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See you in Court #31

SEE YOU IN COURT:     The saga of my parents’ split continued as we grew up in our stately home, although their behaviour was anything but stately for most of the time! Seven years of arguing and fighting were about to come to an end and the solicitors had finally agreed on a date to go to court. We carried on helping my dad to run the Hall and he still went to his boat in Caernarfon at weekends to get away from the house but we were all getting weary of it now. We were young adults and wanting to get on with our own lives. After five years together we were hoping to get married at some point so we were glad that it was finally going to be sorted out one wa...

My Dad Bought a Mansion #1

...ing. Most stately homes would have had one as well as everyone owned a horse in those days, before the motor car drove into our lives. They were especially useful for ladies riding side-saddle, allowing a horse to be mounted without a loss of modesty! The main house had a Long Gallery, a Ballroom, a Drawing Room, a Chapel and a Library with secret doors! How I loved it – I was a big fan of The Famous Five in those days and it really did feel like I was in the middle of one of their mysteries! There were about 15 basement rooms, some of which had had the floors removed due to damp rot, but the main passageway was made of flagstones so you could still walk thro...

A Home fit for a King #21

...In this week's blog I am focusing on the royal family again and the stately homes which they grew up in. The main residence for the Royal family is Buckingham Palace which is the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom and where many state occasions take place, but Buckingham Palace was originally known as Buckingham House. The building at the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site that had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and became known as The Queen's House. During the 19th ce...

Gardeners World at Hoar Cross #43

...hing with stately homes as the farm supplied the house and staff with all the produce that they needed. The carp pool provided fish and the regular pheasant shoots provided game for the table. All very self sufficient! In addition to the farm workers and gardeners were all sorts of other workers on the estate: a stone mason, brick makers, foresters and thatchers, carpenters, a joiner, plumber and an electrician. They looked after the maintenance of the house and workers’ cottages, and the tenanted properties. The carp pond in front of the greenhouses   If the butler was an important figure inside the house, the head gardener had as much authority outsi...

The country house in society #48

...Country houses are to be found throughout the British Isles and are a peculiarly English phenomenon. Houses range from mediaeval manor houses to classical Palladian mansions, elegant Georgian residences to the Gothic buildings of the Victorian era. A great many have survived for two main reasons: Britain has been spared much of the havoc of war and revolution affecting other countries. Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire   Wentworth Woodhouse (above) is one of the largest stately homes in Europe and was visited by King George V and Queen Mary in 1912. It is now with the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust and is much bigger than this photo shows!   The...

Anyone for tennis? #62

...ere Many stately homes would have had tennis courts including Hoar Cross Hall.  However, when we moved there you couldn’t see them at all as the grass had grown long and wild and it looked liked a wilderness.  In fact, we didn’t even know that there were tennis courts until Mrs Meynell told us! Mowing the old tennis courts in 1984   Of course, back in the 1930s the younger members of the Meynell family often played on them during their weekend house parties (see header picture).  One young man who became a close friend of the Meynell family made regular visits to Hoar Cross and recalled the happy times he spent there as “.....the last days of...