Story Search Results

The Kitchen Maid's Story #35

THE KITCHEN MaID’S STORY:      If you were young, free and single – oh, and very well-to-do – the 1920s was the decade to live in!   The upper classes had lots of time on their hands and enjoyed post-First World War delights such as the theatre and jazz clubs. Not so for the lower classes, in particular a young girl who was to become the kitchen maid at Hoar Cross Hall in the 1920s.  The ‘depression’ after the First World War brought stark poverty to her home and many like her.  Her name was Jean Rennie, and she was extremely intelligent having won a scholarship to Glasgow University to study French and music.   However, the £5 bursary she g...

Gardeners' World at Hoar Cross #36

GaRDENERS’  WORLD aT  HOaR CROSS:       In it’s heyday Hoar Cross Hall had around 28 people employed to keep the 20 acres of grounds tidy and weed free.  In Victorian England the most common of all male servants was the gardener.   at Hoar Cross the head gardener had numerous under-gardeners known affectionately as ‘digging slaves’!  They were responsible for producing fruit, vegetables and growing luxury items in and out of season, much of it under glass.  adjacent to the house was the carp pool and greenhouse area along with a palm house; next to these was a walled kitchen garden.  This supplied the house with all its fruit, vegetables and...

aristocratic travels # 39

aRISTOCRaTIC TRaVELS:   Emily Charlotte Meynell, the original owner of Hoar Cross Hall, was probably one of the wealthiest independent women of the late 19th century in Britain.  Her property included country estates around the Midlands, a London house in Eaton Square and a villa in Florence.  For many years she owned a yacht, the latter a fully-crewed schooner of 380 tons.  The family had large financial resources in addition to their estate income, through which they were sustained until well into the 20th century. Emily cruised the Mediterranean every springtime in her yacht and occasionally crossed the North Sea to the Netherlands and Germany in the su...

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 an class='highlight'>Myan> mum and one or two other ladies were busy making the skirts and blouses for the wenches.   an class='highlight'>Myan> 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 an class='highlight'>Myan> parents decided to hold a Press Reception about a month before and so we...

alice - the ghost in the mirror

aLICE – THE GHOST IN THE MIRROR:       In 1865 Lewis Carroll wrote another story about alice following on from ‘alice in Wonderland’.   It was called ‘alice through the Looking Glass’.  In this story alice climbs onto the mantlepiece over the fireplace in her lounge and finds that she can climb through the mirror into another world which is reversed, just like a reflection.  Once again, she encounters strange figures in a world dominated by a chess set and nursery rhyme characters, among others.  But what inspired Lewis Carroll to write about a little girl having lots of adventures? In the 1850s Charles Dodgson (Carroll’s real name) studied...

The Schoolroom Maid's Story #33

THE SCHOOLROOM MaID’S STORY:      For the first 75 years of the Hall’s history about 50 servants were employed by the Meynell family in the house and grounds. among these was a young girl of fifteen who started work in 1920 as a Schoolroom Maid. Her name was Miss Inez Sophia Large and she had connections to Hoar Cross through her grand-parents, William and Mary Tooth, who lived in the village where William was the blacksmith; his smithy was just along from the Meynell public house. He had worked on the ironwork of the Hall during its construction in the 1860s. Inez’s aunt, Constance Madeley, was the wife of the landlord at the Buffalo Inn, in nearby New...