Story Search Results

Eat, Drink & Be Merry #11

...t his old racing car in one of the rooms with a display of photos and newspaper cuttings from his sixties tours around Europe’s race tracks. This appealed to the male visitors while the ladies enjoyed the ever increasing collection of Victorian costumes around the house along with an antique sewing machine and a musical box which played lovely tunes when wound up. My dad displaying his racing car on the drive   Apart from the bank holidays though we didn’t get huge amounts of visitors and my parents started to think of other things they could do. They had heard about mediaeval banquets being run at a place called Coombe Abbey near Coventry and went a...

THE TAX MAN COMETH #29

...THE TAX MAN COMETH - The court case was finally over and my dad had six months to leave the house.  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 t...

Hysterical Productions #16

...HYSTERICAL PRODUCTIONS: By the end of 1974 we had done about 40 banquets and they were still going strong.  Most of the original cast were still with us but we were on our second king now and also doing our own catering and bar, whereas when we first started, we had got a catering firm in to do it all.  Every weekend over 200 people came to sample our Noble Brose, Roast Lambe and Saracen’s Delight and sing along to ‘I’m Henry VIII I am’ whilst drinking beer, wine and mead.  But it was a very adult environment for 15 year old girls to work in; a few of my school friends also worked at the banquets as wenches and we were constantly being chatted up by...

racing travels #40

...racing TRAVELS:   During the 1960s my dad travelled all over Europe with his racing team.  The header photo shows him with his VW van with his racing car on the back.  He usually took two mechanics with him who were friends of his who just loved racing and volunteered their services for a free holiday abroad!  He went to all the big racing circuits:  Hockenheim, Nurburgring and Monza, travelling across Europe to get to them.  He always came back with lots of funny stories to tell.  Because the van he used wasn't brand new it would sometimes break down but at least he had two mechanics with him - however, getting parts wasn't easy in the 1960s, especially...

To the Manor Born #77

...test his racing car by driving it around the village in the early hours of the morning when no-one was about!  No-one, that is, except the local Police who would constantly arrive at our doorstep informing him very politely not to keep doing it!   I think they viewed him as an English eccentric – even if he wasn’t ‘to the manor born’. From this house we moved to Hoar Cross Hall in the 1970s and a whole new adventure was about to start for us all as told in my blogs ‘Growing up in a stately home’.   Don't miss next month's blog - 'Meet the Neighbours - Blithfield Hall' A new series of blogs about historical neighbouring properties to Hoar Cro...

Moving On #33

...MOVING ON - And so we come to the end of my story.  My dad and Gavin moved out to live in Burton and my mum carried on running Mediaeval Banquets for a few more years.  She and the singer eventually got together much to my dad’s chagrin.  He spent a lot more time at the Hall helping my mum run the banquets; however, Piers didn’t really get on with him.  When he was about 14 years old my dad received a phone call from Piers – he had run away from home and was ringing from the phone box by the Meynell Arms car park!  He told my dad that he was hiding behind a bush and could he come and get him.  Of course, my dad was only too happy to fetch him and get...