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Temple Newsam and the Meynells

TEMPLE NEWSAM and 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 grand upon the discovery of coal beneath their ancestral estates.  This was the great Barnsley field, with several hundred acres of Britain's deepest and finest coal.  Sir Charles Wood had a distinguished political career and they owned family seats at Garrowby, Pocklington, near York and Hickleton, near Doncaster.  They also owned a London house in Belgrave Square....

Hickleton Hall and 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 and who, together with Hugo, built Hoar Cross Hall to be their family home in 1873. The original house was called Hickleton Palace and 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 and added two low wings, one either side, and 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 and the mirror that inspired Lewis Carroll. As many of my regular readers will know, Hoar Cross Hall is a very haunted house and so it was incredibly interesting to hear another theory on the ghost of the little girl who haunts the rooms and corridors. 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 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 and 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 and became known as Th...

The History of Temple Newsam #37

In 1782, Hugo Meynell's grandfather, Hugo Meynell of Quorndon, the 'father of fox hunting', married the Hon. Elizabeth Ingram Shepheard.  She was the daughter of Charles Ingram, 9th Viscount Irwin and Lord Ingram.  The family seat was Temple Newsam in Yorkshire and this was how the Hoar Cross Meynell family became associated with this great house.  Through this marriage of Hugo and Elizabeth, the Meynell family also inherited the Ingram estates in Lincolnshire, acquired by Sir Arthur Ingram in the first half of the 17th century.    In 1793 Hugo bought the Hoar Cross estate and built a hunting lodge which was known as Old Hall. Hugo and Elizabeth had six ch...

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 and a bay window overlooking the terrace and 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 and 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...