Story Search Results

Whodunit in the Library? #24

...vicarage across the road. The vicar answered my knock and told me that my dad had collapsed on his doorstep earlier that day and was now in the local cottage hospital! Scene of the crime - The Library!   So now it had come to this. I later found out that my dad had gone into the Library to rip up and sabotage the mediaeval banquet costumes and my mum had found him there – an argument had ensued which became violent. My dad had an awful temper and would sometimes attack my mum during these rows (I once found him in the kitchen with his hands round my mum’s throat) so she had grabbed the nearest thing to her, which was the truncheon, and hit him over...

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...

Get me to the church on time! #30

...vicarage across the road from my house and booked the date. The vicar told us in no uncertain terms that he would expect us to be there when the banns were read. However, as we never got up before lunch on a Sunday, try as we might, we never actually managed to hear our own banns being read! It was almost as bad at the wedding rehearsal. I went to the church with my dad and the two bridesmaids but Kev never managed to get there as he was fitting a shower for someone! I don’t think the vicar was very impressed with us!   The church where we married (in the grounds)   The nearer it got to our wedding date the more we worried about my mum turning up....

Hoar Cross Hall - Life below stairs #45

...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! The mower at the Meynells' Temple Newsam estate   Around Christmas time, all the staff and local trades’ people who supplie...

Queen Alexandra - my family #50

...ew bridge across the River Dee, linking the village of Crathie to Balmoral, was completed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Balmoral is privately owned by the royal family and not part of the Crown estate and it is here that they love to spend their summer holidays. It was also here that Queen Elizabeth sadly died in September 2022.      Princess Mary (left) and Duchesse d'Aosta at Balmoral The Princess of Wales (later to become Queen Mary) is seen here standing with the Duchesse d'Aosta, also known as Princess Helene of Orleans. Princess Helene was a member of the deposed Orleans royal family of France who were forced to abdicate after the French Revolution o...

Hoar Cross Hall - A bit of History #54

...sometimes across to the Netherlands and Germany. She loved painting and would spend much of her time doing water colours along with collecting beautiful objects to decorate the Hall and the Church of the Holy Angels. In 1890 she went on a painting trip up the River Nile on her yacht and filled 10 books of diaries and logs, all illustrated with her drawings and photographs. There were many more trips that the Meynells went on and we found a huge collection of photographs in the Library from those times.   Although I’m not sure where they were taken exactly, it looks as though they travelled around the British Empire quite a lot. Emily's yacht, 'Ariadne'...