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Doing up a stately home #4

...t was the seventies! The Damask Room was to be open to the public and had actual damask material on the walls in a beautiful gold colour. Likewise, the Hessian Room had – you’ve guessed it – hessian on the walls, which was rather like sackcloth and not too attractive but hard wearing no doubt! We used this room as an office and general storage space but mainly only used the lounge as it was the warmest room in the house! Once we moved downstairs it meant that we had to climb the main staircase to go to our bedrooms on the first floor. This was like something out of Mission Impossible. Because we didn’t want to leave lights on we had to switch the light...

Ventures New #9

...s. In the seventies mediaeval banquets were becoming the ‘in thing’ so they started planning how they would do this. It was decided that they would run them during the winter months and open the house to the public from Easter to the August Bank Holiday. The first banquet in 1973   Around this time J C Bamford, who had a factory in nearby Uttoxeter, heard that we were planning to run banquets and booked a private one exclusively for their US division. My parents knew Joe Bamford (the JCB owner) quite well and I think my dad hoped that I would one day marry his son and invited him to one or two balls that we had at the Hall, but I was still quite youn...

Hysterical Productions #15

...spite the seventies shenanigans the nights were always a good laugh and there were lots of funny things that happened. Myra (the fire-eater’s wife) and I always did the cloakroom and one time this lady took her coat off and as she did so her halter neck top came undone and she stood there in her bra and skirt for all to see! The banquet menu Once the banquets started we would join in with the singing, even standing behind the main act and pretending to be the backing group.  My dad would wear a sombrero and shake maracas to a Latin song while we threw petals all over him – don’t ask me why! The next day, when cleaning up, we would find all sorts of...

Like Father, Like Sons #19

...the early seventies I became quite interested in rallying and thought that I might like to have a go at that when I left school. I was quite the tomboy in those days and something like that would have suited me well, although it was very much a man’s world back then. My parents took us all to see the annual Lombard RAC Rally which was quite exciting and very muddy! We stood near a bend and watched cars skidding round corners and driving into ditches; occasionally knocking down trees which stood in their path! Unfortunately, by the time I’d left school my parents’ marriage was rapidly falling apart and I was caught in the crossfire – any thoughts of rally...

The War Years and Beyond #40

...re in the seventies!      Enjoy! If you would like to follow my blog from the beginning, click here and please feel free to share with your friends....

Moving Out #34

...ig in the seventies. They also owned a Ferrari between them and this was often parked in the drive, as the band shared it. My dad put Kev’s name forward to re-wire the house (as he had trained as an electrician) and he spent the next few weekends fixing up the electrics alongside builders, plumbers and carpenters. When it was all finished they put in their bills only to find out that the band were planning to leave the country – without paying anyone! The builders were none too pleased about this and went round to the newly finished house to take back anything they could find that was theirs – they also slashed the tyres on the Ferrari. These were not peo...