Story Search Results

To the Manor Born #77

...d ran his Shardlow Motor Racing Team from this house and the old stables and carriage house were always full of car parts and machinery.  Before he went on his European tours, Racing at all the well-known circuits, he would test his Racing car by driving it around the village in the early hours of the morning when no-one was about!  No-one, that is, except the local Police who would constantly arrive at our doorstep informing him very politely not to keep doing it!   I think they viewed him as an English eccentric – even if he wasn’t ‘to the manor born’. From this house we moved to Hoar Cross Hall in the 1970s and a whole new adventure was about to...

Like father, like sons #20

...LIKE FATHER, LIKE SONS:        As previously mentioned in earlier blogs my dad used to be a Racing driver during the 1950s and ran his own team, Shardlow Motor Racing, in the 1960s, travelling all over Europe in his trusty Volkswagon van (see picture above) with his two mechanics and Racing driver.   He didn’t have big sponsorship money behind him and most of it was done on a shoestring but he came back with lots of funny stories of their van breaking down or some rural ‘hotel’ that they had stayed in.  From each country that he visited he always brought me back a doll dressed in the traditional costume of that country.  There was quite a collectio...

Motor Racing Days #8

...Motor Racing DAYS:     Although my blogs are about living at Hoar Cross Hall, I would just like to give a bit of background about my dad’s Racing career in the years leading up to moving to the Hall as this will set the scene for later instalments of my story. As mentioned in my first blog my dad used to be a Racing driver but he actually started off Racing Motor cycles in the 1930s. Because of this he became a despatch rider during the Second World War and spent a lot of time in North Africa. After the war he started Racing Motor bikes at nearby Donington Park and he raced there up to the beginning of the 1950s. After that he moved onto cars and drove a C...

Moving in - to a stately home! #2

...own team, Shardlow Motor Racing, travelling all over Europe to race at all the famous circuits, so the outbuildings were always full of bits of Racing cars and their engines! All this stuff had to be moved and my dad did most of it by travelling back and forth each day with vans and trailers full of the contents of our house and outbuildings – an enormous undertaking! He knew some students and used to pick them up en route to help and they also stayed on to help tame the gardens which were very overgrown, the grass standing about 2 feet high. As I’m sure you can imagine, after nearly 20 years of neglect, the gardens were a sorry sight having once been very...

An Englishman's Home is his Mansion! #2

...own team, Shardlow Motor Racing, travelling all over Europe to race at all the famous circuits, so the outbuildings were always full of bits of Racing cars and their engines! All this stuff had to be moved and my dad did most of it by travelling back and forth each day with vans and trailers full of the contents of our house and outbuildings – an enormous undertaking!   Moving in!   He knew some students and used to pick them up en route to help and they also stayed on to help tame the gardens which were very overgrown, the grass standing about 2 feet high. As I’m sure you can imagine, after nearly 20 years of neglect, the gardens were a sorry sigh...

Moving into the Manor #2

...own team, Shardlow Motor Racing, travelling all over Europe to race at all the famous circuits, so the outbuildings were always full of bits of Racing cars and their engines!  All this stuff had to be moved and my dad did most of it by travelling back and forth each day with vans and trailers full of the contents of our house and outbuildings – an enormous undertaking!  He knew some students and used to pick them up en route to help and they also stayed on to help tame the gardens which were very overgrown, the grass standing about 2 feet high.  As I’m sure you can imagine, after nearly 20 years of neglect, the gardens were a sorry sight having once been...