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Hoar Cross Hall - A bit of History #54

Hoar Cross was part of Needwood Forest, the 11th century lands of Henry de Ferrers. The land was passed down to Henry’s son and subsequent various people over the course of 500 years ending with the Webb family, around the 1730s, who bought the land and house known as the Manor of the Cross. This was quite a large house built on a hill near Yoxall (which is the village next to Hoar Cross). In 1740 the manor house was demolished and later the Hon. Charles Talbot bought the estate for £17,000. Eventually it was sold to Hugo Meynell, who already owned huge amounts of property all over the county and was now about to add another one to his portfolio. This branch...

Midnight Pool Parties # 59

...g men and women and they soon became part of the crowd in the Meynell.  Every weekend would find us all creeping along the basement passage to one flat or another for a party – at least no-one could hear us; the walls in this stately home were about 2-3 feet (1M) thick!  When I turned 18 we decided to have a party, of course, in one of the apartments and once again a crowd of us went back after closing time at the pub.  We had to be careful where we parked as the banquets were still going strong at the weekends and we didn’t want any problems from my warring parents.  If my mum saw any strange cars parked on the drive she would push a note under my dad�...

To the Manor Born #77

...Before we moved to Hoar Cross Hall my father had bought an old manor house in the village of Shardlow, near Derby, which had previously been a vicarage among other things.  I think my parents must have had a love of historic buildings and indeed were members of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings and Monuments.  My dad had a business in Derby at the time making alabaster items such as table lamps and candlestick holders and when he bought the manor house he moved his business there, as it had lots of outbuildings for all the alabaster equipment. Some of my father's alabaster pieces   The house itself had about 17 rooms and was built i...

Hoar Cross Hall meets Downton Abbey #99

...times as women became more independent after the Great War.   Servants wait on table in the 1950s at Hoar Cross   In 1907 the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, an enthusiastic Egyptologist, hired Howard Carter to search for the tomb of Tutankhamun - eventually, when they were about to give up, they found it in 1922!  And what a find!  Half the world queued up to see the beautiful artefacts discovered in the tomb and some of these items are on show at Highclere today in their basement rooms.  View website here. When my parents bought Hoar Cross Hall, we opened it to the public as my father wanted to display his collection of arms and armour, the largest priva...

The War Years and Beyond #37

...anged and women were no longer satisfied with being in domestic service. The attics, which were once full of servant girls, were now empty and by 1950 the number of servants had fallen to just three or four with a few men working in the gardens. Over the next twenty years the beautiful gardens gradually fell into a state of decay, which is how we found them when we moved there in 1970. By now much of the Meynell estate lands had been disposed of. Local properties were sold to tenants and others. The Hoar Cross estate, once the pivot of the local community and a source of employment, was being considerably reduced. Colonel Meynell, who had been seriously wounded...

The origins of the stately home #43

...So why are stately homes so called? Stately home actually means 'a large impressive old house with interesting history and usually visited by the public.' Well, I suppose they do look very 'stately' for a start but these houses were also a status symbol for the great families of England, who competed with each other to provide hospitality for the royal household who would travel around England meeting their subjects. Stately homes were huge mansions which were always beautiful and the epitome of perfect architecture, often designed by famous architects of the day. The gardens too would be perfectly landscaped to show balance, variety, sequence and colour. One o...