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Meet the Neighbours - Sudbury Hall #79

Continuing the series on neighbouring houses to Hoar Cross Hall, let me introduce you to Sudbury Hall, which is about 7 miles away and on the border of Staffordshire and Derbyshire.  The manor of Sudbury was listed in the Doomsday Book following the Norman Conquest in 1086, so a lot older than the Hall, and is a Grade I listed building.  The Vernon family came to Sudbury after a 16th century marriage between Sir John Vernon, from Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, and the Sudbury heiress, Ellen Montgomery.  It seems the Vernon family have stayed in the Hall for generations right up until the 20th century when the 10th Baron Vernon transferred the Hall and its princip...

Meet the Neighbours - Trentham Gardens #83

...ed in the Doomsday Book to hosting famous rock bands – what more could you want! Click here to check out their website as due to a technical error I wasn't able to download any pictures of the house and grounds.   Don't miss next month's blog:  "Mediaeval weaponry"   If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, please click here and feel free to share with your friends.Join me on a Tour of the Hall - click here to follow me on my YouTube channel and see all the rooms mentioned in my blogs - including the secret doors and the haunted attics! OUT NOW!!!  'My Dad Bought a Mansion' is out in Book form on Amazon - all my memoirs packed with lo...

Hoar Cross Hall meets Downton Abbey #99

...ed in the Doomsday Book of 1086 when an Anglo-Saxon king granted the estate to the Bishops of Winchester and in the 14th century a palace was built there by the Bishop.  However, it was confiscated during the Reformation by Henry VIII.  Later it was rebuilt in 1679 by Sir Robert Sawyer, Attorney-General to Charles II and looks to have stayed in his family ever since. The Downton Abbey story seems to be very similar to the Highclere Castle one actually!  In the early part of the 20th century Downton is owned by the Earl of Grantham who marries an American heiress to save the family home.  At about the same time Highclere was owned by the Earl of Carnarvon wh...

Royal Visitors at Hoar Cross Hall #49

...With the King's Coronation looming on 6th May in the UK, I thought I'd do some royal family related articles this month starting with royal visitors at the Hall in the 1920s. I also have a Book called Queen Alexandra's Christmas Gift Book which was left in the Library and shows personal photos from her own camera which she took of the royal family between 1900-1910 -  a rare insight indeed into what the royals did in their leisure time!  I will be sharing these photos over the next month leading up to the Coronation and hope you find them as fascinating as I do. Royal Visitors From earliest times the king's court has travelled around the kingdom so the king...

Hickleton Hall and the Meynells #38

...This lovely Grade II listed Georgian house in South Yorkshire was once the childhood home of The Honourable Emily Charlotte Meynell who married Hugo Meynell of Hoar Cross and who, together with Hugo, built Hoar Cross Hall to be their family home in 1873, a hundred years before my family lived there.  The original house was called Hickleton Palace and had been built for Judge Francis Rodes in the 16th century but in 1745 Hickleton Hall was built just to the south of this house after the estate was bought by Godfrey Wentworth in about 1730. Thirty years later he extended the house and added two low wings, one either side, and a servants wing (see header picture)...

The Origins of the Stately Home #39

...Why are stately homes so called? Stately home actually means 'a large impressive old house with interesting history and usually visited by the public.' Well, I suppose they do look very 'stately' for a start but these houses were also a status symbol for the great families of England, who competed with each other to provide hospitality for the royal household who would travel around England meeting their subjects. Stately homes were huge mansions which were always beautiful and the epitome of perfect architecture, often designed by famous architects of the day. The gardens too would be perfectly landscaped to show balance, variety, sequence and colour. One of t...