Story Search Results

Huntin', Shootin' and Fishin' #6

...hing! One summer there were over 30 bats whizzing around the house trying to find nests for their young. We had just had a burglar alarm installed with infra-red beams which kept going off in the night. I think our cat set it off once or twice but the bats caused most of the upset and my poor dad had to keep getting up to see who had broken in – fortunately the only thing broken was his night’s sleep! The bats eventually settled in a large light fitting bowl which hung over the main staircase and were left in peace to rear their young.   Don’t miss next week’s instalment:    'Calendar Girls and Front Covers'   If you want to follow my story from...

Ventures New! #10

...ring that summer my parents auditioned for a King, a jester, entertainers and singers and by August they had a team of ‘am-dram’ actors ready to start rehearsals. They also advertised for wenches and serving girls of which I became one – at 14 years old this became my new weekend job! But the banquets were about to change all our lives - for better and for worse.   Don’t miss next week’s instalment: 'Mediaeval Mayhem!'   If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, click here and please feel free to share with your friends.   If you would like to view my 'Tour of the Hall'  please click here     ...

Hoar Cross Hall - a bit of history #14

...uring the summer months.  If you watch my Tour of the House video (see link below) you can see how it looks now, which is almost how it looked back in Lady Dorothy's day. Lady Dorothy’s daughter, also called Dorothy, was born in 1908 and was an accomplished pianist and conductor of the Hoar Cross choral society and had a life long interest in the arts and music. She also played the pipe organ in the chapel at the Hall for the morning services there. However, this young lady didn’t want to conform to the usual things of her society such as parties and husband hunting! She begged her parents to let her train for some useful occupation and they finally agreed...

Becoming a Rock Chick #17

...y. In the summer we left the back door open and visitors would wander outside and look at our pets – I imagine an over enthusiastic child had opened the hutch and not shut it properly because they escaped into the house and got into the library, it being the nearest room to the back door. I happened to be coming into the house on this particular day when I heard a woman scream “Rats, rats – on the bookshelves!” I rushed into the Library through the secret door (which made the visitors jump even more) to find them looking at our guinea pigs! How could they think our lovely pets were rats? However, we did get rats in the house but that’s for another blog...

The Graveyard Shift #23

...uring the summer months Kev and I would open the house to the public. As well as a bad atmosphere between my parents there was also a bad atmosphere between me and my mum and mum and Kev, so we were all trying to avoid each other! My mum had taken over the West Wing apartment when the tenants left, leaving my dad with one less rental income. She was also putting Yale locks on all the rooms that she used in the house as well as any storage rooms used for the banquets. This infuriated my dad who obviously didn’t have access to them once the locks went on. One of these rooms was the cupboard off the Entrance Hall which held the meter boxes, so we now had no acces...

DIY Stately Home #4

...We moved into Hoar Cross Hall during the summer holidays and my parents quickly realised they had a lot of work on their hands to make the place habitable as well as to earn some money from it. As previously mentioned, there was an East Wing and a West Wing to the house. My dad decided to convert the first floor rooms of each wing into three separate apartments; he had done this at our previous house. This would generate income from rents until we got the main house open to the public. It wasn’t a big job to convert the rooms as the East Wing had four main rooms and two bathrooms already there, which would have been used as guest bedrooms in Victorian times. H...