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Hoar Cross Hall - Life below stairs

...uld bring across masses of palms and pot plants to decorate the rooms.  Home Farm supplied the estate with as much produce as was needed.  In addition to the farm workers, the estate employed bricklayers, a stone mason, foresters and thatchers, carpenters, a joiner, a plumber and an electrician.  They looked after the Hall and the workers’ cottages and all tenanted properties.  The head gardener had a lot of authority outside the house and even the mistress would have to seek his permission first before entering the nursery gardens! Around Christmas time, all the staff and local trades’ people who supplied the house, were invited to a party held in the...

Hoar Cross Hall - Life below stairs #39

...uld bring across masses of palms and pot plants to decorate the rooms. Home Farm supplied the estate with as much produce as was needed. In addition to the farm workers, the estate employed bricklayers, a stone mason, foresters and thatchers, carpenters, a joiner, a plumber and an electrician. They looked after the Hall and the workers’ cottages and all tenanted properties. The head gardener had a lot of authority outside the house and even the mistress would have to seek his permission first before entering the nursery gardens!   Lawn centred by fountain Around Christmas time, all the staff and local trades’ people who supplied the house, were invit...

Moving into the Manor #2

...they went across the top floor in the attic and back down the spiral staircase at the other end of the house, briefly popping their heads out on the first floor to see a few rooms in the East Wing and then back down to the Ground Floor.  Somehow dad managed to confuse him so much that he missed out two floors altogether and he actually thought the house was half the size it really was!  By the time he finished I think he really did feel sorry for us and we never paid the correct rates bill for the place – at least not at first anyhow! Don’t miss next week’s instalment:  Things that go bump in the night! If you want to follow my story from the beginnin...

The Grand Opening #5

...ng stones across it.  But even though we cleared a lot of weeds, the outskirts of the gardens were still very overgrown as well as the woods which had once had lovely pathways through them where Victorian ladies and gentlemen took their afternoon strolls. We soon got used to having people wandering around our house, although they weren’t allowed upstairs.  Gavin and I were quite the little monkeys and usually involved our little brother in our tricks too.  We would hang over the balcony near the stairs and watch people walk by then drop things near them or make funny noises. Once Gavin was holding an ice cream and he held it over the balustrade and let it...

Moving in - to a stately home! #2

...they went across the top floor in the attic and back down the spiral staircase at the other end of the house, briefly popping their heads out on the first floor to see a few rooms in the East Wing and then back down to the Ground Floor. Somehow dad managed to confuse him so much that he missed out two floors altogether and he actually thought the house was half the size it really was! By the time he finished I think he really did feel sorry for us and we never paid the correct tax bill for the place – at least not at first anyhow! Don’t miss next week’s instalment: Things that go bump in the night! If you would like to follow my story from the beginning,...

Ghostbusters! #8

...x running across the fields but nothing else!  What a disappointment – our trick had failed even though they had all that fancy equipment to record any eerie sounds - perhaps they just fell asleep and forgot to switch it on.  We still thought it was a good trick to play though and had fun doing it! Every now and then Mrs Meynell (who had sold us the house) would come round to see us and regale us with stories about the house and surprisingly, the ghosts!  So it wasn’t just us who’d heard all those noises – apparently they heard them too.  Banging doors, chilly atmospheres in certain parts of the house and a crying child.  We would sit and listen on...