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Queen Alex<Span class='highlight'>andSpan>ra - my family #52

Here is a final selection of photos from the album of Queen Alex<Span class='highlight'>andSpan>ra, found in the Library of Hoar Cross Hall.  Alex<Span class='highlight'>andSpan>ra enjoyed photography as a hobby <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> in 1908 put together this album of personal photos of her family to be sold for charity.  It is a fascinating insight into another world, long gone now.  As we lead up to the Coronation of King Charles III it is a reminder of all that has gone before <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> all that is to come in the future with our hard working royals.     King Edward VII <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> David Here is the King in relaxed pose with his gr<Span class='highlight'>andSpan>son, David, who later became King Edward VIII.  David became the King in January 1936 <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> famously abdicat...

Temple Newsam <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> the Meynells

TEMPLE NEWSAM <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> THE MEYNELLS:     On 11th August 1863, Hugo Francis Meynell Ingram married the Hon. Emily Charlotte, daughter of Sir Charles Wood, Bart, afterwards 1st Viscount Halifax.  The Woods were an old gentry family, for many centuries respectable York merchants.  They were to turn gr<Span class='highlight'>andSpan> upon the discovery of coal beneath their ancestral estates.  This was the great Barnsley field, with several hundred acres of Britain's deepest <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> finest coal.  Sir Charles Wood had a distinguished political career <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> they owned family seats at Garrowby, Pocklington, near York <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> Hickleton, near Doncaster.  They also owned a London house in Belgrave Square....

Hickleton Hall <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> the Meynells #43

This lovely Grade II listed Georgian house in South Yorkshire was once the childhood home of The Honourable Emily Charlotte Meynell who married Hugo Meynell of Hoar Cross <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> who, together with Hugo, built Hoar Cross Hall to be their family home in 1873. The original house was called Hickleton Palace <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> had been built for Judge Francis Rodes in the 16th century but in 1745 Hickleton Hall was built just to the south of this house after the estate was bought by Godfrey Wentworth in about 1730. Thirty years later he extended the house <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> added two low wings, one either side, <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> a servants wing. Emily's father, Charles Wood, 3rd Baronet, inherited the house in...

Alice - the ghost in the mirror #38

ALICE – THE GHOST IN THE MIRROR:       Whilst researching the history of my former home, Hoar Cross Hall, I came across this fascinating story from author Graham Phillips who had visited the Hall to do some research into the story of Alice <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> the mirror that inspired Lewis Carroll. As many of my regular readers will know, Hoar Cross Hall is a very haunted house <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> so it was incredibly interesting to hear another theory on the ghost of the little girl who haunts the rooms <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> corridors. In 1865 Lewis Carroll wrote another story about Alice following on from ‘Alice in Wonderl<Span class='highlight'>andSpan>’. It was called ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’. In this story Alic...

Home fit for a King #53

With the Coronation of King Charles III almost upon us, this week's blog focuses on the Palace that he now calls home – or the 'Headquarters' of the Royal Family. This residence is Buckingham Palace which is the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> where many state occasions take place, but Buckingham Palace was originally known as Buckingham House. The building at the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site that had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> became known as Th...

The Library #69

The Library at Hoar Cross Hall is a delightful room, not huge like the other rooms, but not too small either – a room fitted with mahogany bookshelves on three sides <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> a bay window overlooking the terrace <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> the gardens.  From this window, on a clear day, it is possible to see the “Three ladies of the vale” – the spires of Lichfield Cathedral.  Libraries have been around for centuries with evidence pointing to the Romano-British world when documents <Span class='highlight'>andSpan> manuscripts were stored in chests in special rooms where people could study them sitting at a table, not unlike today's libraries.   In the 15th century classical works were collected by men such...