Story Search Results

My Dad Bought a Mansion #1

...ide was a mounting block. This was a stone block with two steps up to the top and was used for mounting a horse. These were very common until the late 18th century and were often seen outside churches and public houses to assist people dismounting. Most stately homes would have had one as well as everyone owned a horse in those days, before the motor car drove into our lives. They were especially useful for ladies riding side-saddle, allowing a horse to be mounted without a loss of modesty! The main house had a Long Gallery, a Ballroom, a Drawing Room, a Chapel and a Library with secret doors! How I loved it – I was a big fan of The Famous Five in those days...

Growing up in a stately home #1

...ide was a mounting block. This was a stone block with two steps up to the top and was used for mounting a horse. These were very common until the late 18th century and were often seen outside churches and public houses to assist people dismounting. Most stately homes would have had one as well as everyone owned a horse in those days, before the motor car drove into our lives. They were especially useful for ladies riding side-saddle, allowing a horse to be mounted without a loss of modesty! The main house had a Long Gallery, a Ballroom, a Drawing Room, a Chapel and a Library with secret doors! How I loved it – I was a big fan of The Famous Five in those days...

My Dad Bought A Mansion! #1

...ide was a mounting block.  This was a stone block with two steps up to the top and was used for mounting a horse.  These were very common until the late 18th century and were often seen outside churches and public houses to assist people dismounting.  Most stately homes would have had one as well as everyone owned a horse in those days, before the motor car drove into our lives.  They were especially useful for ladies riding side-saddle, allowing a horse to be mounted without a loss of modesty!  The main house had a Long Gallery, a Ballroom, a Drawing Room, a Chapel and a Library with secret doors!  How I loved it – I was a big fan of The Famous Five in...

Hoar Cross Hall - a bit of history! #14

...HOAR CROSS HALL - A BIT OF HISTORY:  Due to many requests asking about the history of the house, this week I'm taking a break from my family's story to look back a few hundred years of what happened before we lived there!     Hoar Cross was part of Needwood Forest, the 11th century lands of Henry de Ferrers.  The land was passed down to Henry’s son and subsequent various people over the course of 500 years ending with the Webb family, around the 1730s, who bought the land and house known as the Manor of the Cross.  This was quite a large house built on a hill near Yoxall (which is the village next to Hoar Cross).  In 1740 the manor house was demolished...

Becoming A Rock Chick! #17

...BECOMING A ROCK CHICK:  My schooldays were coming to an end now and I absolutely couldn’t wait to leave.  The school itself was an old Victorian grammar school which still had wooden desks with inkwells in them!  Even the teachers wore their mortar boards and gowns, not like the ones at Eton and Harrow – mine were more like the ones in the Beano!  However, in the last two years there I had made a few good friends and we would go into Uttoxeter every lunch time to meet up with a group of guys that worked at the local JCB firm.  They were all into motor bikes and one of the first films I watched was ‘Easy Rider’.  They also went to a lot of concerts...

RAGS TO RICHES! #15

...RAGS TO RICHES:  My parents were married in Derby in July 1952.  Mum was 19 and dad was 36 so quite a bit older.  They both lived in Derby and were very arty; my dad went to the Derby Sketching Club in his free time and my mum attended art college.  I’m not sure where they met but it was either at something art related or at a dance, as was usual in those days.  My dad was a sculptor by trade; I think his interest was sparked by seeing all the beautiful alabaster in Italian churches during the war.  After the war he set up his own business making alabaster lamps, bowls and candlesticks among other things (see header picture).  He would go to the alabast...