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The War Years and Beyond #38

THE WAR YEARS AND BEYOND:         During the Second World War, life in country houses changed dramatically.  It was no different at <span class='highlight'>hoarspan> <span class='highlight'>crossspan>.  The flower borders on the main lawns were turfed over to reduce maintenance and vegetables were grown in areas formerly restricted to flowers.  Evacuees from Birmingham came to stay for the duration of the war and they lived in the basement, as it was considered to be the safest place.  I imagine that they must have been in the care of the servants as they were living amongst them but it must also have been quite exciting for them to move from a bombed out city to the relative safety of the countryside, althoug...

<span class='highlight'>hoarspan> <span class='highlight'>crossspan> <span class='highlight'>hallspan> - Life below stairs #45

This week I’ve done a history blog about the servants who lived at the <span class='highlight'>hallspan> from the 1870s to the 1950s when the <span class='highlight'>hallspan> became empty. They were an essential part of keeping a big house running but were often not appreciated by the aristocracy as they went about their day to day duties. The life of a servant in Victorian times was a hard one. They had to rise at 5am to clean and light all the fires and dust and polish the floors, then do a day’s work, often not getting to bed much before midnight. No wonder they didn’t live to a great age in those days! By the end of the 19th century there were nearly one and a half million servants; most young girls went in...

Lest we forget #86

During the two World Wars the Meynell family of <span class='highlight'>hoarspan> <span class='highlight'>crossspan> <span class='highlight'>hallspan> served their country alongside many others from all walks of life.  After each war there was huge social upheaval, especially for women, who had been doing what was traditionally 'men's work' during the war and weren't prepared to go back to domestic roles.  At the time of the First World War Frederick Meynell and Lady Mary Meynell were living at the <span class='highlight'>hallspan> with their five children.  Their four sons all served in the war and their daughter Margaret served in the Red <span class='highlight'>crossspan> as a volunteer. Their eldest son Francis was a Major but was wounded in action in 1917 with severe wounds to his back. He was m...

The Tax Man Cometh #29

My parents’ court case was finally over and my dad had six months to leave the family home, <span class='highlight'>hoarspan> <span class='highlight'>crossspan> <span class='highlight'>hallspan>. In the meantime my mum had to find the funds to buy him out and he had to find another house to live in. He also had an awful lot of stuff to move too! He eventually found a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent but as it was obviously a lot smaller he had to get rid of a lot of his possessions and one of the first things to go was his Lotus Elite. He advertised it in the local paper but instead of getting a phone call from a likely buyer, the first call was from the local tax office. Back in those days they used to check advertisements in the newspapers and...

Meet the Neighbours - Shugborough <span class='highlight'>hallspan> #80

The next house in this series is a mere half hour from <span class='highlight'>hoarspan> <span class='highlight'>crossspan> <span class='highlight'>hallspan> and we often visited it during the summer months and later, when my children were born, we’d take them for a visit too!  Seated on the edge of Cannock Chase this elegant house was once a manor house owned by the Bishops of Lichfield, until the dissolution of the monasteries around 1540.  Later it came into the hands of the Anson family, who were ancestors of the Earls of Lichfield, and stayed there for three centuries.  William Anson’s grandson, also called William, demolished the manor house in 1693 and built a three storey building in the Neo-Classical style which forms the central p...

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 <span class='highlight'>hoarspan> <span class='highlight'>crossspan> 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 <span class='highlight'>hoarspan> <span class='highlight'>crossspan> estate and built a hunting lodge which was known as Old <span class='highlight'>hallspan>. Hugo and Elizabeth had six ch...