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A New Year Calamity! #90

The New Year’s Eve Balls at Hoar Cross Hall were usually the highlight of the year during the 1970s.  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 and sporran, would pipe in the new year with his bagpipes.  Down the Long Gallery he would slowly walk...

Meet the Neighbours - Sudbury Hall #79

...grand new mansion on the same site which he designed himself – a Jacobean house but with the traditional Tudor structure.  He also moved the village closer to the Hall so that his servants and the tradesmen could live near at hand.  These buildings still survive today! It seems George Vernon was a very ambitious man who wanted to further his political career and having a large, impressive house helped him to move in higher social circles.  Together he and his wife had nine children so those extra rooms would have come in useful!  After his wife died in 1675, George married again.  Dorothea Shirley was the daughter of Lady Catherine and Sir Robert Shirley...

Meet the Neighbours - Coombe Abbey # 81

...Although this house isn’t quite so neighbourly to Hoar Cross Hall as the others in this series, it is loosely linked to the hall as it was the inspiration for the Mediaeval Banquets that my parents ran in the 1970s.  They went along one night, to one of their banquets, to see what the format was and saw immediately how popular they were and so decided to start their own brand of banquets.  The Coombe Abbey banquets were very traditional and had minstrels playing lutes etc while people ate their meal.  The entertainment too was typical of mediaeval amusement of the times and I remember my parents saying it was an enjoyable night out but not terribly lively!�...

Meet the Neighbours - Trentham Gardens #83

...han-style mansion.  Inspired by French trends, the landscape architect Charles Bridgeman influenced the layout of Trentham by including wide avenues, a boating lake, a deer park, a causeway and canal which created beautiful gardens for the family to walk around and plenty to do on the water! By 1759, Granville, 2nd Lord Gower was the owner of the park and he engaged the famous landscape designer, ‘Capability’ Brown to redesign the grounds.  The formal gardens, walks and walls were replaced by a mile long serpentine lake with a single island, lawns, sweeping gravelled walks, a bowling green and woodland walks.  All very typical of his style!  A sweeping...

Mediaeval Weaponry #84

...When we moved to Hoar Cross Hall in the 1970s, my father owned the largest private collection of arms and armour in the UK at that time!  He owned about 20 suits of armour and numerous items of ‘arms’, which is another word for weapons.  The word ‘arms’ comes from the Latin ‘arma’ which means ‘tools of war’; this word passed into the English language from the French in 1200.  Mediaeval weapons consisted of halberds, double-edged swords, daggers, battle axes, crossbows and longbows to name but a few, these being the most common.  Knives were also used but mainly for eating and repairing, although I’m sure they got to be used as weapons too...

Lest we forget #86

...During the two World Wars the Meynell family of Hoar Cross Hall 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 Hall with their five children.  Their four sons all served in the war and their daughter Margaret served in the Red Cross 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...