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The country house in society #48
Posted by Viv Wilson on 31st March 2023 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall,Meynell,National Trust,Victorian,Gothic,19th century,Elizabethan,Georgian,Downton abbey,the crown,Wentworth Woodhouse,Blenheim Palace
...ch as The National Trust. My own parents bought our house, Hoar Cross Hall (see header picture) and saved it from further decline by opening it to the public in the 1970s at a time when nobody wanted to buy huge old houses to live in. So many country houses have been saved in this way by opening them up for ordinary people to gaze upon history and see how our ancestors lived in a time when life and society was so completely different to how we live today!
Don't miss next week's instalment: 'Royal visitors at Hoar Cross Hall' If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, click here and please feel free to share with your friends.Follow me on...
Change and the Country House #61
Posted by Viv Wilson on 7th July 2023 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall,meynell ingram,new years eve,mediaeval banquets,queen victoria,The National Trust,Historic Houses Association,industrial revolution,Edwardian era,victorian era,downton abbey,The Royal Family,aristocracy,Hoar Cross Hall Spa Hotel,Barons Eden
...n and The National Trust these properties can now be saved and restored to their former glory. Below is a picture of Witley Court in Worcester, regarded as Britain's most spectacular ruined house. Once, it is said, it rivalled Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard (where Downton Abbey was filmed) but it was gutted by fire in 1937 and later looted and vandalized. Thanks to a Preservation Order issued in 1972 it is now looked after by English Heritage.
Witley Court, Worcester
When my parents bought Hoar Cross Hall it too was in sad neglect and they had a real battle on their hands to get the grounds back to some sort of order (see photo above) althou...
Meet the Neighbours - Sudbury Hall #79
Posted by Viv Wilson on 24th April 2024 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall spa hotel,barons eden,meynell ingram,hounds,Grade II listed,Doomsday Book,Norman Conquest,Lord,kennels,great staircase,sudbury hall,childrens museum,George Vernon,jacobean,Downton Abbey,The Crown,growing up in a stately home
...ns to the National Trust in part payment of death duties which had continued to burden the family. However, the remainder of the Sudbury estate is still held by Vernon descendants.
Sudbury Hall
In 1660 George Vernon inherited the house at the age of 25; he also got married that year to a Northamptonshire heiress, Margaret Onley. With the extra wealth that came with the marriage he built a grand new mansion on the same site which he designed himself – a Jacobean house but with the traditional Tudor structure. He also moved the village closer to the Hall so that his servants and the tradesmen could live near at hand. These buildings still survi...
Meet the Neighbours - Shugborough Hall #80
Posted by Viv Wilson on 22nd May 2024 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall spa hotel,barons eden,meynell ingram,History,Stately home,haunted house,Thomas Anson,Shugborough Hall,the Library,The aristocracy,Chinese,Earl of Lichfield,Patrick Lichfield,Photographer,Cannock Chase,Queen Victoria,Queen Mary,Titanic Brewery
...er by the National Trust in lieu of death duties. So many stately homes in those days seemed to go this way as families struggled to pay the high taxes demanded with no family fortune behind them anymore and a huge house with high maintenance to look after. However, the 5th Earl was allowed to live in an apartment within the house, paying a nominal rent, and the hall was opened to the public in 1966. Some of you may remember Lord Patrick Lichfield, who became the royal photographer after photographing Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding in 1981 – well, he was the 5th Earl who lived at Shugborough and you can see his studio as part of an exhibi...
Hickleton Hall and the Meynells #38
Posted by Viv Wilson on 20th January 2023 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall,Meynell,lewis carroll,alice through the looking glass,Alice in Wonderland,Dunkirk,Viscount Halifax,Christ Church,second world war,Viceroy of India,Chancellor of the Exchequer
...like the National Trust or even people like my parents, they have been saved – I'm just glad that someone is restoring Emily Meynells' childhood home at Hickleton at last.
Don't miss next week's instalment: 'The history of the stately home' If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, click here and please feel free to share with your friends.Follow me around my childhood home in my 'Tour of the Hall' – click here to view and subscribe to my YouTube channel. OUT NOW!! 'My Dad Bought a Mansion' book is available on Amazon.All my memoirs packed with lots of original photographs from the times.
Go check it out here and let me know what yo...
A New Year Calamity! #90
Posted by Viv Wilson on 2nd January 2025 in Growing Up In a Stately Home | hoar cross hall spa hotel,barons eden,auld lang syne,stately home,history,historic houses,National Trust,christmas,scottish piper,black tie,ballgown,my dad bought a mansion
...The New Year’s Eve Balls at Hoar Cross Hall were usually the highlight of the year during the 1970s. After twelve months of hard work, especially running the Mediaeval Banquets twice a week through the winter, we were always ready to see out the year in style with a big new year party. In those days it was always black tie for the men and long dresses for the ladies – usually around 500 people bought tickets for an evening of entertainment with a dance band, disco and a meal. At midnight a man dressed in traditional Scottish regalia, including a kilt and sporran, would pipe in the new year with his bagpipes. Down the Long Gallery he would slowly walk...