order!  The game of tennis first started in the Mediaeval days and involved hitting a ball with a bare hand and later with a glove.  By the 16th century the glove had become a racquet and the game had moved to an enclosed playing area and the rules had stabilized.  This was known as ‘real tennis’.  The word tennis came into use in English in the mid-14th century from French, via the Anglo-Norman term Tenez, which can be translated as 'hold', 'receive' or 'take', a call from the server to his opponent indicating that he is about to serve....

NEW YEAR JINKS #26

NEW YEAR JINKS The New Year’s Eve Balls were usually the highlight of the year.  After twelve months of hard work, especially running the Mediaeval Banquets twice a week through the winter, we were always ready to see out the year in style with a big new year party.  In those days it was always black tie for the men and long dresses for the ladies – usually around 500 people bought tickets for an evening of entertainment with a dance band, disco and a meal.  At midnight a man dressed in traditional Scottish regalia, including a kilt, would pipe in the new year with his bagpipes.  Down the Long Gallery he would slowly walk and into the Ballroom  with hi...

Becoming a Rock Chick #17

My schooldays were coming to an end now and I absolutely couldn’t wait to leave. The school itself was an old Victorian grammar school in Uttoxeter which still had wooden desks with inkwells in them! Even the teachers wore their mortar boards and gowns just like the ones at Eton and Harrow – or the Beano! However, in the last two years there I had made a few good friends and we would go into town every lunch time to meet up with a group of guys that worked at the local J. C. Bamford firm. They were all into motor bikes and one of the first films I watched was ‘Easy Rider’. They also went to a lot of concerts to see live music, something which was totally...

Ghostbusters #8

GHOSTBUSTERS! Later on in the year of 1973 a couple of professional ghost hunters asked to stay over one night to try and source the noises we heard in the attic.  They brought cases full of recording equipment and set it all up in one of the attic rooms.  Rather them than me I thought!  Then I had a brilliant idea and went off to tell Gavin all about it.  As mentioned in my first blog the attic and basement had a row of bells which the family used to summon the servants.  Before the men arrived we spent all day trying out all the bells to see which ones were which.  We found that one of the bell pulls in the Chase Dressing Room made one of the bells in th...

Party On! #18

PARTY ON! 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 begrudgingly 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...

Eat, drink and be merry! #10

EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY!        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 calle...