Continuing my series on the rooms that were open to the public at Hoar Cross Hall, we move from the Library, through the secret door, to the Ballroom. Overlooking the gardens and the former deer-park, this beautifully proportioned room is elegant and grand. The lower halves of the walls are covered in carved white and gold wood panelling which is complemented by the original hand printed blue wallpaper, again over 150 years old (see photo below). Incredibly the original wooden printing block...

The Library at Hoar Cross Hall is a delightful room, not huge like the other rooms, but not too small either – a room fitted with mahogany bookshelves on three sides and a bay window overlooking the terrace and the gardens. From this window, on a clear day, it is possible to see the “Three ladies of the vale” – the spires of Lichfield Cathedral. Libraries have been around for centuries with evidence pointing to the Romano-British world when documents and manuscripts were stored in che...

Continuing our series on the rooms that were open to the public during the 1970s at Hoar Cross Hall, we find the Garden Hall and Chapel leading off the Long Gallery at the east end of the house. This private chapel was a later addition to the Hall and was designed by G F Bodley, the gothic revival architect, and completed in 1897 at a cost of just under £1000. The walls have a fine linenfold panelling and the ceiling is richly decorated. Many houses in days gone by had their own private chap...

I thought that a little series on the different rooms in Hoar Cross Hall might be quite interesting, taking a deeper look at what these rooms were used for and a bit of history surrounding them. The main ground floor rooms were open to the public during the 1970s when people wandered around our home admiring the fine paintings and furniture followed by a walk in the grounds trying to imagine how it looked in days gone by. The house was entered through two huge oak doors which led into an Entra...

During the 1970s Hoar Cross Hall was used from time to time for local community activities and one such event was the production in 1978 of a traditional pantomime, ‘Midnight and a Journey back to Happiness’. It was written by local people, Robert Leighton from Yoxall and the Hon. Alexandra Meynell, daughter-in-law of Mrs Jean Meynell whom we had purchased the Hall from. The words and music were written by local songwriter, David Matthews, who had written songs for quite a few pop artists...