Going to sleep in a big old house is quite scary when you’re young but going to sleep in a big old house that’s haunted is even more scary!! As we approach Hallowe'en my mind has gone back to that first winter at Hoar Cross Hall and all the scary things that happened - and that was without any trick or treaters in those days! We quickly realised that we weren’t the only inhabitants of the house. Every time there was a windy night I could hear a window banging in the attic – all night long it kept me awake. The next day I would go upstairs to the attics to close it but there would be no windows open or even loose. They were all tightly shut as they had been for 20 years. I remember standing there in the attic rooms feeling a tingling down my spine and goose bumps all over as I felt the atmosphere closing in on me - and I quickly legged it back downstairs!
On other nights we would hear people walking along the attic corridor (the attic, by the way, was the floor right above our bedroom floor) and then at other times we could hear heavy furniture being dragged about – yet there was nothing up there as the rooms were all empty! How strange! Other members of the family heard it too and also people that stayed overnight, so it wasn’t the imaginings of a frightened child. There was also nobody else in the house at that point, apart from our family and they definitely weren’t walking about the house at 3am. And why is it that these things always happen in the middle of the night? When it’s dark. When we feel more scared? I often woke up at 3am whether there were noises or not – or perhaps there had been a noise and that’s what had woken me up – who knows? I loved reading books about old houses, mysteries and ghosts but when you actually live in one in real life, it’s a bit different!
My parents also heard noises when they were in their bedroom too. It sounded like a room full of people talking, like at a party. They thought it might be birds nesting under the eaves so they slept in another room further along the corridor to see if they still heard it – and sure enough, they did! What was going on? Had we disturbed some lost souls forever wandering in the attics?
Well, that’s not all because one night my mum was woken up by the sight of a little girl ‘floating’ over the bed. She said the girl was wearing a long nightdress and mop cap and seemed to be stretching her arms out to my mum as if she was asking for help. She floated all around the bed scaring my mum half to death. Frantically she tried to wake my dad while the ghoulish girl reached out - by the time my dad was awake the child was fading away and he missed it all! If you haven’t already worked it out, long nighties and mop caps were the ‘go to’ fashion trend back in the Victorian days – a mop cap being those white cotton lacy hats that young girls and servants wore!
On another occasion the ghost appeared outside our lounge door one evening while we were still living in the old caretaker’s rooms on the first floor (it looked a lot like the header picture). My mum heard a tapping noise on the door and when she opened it, there stood the little girl. She thought we’d dressed our brother Piers in a gown and mop cap and she told him to get back to bed! The apparition floated away and she ran down the bedroom corridor to check our rooms, all the time wondering what on earth was going on! However, when she got there we were all fast asleep! The child appeared at the top of the stairs on several more occasions making us all a bit wary of leaving the lounge to go to bed!
On making a few enquiries with the Meynell family, apparently a child had died whilst in the care of a nursemaid. The story goes that she had left her post to meet up with her gentleman friend down in the basement – from the nursery wing, that was two floors down the spiral staircase. While she was fraternising with the footman the child had a fit and died. How true this story is I don’t know but a child did indeed die as we found her grave in the local churchyard next door – I think she was about 8 years old. Perhaps she got her revenge by haunting the nursemaid who’d left her post – who knows! It all sounded very sad of course, but it didn’t stop me being absolutely terrified every time I went to bed, especially once we’d moved our lounge and kitchen downstairs.
The main staircase was a dog-leg style in three parts at the end of the Long Gallery near the east wing of the house where our rooms were. Try and imagine, if you will, climbing this huge staircase at night, on your own and often using a torch to save leaving the lights on - it was no fun! As I turned the corner onto the third flight of stairs heading up to the haunted landing I always stopped and had a good look to make sure the ghostly girl wasn’t hanging around before I ran up them and across the landing to the bedroom corridor. And then, walking along the bedroom corridor knowing there were all those dark empty rooms nearby, well, your imagination runs wild I can tell you!
And of course, the other thing I hated about going near the staircase and Long Gallery at night, was the sight of 20 suits of armour staring back at me through their visors, which was quite intimidating. Oh by the way, if you’re wondering what a visor is, it's the front piece on the helmet of a suit of armour and has slits for the eyes to see out of. To me it looked like they still had men inside them, looking at me!!
My brother, Gavin and I had turned one of the attic rooms into a ‘den’ for us to hang out in. We found an old table and chairs to take up there and I had an ancient typewriter which I used to type up stories on but as soon as the light started to fade we’d be out of there like a shot – once I was up there on my own and hadn’t noticed the time; realising how dark it was getting I stepped out of the room, clenched my teeth and ran - I could already hear the chatter of people talking along the corridor. (The same ones my parents heard, no doubt!) No wonder I grew up a nervous wreck!!
So let’s fast forward to the 1990s when the Hall was sold and became a Spa Hotel. The mirror that is now in the Library is the original mirror that came to the Hall with Emily Meynell after she got married to Hugo in 1863. The current owners managed to source the mirror from another house and ever since it was installed in the Library people have seen a little girl running around the house! There is also a bedroom upstairs where guests have heard a child knocking on the door and running away! So even now, people are still seeing a ghostly child – or is it another one that came with the mirror?
The story goes that one evening a barman working in the Library looked into the mirror and saw a little girl standing behind him in the secret doorway. When he turned round she was gone. He went over to the doorway and looked through it into the next room but she was nowhere to be seen. He assumed that she was a guest at the hotel and thought nothing of it – however, when he mentioned it the next day, he was told that no children were staying at the hotel at that time. Again, on a separate occasion, the barman looked into the mirror and saw the child standing behind him but when he turned round she wasn’t there!
Many people that stayed overnight at the Hall also heard these and other noises, and in the ensuing years we experienced many ghostly happenings! But why do these things happen, I wonder? Emily Meynell was a very strong Christian lady but her best friend, who often stayed with her at Hoar Cross Hall, was into spiritual things of a different nature. In the Victorian days seances were a popular part of spiritualism and the Victorian aristocracy loved to entertain their friends with elaborate parlour-room displays! Although I doubt Emily indulged in any of this, perhaps her friend did, unbeknown to her. Maybe she used an Ouija board. All these things are actually very dangerous, drawing unseen entities into a house and causing untold problems or hauntings. If you would like to know more, please click on the link here
Whatever the reason for all these spooky shenanigans, I'm just glad I don't have to put up with them anymore!
Don't miss next month's blog - 'The War Years'
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 lots of photographs from the times. Go check it out and let me know what you think!
Would make a great Christmas gift!
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Viv Wilson | 29th October 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
Going to sleep in a big old house is quite scary when you’re young but going to sleep in a big old house that’s haunted is even more scary!! As we approach Hallowe'en my mind has gone back to that first winter at Hoar Cross Hall and all the scary things that happened - and that was without any trick or treaters in those days! We quickly realised that we weren’t the only inhabitants of the house when we moved there in the 1970s. Every time there was a windy night I could hear a window banging in the attic – all night long it kept me awake. The next day I would go upstairs to the attics to close it but there would be no windows open or even loose. They were all tightly shut as they had been for the previous 20 years, when the house had stood empty. I remember standing there in the attic rooms feeling a tingling down my spine and goose bumps all over as I felt the atmosphere closing in on me - and I quickly legged it back downstairs! On other nights we would hear people walking along the attic corridor (the attic, by the way, was the floor right above our bedroom floor) and then at other times we could hear heavy furniture being dragged about – yet there was nothing up there as the rooms were all empty! How strange! Other members of the family heard it too and also people that stayed overnight, so it wasn’t the imaginings of a frightened child. There was also nobody else in the house at that point, apart from our family and they definitely weren’t walking about the house at 3am. And why is it that these things always happen in the middle of the night? When it’s dark. When we feel most scared? I often woke up at 3am whether there were noises or not – or perhaps there had been a noise and that’s what had woken me up – who knows? I also loved reading books about old houses, mysteries and ghosts but when you actually live in one in real life, it’s a bit different! The spooky attic The first few years at Hoar Cross Hall were the worst ones for spiritual activity - maybe we'd disturbed the ghosts who were used to an empty house and not one with children running about everywhere! Our family consisted of my mother, father and two younger brothers; my parents being members of the Historical Society were keen to buy a house to show my dad's huge arms and armour collection along with many antiques. But we hadn't bargained with the house being haunted! My mum was often woken up by the sight of a little girl ‘floating’ over the bed. She said the girl was wearing a long nightdress and mop cap and seemed to be stretching her arms out to my mum as if she was asking for help. She floated all around the bed scaring my mum half to death. Frantically she tried to wake my dad while the ghoulish girl reached out - by the time my dad was awake the child was fading away and he missed it all! If you haven’t already worked it out, long nighties and mop caps were the ‘go to’ fashion trend back in the Victorian days! She saw her a few times on the staircase too just standing in the corridor before fading away. This made me terrified to go upstairs to bed on my own and once inside my room I would lock the doors and burrow down under the blankets so I wouldn't see or hear anything - quite forgetting that ghosts can walk through walls! The haunted bedroom corridor When I got older it was great to have parties in the attics as we could play our rock music really loud and no-one would hear it! My dad had made the west wing of the house (the old Victorian nurseries) into an apartment which we rented out and it was here that my 18th birthday was celebrated as we had become friends with the people that lived there. As everyone had heard about the ghost stories at the Hall, we made an ouija board and tried to contact the spirits. Most people had had a few spirits of a different kind by then and we sat around the table watching the glass move aroun...
Viv Wilson | 24th September 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
With the new Downton Abbey film out this month I thought I would do a comparison of the two family homes, Downton and Hoar Cross Hall, the latter being my old family home for those of you who are new to these blogs. Although Downton Abbey is fictional, the house on which it is based is not, it being Highclere Castle in Hampshire which was built in 1679 and is owned by the Earl of Carnarvon. Hoar Cross Hall was the original home of the Meynell Ingram family who first came from Leicestershire and was built in 1863. Hugo Meynell of Quorndon was the High Sheriff of Staffordshire and Member of Parliament for Lichfield and the family owned considerable property in Staffordshire, Shropshire and Derbyshire. He bought the Hoar Cross estate in 1793 and built a hunting lodge there known as Old Hall and founded the Meynell Hunt. It seemed the family lived here for many years until Hugo’s grandson, also Hugo, got married in 1863 and decided to build the present Hall for him and his wife, Emily Charlotte. The house took nine years to build and was eventually finished in 1871. Hugo and Emily had already moved in, but their new life together was soon to be cut short by a tragic accident. Fourteen months earlier at Birch Wood on their estate Hugo had a horse riding accident and had been bed-ridden ever since – he died in May of that year. They had no children and Emily built The Church of the Holy Angels in the grounds of the hall in memory of her husband. This is the church that I got married in over a hundred years later. On Hugo’s death Emily inherited the family's many large estates and they say she was a double millionairess – which in those days was a huge amount of money! Emily Charlotte The original site of Highclere Castle was recorded 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 who also married the heiress to the Rothschild fortune and received a very large dowry. (In case you're wondering, a dowry is a sum of money or property given by the bride's family to the groom's family upon their marriage, and has historically been practiced by various cultures over the years). During the First World War, Highclere opened the house up as a hospital with the then Lady Carnarvon assisting as a nurse. In the Downton story Lord Grantham opens up the house to be used as a hospital for injured officers and some of the family assist in nursing them back to health. The Meynell family at Hoar Cross Hall also offered their home to be used as a hospital but were told that it was unsuitable owing to its isolation and inaccessibility in the country. However, Lady Mary Meynell opened her London home in Lennox Gardens to be used as a Military Hospital for officers during the First World War. Indeed, her own son, Francis, stayed there for a while recovering from severe wounds to the back in 1917, something which he never really recovered from resulting in his early death in 1941 at the age of 52. Hoar Cross Hall was too remote Although these aristocratic families seemed to live very charmed lives (and a lot of them did!) they also ran their estates to provide food and farm the land. This also gave local people much needed employment although being a domestic servant in those days could be quite hard with long hours and not much down time. However, they were families like the rest of us with the...
Viv Wilson | 19th August 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
When Hugo and Emily Meynell built Hoar Cross Hall it included a whole estate with it, namely kitchen gardens, greenhouses, stables, a farm and cottages. This was quite common in those days as the estate supported the house with food etc and also gave employment to local people. Old Hall (their original home) was also on the estate and was accessed via a private road, which ran from the main road. By the time the 1970s came along the stable block and Old Hall were private houses and another part of Old Hall had been made into a children’s home. Emily Meynell had started this home in the Victorian days, calling it ‘The Home of the Good Shepherd’ but it was for boys only at that time. When we were there it was a mixed home and run by a husband and wife couple. They used to have fetes there in the summer and we would sometimes go round to play with the children, as they had lots of climbing frames and slides. The private road also joined up to our woods near the driveway and this is the road I walked along every day, up to the main road, to catch the bus to school in nearby Uttoxeter. It was about half a mile but I hated walking through the woods, especially in the winter when the mornings were darker. One day, whilst walking round Uttoxeter at lunchtime, I saw a newspaper board telling everyone about a streaker that had run through the town the day before – what was this? A man running naked for the fun of it? On further investigation I found that this was the latest craze from America – but why anyone would want to do it in our cold country was beyond me! Streaking comes to Britain! I was not an academic by any means and hated my schooldays. I was constantly being teased for being too thin, too quiet or for living in a stately home. (This was from the teachers too!) so when it was time for 'skools out for summer' I was more than ready to leave! By now the Mediaeval Banquets, which my parents ran in the house, were proving a huge success and as package holidays were becoming very popular my parents decided to book a two week holiday abroad. My dad had always wanted to go to Greece to see all the temples but was a bit disappointed when he got there. Most of the temples were in ruins and once you’ve seen one ruin you’ve pretty much seen them all! The Acropolis was quite impressive though. I loved being abroad – the weather was so hot and the sea was always warm. Cold climes don’t suit me as I feel the cold so much so I would always be outdoors as soon as the sun was out - most of my summer holidays were spent in the gardens weeding whilst listening to Radio 1 on my little portable radio, although usually I dreaded the school holidays as it meant I was stuck at home for six weeks, rarely seeing my friends. Ticket to the bullfight Because of the success of the banquets it meant we could go abroad every year and other holidays included trips to Majorca, Portugal and Spain. I remember in Majorca going on a lovely train ride through orange groves and gardens to the Caves of Drach – the scenery was stunning with mountains watching over us from their great height. In Portugal we went to see a bull fight which I found both thrilling and frightening all at once. The matadors came so close to the bull but I hated that they had to stab them first to make them angry – it seemed so cruel. In Spain we went to a club one night to see some flamenco dancing and they pulled me up onto the stage to join in which was fun, if unexpected! We also went on a day trip to Morocco and walked around the Kasbah, which was the local market (see header picture). I remember hoards of children following us around trying to sell us things. My dad noticed one of the stallholders smiling at me and said for a joke “You can have her for two camels”. Well, the man never left our side after that – he took it very seriously and followed us all round the market trying to n...
Viv Wilson | 25th June 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
With the summer season well and truly upon us and Wimbledon almost here, I thought a blog about tennis might be in order! The game of tennis first started in the Mediaeval days and involved hitting a ball with a bare hand and later with a glove. By the 16th century the glove had become a racquet and the game had moved to an enclosed playing area and the rules had stabilized. This was known as ‘real tennis’. The word tennis came into use in English in the mid-14th century from French, via the Anglo-Norman term Tenez, which can be translated as 'hold', 'receive' or 'take', a call from the server to his opponent indicating that he is about to serve. It seems that royalty and the upper classes played tennis a lot, with Henry VIII making the biggest impact as a young monarch, playing the game with gusto at Hampton Court! However, the game was actually invented in Birmingham (England) and is the direct descendant of what is now denoted ‘real tennis’ or ‘royal tennis’ and continues to be played today with more complex rules. Many original courts still remain at Oxford, Cambridge, Falkland Palace in Fife, Scotland and Hampton Court Palace. Wimbledon itself is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and arguably the most famous. Since the first tournament 148 years ago in 1877, The Championships have been hosted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London and take place over two weeks in late June – early July. Tennis became popular because of the waning interest in croquet and the Club decided to organise a tennis tournament to pay for the repair of its pony roller, used to maintain the lawns. It must have been popular as its still going strong! Although you may enjoy the tennis I think people love the strawberries and cream too that are famously served there! Or you may like a tour around the museum - check it out here Wimbledon Many stately homes would have had tennis courts including Hoar Cross Hall. However, when we moved there in the 1970s you couldn’t see them at all as the grass had grown long and wild and it looked liked a wilderness. In fact, we didn’t even know that there were tennis courts there until Mrs Meynell, the previous owner, told us! Mowing the old tennis courts in 1984 Of course, back in the 1930s the younger members of the Meynell family often played on them during their weekend house parties (see header picture). One young man who became a close friend of the Meynell family made regular visits to Hoar Cross and recalled the happy times he spent there as “.....the last days of the traditional English country house with weekend parties full of gracious living and good company.” The people who came to the parties were usually young aristocrats such as Lady Diana Legge and her sister Lady Elisabeth Bassett, who was lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother from 1959 – 1993, when she retired at the age of 85! (see below) Lady Elizabeth (in the dark dress) Am-dram at a weekend house party on the tennis courts! I remember Mrs Meynell recalling a funny story about when they moved out of the Hall to a smaller house in the neighbouring village. Apparently her husband had come home one day to tell her he’d bought the house (without even consulting her) and the reason was that it had hard tennis courts, 'so much better than our grass ones' he told her! How different things were in those days – however, the servants were very pleased about the move as it meant less rooms to clean! And also less mowing now that they had hard courts! Don't miss next month's blog: 'Summer Balls and Garden Parties' If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, please click here and feel free to share with your friends.Follow me on a personal tour of my childhood home on YouTube. Click here to view and subscribe to my channel.OUT NOW!! 'My Dad Bought a Mansion' book is available on Amazon....
Viv Wilson | 29th October 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
Going to sleep in a big old house is quite scary when you’re young but going to sleep in a big old house that’s haunted is even more scary!! As we approach Hallowe'en my mind has gone back to that first winter at Hoar Cross Hall and all the scary things that happened - and that was without any trick or treaters in those days! We quickly realised that we weren’t the only inhabitants of the house when we moved there in the 1970s. Every time there was a windy night I could hear a window banging in the attic – all night long it kept me awake. The next day I would go upstairs to the attics to close it but there would be no windows open or even loose. They were all tightly shut as they had been for the previous 20 years, when the house had stood empty. I remember standing there in the attic rooms feeling a tingling down my spine and goose bumps all over as I felt the atmosphere closing in on me - and I quickly legged it back downstairs! On other nights we would hear people walking along the attic corridor (the attic, by the way, was the floor right above our bedroom floor) and then at other times we could hear heavy furniture being dragged about – yet there was nothing up there as the rooms were all empty! How strange! Other members of the family heard it too and also people that stayed overnight, so it wasn’t the imaginings of a frightened child. There was also nobody else in the house at that point, apart from our family and they definitely weren’t walking about the house at 3am. And why is it that these things always happen in the middle of the night? When it’s dark. When we feel most scared? I often woke up at 3am whether there were noises or not – or perhaps there had been a noise and that’s what had woken me up – who knows? I also loved reading books about old houses, mysteries and ghosts but when you actually live in one in real life, it’s a bit different! The spooky attic The first few years at Hoar Cross Hall were the worst ones for spiritual activity - maybe we'd disturbed the ghosts who were used to an empty house and not one with children running about everywhere! Our family consisted of my mother, father and two younger brothers; my parents being members of the Historical Society were keen to buy a house to show my dad's huge arms and armour collection along with many antiques. But we hadn't bargained with the house being haunted! My mum was often woken up by the sight of a little girl ‘floating’ over the bed. She said the girl was wearing a long nightdress and mop cap and seemed to be stretching her arms out to my mum as if she was asking for help. She floated all around the bed scaring my mum half to death. Frantically she tried to wake my dad while the ghoulish girl reached out - by the time my dad was awake the child was fading away and he missed it all! If you haven’t already worked it out, long nighties and mop caps were the ‘go to’ fashion trend back in the Victorian days! She saw her a few times on the staircase too just standing in the corridor before fading away. This made me terrified to go upstairs to bed on my own and once inside my room I would lock the doors and burrow down under the blankets so I wouldn't see or hear anything - quite forgetting that ghosts can walk through walls! The haunted bedroom corridor When I got older it was great to have parties in the attics as we could play our rock music really loud and no-one would hear it! My dad had made the west wing of the house (the old Victorian nurseries) into an apartment which we rented out and it was here that my 18th birthday was celebrated as we had become friends with the people that lived there. As everyone had heard about the ghost stories at the Hall, we made an ouija board and tried to contact the spirits. Most people had had a few spirits of a different kind by then and we sat around the table watching the glass move aroun...
Viv Wilson | 24th September 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
With the new Downton Abbey film out this month I thought I would do a comparison of the two family homes, Downton and Hoar Cross Hall, the latter being my old family home for those of you who are new to these blogs. Although Downton Abbey is fictional, the house on which it is based is not, it being Highclere Castle in Hampshire which was built in 1679 and is owned by the Earl of Carnarvon. Hoar Cross Hall was the original home of the Meynell Ingram family who first came from Leicestershire and was built in 1863. Hugo Meynell of Quorndon was the High Sheriff of Staffordshire and Member of Parliament for Lichfield and the family owned considerable property in Staffordshire, Shropshire and Derbyshire. He bought the Hoar Cross estate in 1793 and built a hunting lodge there known as Old Hall and founded the Meynell Hunt. It seemed the family lived here for many years until Hugo’s grandson, also Hugo, got married in 1863 and decided to build the present Hall for him and his wife, Emily Charlotte. The house took nine years to build and was eventually finished in 1871. Hugo and Emily had already moved in, but their new life together was soon to be cut short by a tragic accident. Fourteen months earlier at Birch Wood on their estate Hugo had a horse riding accident and had been bed-ridden ever since – he died in May of that year. They had no children and Emily built The Church of the Holy Angels in the grounds of the hall in memory of her husband. This is the church that I got married in over a hundred years later. On Hugo’s death Emily inherited the family's many large estates and they say she was a double millionairess – which in those days was a huge amount of money! Emily Charlotte The original site of Highclere Castle was recorded 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 who also married the heiress to the Rothschild fortune and received a very large dowry. (In case you're wondering, a dowry is a sum of money or property given by the bride's family to the groom's family upon their marriage, and has historically been practiced by various cultures over the years). During the First World War, Highclere opened the house up as a hospital with the then Lady Carnarvon assisting as a nurse. In the Downton story Lord Grantham opens up the house to be used as a hospital for injured officers and some of the family assist in nursing them back to health. The Meynell family at Hoar Cross Hall also offered their home to be used as a hospital but were told that it was unsuitable owing to its isolation and inaccessibility in the country. However, Lady Mary Meynell opened her London home in Lennox Gardens to be used as a Military Hospital for officers during the First World War. Indeed, her own son, Francis, stayed there for a while recovering from severe wounds to the back in 1917, something which he never really recovered from resulting in his early death in 1941 at the age of 52. Hoar Cross Hall was too remote Although these aristocratic families seemed to live very charmed lives (and a lot of them did!) they also ran their estates to provide food and farm the land. This also gave local people much needed employment although being a domestic servant in those days could be quite hard with long hours and not much down time. However, they were families like the rest of us with the...
Viv Wilson | 19th August 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
When Hugo and Emily Meynell built Hoar Cross Hall it included a whole estate with it, namely kitchen gardens, greenhouses, stables, a farm and cottages. This was quite common in those days as the estate supported the house with food etc and also gave employment to local people. Old Hall (their original home) was also on the estate and was accessed via a private road, which ran from the main road. By the time the 1970s came along the stable block and Old Hall were private houses and another part of Old Hall had been made into a children’s home. Emily Meynell had started this home in the Victorian days, calling it ‘The Home of the Good Shepherd’ but it was for boys only at that time. When we were there it was a mixed home and run by a husband and wife couple. They used to have fetes there in the summer and we would sometimes go round to play with the children, as they had lots of climbing frames and slides. The private road also joined up to our woods near the driveway and this is the road I walked along every day, up to the main road, to catch the bus to school in nearby Uttoxeter. It was about half a mile but I hated walking through the woods, especially in the winter when the mornings were darker. One day, whilst walking round Uttoxeter at lunchtime, I saw a newspaper board telling everyone about a streaker that had run through the town the day before – what was this? A man running naked for the fun of it? On further investigation I found that this was the latest craze from America – but why anyone would want to do it in our cold country was beyond me! Streaking comes to Britain! I was not an academic by any means and hated my schooldays. I was constantly being teased for being too thin, too quiet or for living in a stately home. (This was from the teachers too!) so when it was time for 'skools out for summer' I was more than ready to leave! By now the Mediaeval Banquets, which my parents ran in the house, were proving a huge success and as package holidays were becoming very popular my parents decided to book a two week holiday abroad. My dad had always wanted to go to Greece to see all the temples but was a bit disappointed when he got there. Most of the temples were in ruins and once you’ve seen one ruin you’ve pretty much seen them all! The Acropolis was quite impressive though. I loved being abroad – the weather was so hot and the sea was always warm. Cold climes don’t suit me as I feel the cold so much so I would always be outdoors as soon as the sun was out - most of my summer holidays were spent in the gardens weeding whilst listening to Radio 1 on my little portable radio, although usually I dreaded the school holidays as it meant I was stuck at home for six weeks, rarely seeing my friends. Ticket to the bullfight Because of the success of the banquets it meant we could go abroad every year and other holidays included trips to Majorca, Portugal and Spain. I remember in Majorca going on a lovely train ride through orange groves and gardens to the Caves of Drach – the scenery was stunning with mountains watching over us from their great height. In Portugal we went to see a bull fight which I found both thrilling and frightening all at once. The matadors came so close to the bull but I hated that they had to stab them first to make them angry – it seemed so cruel. In Spain we went to a club one night to see some flamenco dancing and they pulled me up onto the stage to join in which was fun, if unexpected! We also went on a day trip to Morocco and walked around the Kasbah, which was the local market (see header picture). I remember hoards of children following us around trying to sell us things. My dad noticed one of the stallholders smiling at me and said for a joke “You can have her for two camels”. Well, the man never left our side after that – he took it very seriously and followed us all round the market trying to n...
Viv Wilson | 25th June 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
With the summer season well and truly upon us and Wimbledon almost here, I thought a blog about tennis might be in order! The game of tennis first started in the Mediaeval days and involved hitting a ball with a bare hand and later with a glove. By the 16th century the glove had become a racquet and the game had moved to an enclosed playing area and the rules had stabilized. This was known as ‘real tennis’. The word tennis came into use in English in the mid-14th century from French, via the Anglo-Norman term Tenez, which can be translated as 'hold', 'receive' or 'take', a call from the server to his opponent indicating that he is about to serve. It seems that royalty and the upper classes played tennis a lot, with Henry VIII making the biggest impact as a young monarch, playing the game with gusto at Hampton Court! However, the game was actually invented in Birmingham (England) and is the direct descendant of what is now denoted ‘real tennis’ or ‘royal tennis’ and continues to be played today with more complex rules. Many original courts still remain at Oxford, Cambridge, Falkland Palace in Fife, Scotland and Hampton Court Palace. Wimbledon itself is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and arguably the most famous. Since the first tournament 148 years ago in 1877, The Championships have been hosted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London and take place over two weeks in late June – early July. Tennis became popular because of the waning interest in croquet and the Club decided to organise a tennis tournament to pay for the repair of its pony roller, used to maintain the lawns. It must have been popular as its still going strong! Although you may enjoy the tennis I think people love the strawberries and cream too that are famously served there! Or you may like a tour around the museum - check it out here Wimbledon Many stately homes would have had tennis courts including Hoar Cross Hall. However, when we moved there in the 1970s you couldn’t see them at all as the grass had grown long and wild and it looked liked a wilderness. In fact, we didn’t even know that there were tennis courts there until Mrs Meynell, the previous owner, told us! Mowing the old tennis courts in 1984 Of course, back in the 1930s the younger members of the Meynell family often played on them during their weekend house parties (see header picture). One young man who became a close friend of the Meynell family made regular visits to Hoar Cross and recalled the happy times he spent there as “.....the last days of the traditional English country house with weekend parties full of gracious living and good company.” The people who came to the parties were usually young aristocrats such as Lady Diana Legge and her sister Lady Elisabeth Bassett, who was lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother from 1959 – 1993, when she retired at the age of 85! (see below) Lady Elizabeth (in the dark dress) Am-dram at a weekend house party on the tennis courts! I remember Mrs Meynell recalling a funny story about when they moved out of the Hall to a smaller house in the neighbouring village. Apparently her husband had come home one day to tell her he’d bought the house (without even consulting her) and the reason was that it had hard tennis courts, 'so much better than our grass ones' he told her! How different things were in those days – however, the servants were very pleased about the move as it meant less rooms to clean! And also less mowing now that they had hard courts! Don't miss next month's blog: 'Summer Balls and Garden Parties' If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, please click here and feel free to share with your friends.Follow me on a personal tour of my childhood home on YouTube. Click here to view and subscribe to my channel.OUT NOW!! 'My Dad Bought a Mansion' book is available on Amazon....
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Viv Wilson | 29th October 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
Going to sleep in a big old house is quite scary when you’re young but going to sleep in a big old house that’s haunted is even more scary!! As we approach Hallowe'en my mind has gone back to that first winter at Hoar Cross Hall and all the scary things that happened - and that was without any trick or treaters in those days! We quickly realised that we weren’t the only inhabitants of the house when we moved there in the 1970s. Every time there was a windy night I could hear a window banging in the attic – all night long it kept me awake. The next day I would go upstairs to the attics to close it but there would be no windows open or even loose. They were all tightly shut as they had been for the previous 20 years, when the house had stood empty. I remember standing there in the attic rooms feeling a tingling down my spine and goose bumps all over as I felt the atmosphere closing in on me - and I quickly legged it back downstairs! On other nights we would hear people walking along the attic corridor (the attic, by the way, was the floor right above our bedroom floor) and then at other times we could hear heavy furniture being dragged about – yet there was nothing up there as the rooms were all empty! How strange! Other members of the family heard it too and also people that stayed overnight, so it wasn’t the imaginings of a frightened child. There was also nobody else in the house at that point, apart from our family and they definitely weren’t walking about the house at 3am. And why is it that these things always happen in the middle of the night? When it’s dark. When we feel most scared? I often woke up at 3am whether there were noises or not – or perhaps there had been a noise and that’s what had woken me up – who knows? I also loved reading books about old houses, mysteries and ghosts but when you actually live in one in real life, it’s a bit different! The spooky attic The first few years at Hoar Cross Hall were the worst ones for spiritual activity - maybe we'd disturbed the ghosts who were used to an empty house and not one with children running about everywhere! Our family consisted of my mother, father and two younger brothers; my parents being members of the Historical Society were keen to buy a house to show my dad's huge arms and armour collection along with many antiques. But we hadn't bargained with the house being haunted! My mum was often woken up by the sight of a little girl ‘floating’ over the bed. She said the girl was wearing a long nightdress and mop cap and seemed to be stretching her arms out to my mum as if she was asking for help. She floated all around the bed scaring my mum half to death. Frantically she tried to wake my dad while the ghoulish girl reached out - by the time my dad was awake the child was fading away and he missed it all! If you haven’t already worked it out, long nighties and mop caps were the ‘go to’ fashion trend back in the Victorian days! She saw her a few times on the staircase too just standing in the corridor before fading away. This made me terrified to go upstairs to bed on my own and once inside my room I would lock the doors and burrow down under the blankets so I wouldn't see or hear anything - quite forgetting that ghosts can walk through walls! The haunted bedroom corridor When I got older it was great to have parties in the attics as we could play our rock music really loud and no-one would hear it! My dad had made the west wing of the house (the old Victorian nurseries) into an apartment which we rented out and it was here that my 18th birthday was celebrated as we had become friends with the people that lived there. As everyone had heard about the ghost stories at the Hall, we made an ouija board and tried to contact the spirits. Most people had had a few spirits of a different kind by then and we sat around the table watching the glass move aroun...
Viv Wilson | 24th September 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
With the new Downton Abbey film out this month I thought I would do a comparison of the two family homes, Downton and Hoar Cross Hall, the latter being my old family home for those of you who are new to these blogs. Although Downton Abbey is fictional, the house on which it is based is not, it being Highclere Castle in Hampshire which was built in 1679 and is owned by the Earl of Carnarvon. Hoar Cross Hall was the original home of the Meynell Ingram family who first came from Leicestershire and was built in 1863. Hugo Meynell of Quorndon was the High Sheriff of Staffordshire and Member of Parliament for Lichfield and the family owned considerable property in Staffordshire, Shropshire and Derbyshire. He bought the Hoar Cross estate in 1793 and built a hunting lodge there known as Old Hall and founded the Meynell Hunt. It seemed the family lived here for many years until Hugo’s grandson, also Hugo, got married in 1863 and decided to build the present Hall for him and his wife, Emily Charlotte. The house took nine years to build and was eventually finished in 1871. Hugo and Emily had already moved in, but their new life together was soon to be cut short by a tragic accident. Fourteen months earlier at Birch Wood on their estate Hugo had a horse riding accident and had been bed-ridden ever since – he died in May of that year. They had no children and Emily built The Church of the Holy Angels in the grounds of the hall in memory of her husband. This is the church that I got married in over a hundred years later. On Hugo’s death Emily inherited the family's many large estates and they say she was a double millionairess – which in those days was a huge amount of money! Emily Charlotte The original site of Highclere Castle was recorded 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 who also married the heiress to the Rothschild fortune and received a very large dowry. (In case you're wondering, a dowry is a sum of money or property given by the bride's family to the groom's family upon their marriage, and has historically been practiced by various cultures over the years). During the First World War, Highclere opened the house up as a hospital with the then Lady Carnarvon assisting as a nurse. In the Downton story Lord Grantham opens up the house to be used as a hospital for injured officers and some of the family assist in nursing them back to health. The Meynell family at Hoar Cross Hall also offered their home to be used as a hospital but were told that it was unsuitable owing to its isolation and inaccessibility in the country. However, Lady Mary Meynell opened her London home in Lennox Gardens to be used as a Military Hospital for officers during the First World War. Indeed, her own son, Francis, stayed there for a while recovering from severe wounds to the back in 1917, something which he never really recovered from resulting in his early death in 1941 at the age of 52. Hoar Cross Hall was too remote Although these aristocratic families seemed to live very charmed lives (and a lot of them did!) they also ran their estates to provide food and farm the land. This also gave local people much needed employment although being a domestic servant in those days could be quite hard with long hours and not much down time. However, they were families like the rest of us with the...
Viv Wilson | 19th August 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
When Hugo and Emily Meynell built Hoar Cross Hall it included a whole estate with it, namely kitchen gardens, greenhouses, stables, a farm and cottages. This was quite common in those days as the estate supported the house with food etc and also gave employment to local people. Old Hall (their original home) was also on the estate and was accessed via a private road, which ran from the main road. By the time the 1970s came along the stable block and Old Hall were private houses and another part of Old Hall had been made into a children’s home. Emily Meynell had started this home in the Victorian days, calling it ‘The Home of the Good Shepherd’ but it was for boys only at that time. When we were there it was a mixed home and run by a husband and wife couple. They used to have fetes there in the summer and we would sometimes go round to play with the children, as they had lots of climbing frames and slides. The private road also joined up to our woods near the driveway and this is the road I walked along every day, up to the main road, to catch the bus to school in nearby Uttoxeter. It was about half a mile but I hated walking through the woods, especially in the winter when the mornings were darker. One day, whilst walking round Uttoxeter at lunchtime, I saw a newspaper board telling everyone about a streaker that had run through the town the day before – what was this? A man running naked for the fun of it? On further investigation I found that this was the latest craze from America – but why anyone would want to do it in our cold country was beyond me! Streaking comes to Britain! I was not an academic by any means and hated my schooldays. I was constantly being teased for being too thin, too quiet or for living in a stately home. (This was from the teachers too!) so when it was time for 'skools out for summer' I was more than ready to leave! By now the Mediaeval Banquets, which my parents ran in the house, were proving a huge success and as package holidays were becoming very popular my parents decided to book a two week holiday abroad. My dad had always wanted to go to Greece to see all the temples but was a bit disappointed when he got there. Most of the temples were in ruins and once you’ve seen one ruin you’ve pretty much seen them all! The Acropolis was quite impressive though. I loved being abroad – the weather was so hot and the sea was always warm. Cold climes don’t suit me as I feel the cold so much so I would always be outdoors as soon as the sun was out - most of my summer holidays were spent in the gardens weeding whilst listening to Radio 1 on my little portable radio, although usually I dreaded the school holidays as it meant I was stuck at home for six weeks, rarely seeing my friends. Ticket to the bullfight Because of the success of the banquets it meant we could go abroad every year and other holidays included trips to Majorca, Portugal and Spain. I remember in Majorca going on a lovely train ride through orange groves and gardens to the Caves of Drach – the scenery was stunning with mountains watching over us from their great height. In Portugal we went to see a bull fight which I found both thrilling and frightening all at once. The matadors came so close to the bull but I hated that they had to stab them first to make them angry – it seemed so cruel. In Spain we went to a club one night to see some flamenco dancing and they pulled me up onto the stage to join in which was fun, if unexpected! We also went on a day trip to Morocco and walked around the Kasbah, which was the local market (see header picture). I remember hoards of children following us around trying to sell us things. My dad noticed one of the stallholders smiling at me and said for a joke “You can have her for two camels”. Well, the man never left our side after that – he took it very seriously and followed us all round the market trying to n...
Viv Wilson | 25th June 2025 | Growing Up In a Stately Home
With the summer season well and truly upon us and Wimbledon almost here, I thought a blog about tennis might be in order! The game of tennis first started in the Mediaeval days and involved hitting a ball with a bare hand and later with a glove. By the 16th century the glove had become a racquet and the game had moved to an enclosed playing area and the rules had stabilized. This was known as ‘real tennis’. The word tennis came into use in English in the mid-14th century from French, via the Anglo-Norman term Tenez, which can be translated as 'hold', 'receive' or 'take', a call from the server to his opponent indicating that he is about to serve. It seems that royalty and the upper classes played tennis a lot, with Henry VIII making the biggest impact as a young monarch, playing the game with gusto at Hampton Court! However, the game was actually invented in Birmingham (England) and is the direct descendant of what is now denoted ‘real tennis’ or ‘royal tennis’ and continues to be played today with more complex rules. Many original courts still remain at Oxford, Cambridge, Falkland Palace in Fife, Scotland and Hampton Court Palace. Wimbledon itself is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and arguably the most famous. Since the first tournament 148 years ago in 1877, The Championships have been hosted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London and take place over two weeks in late June – early July. Tennis became popular because of the waning interest in croquet and the Club decided to organise a tennis tournament to pay for the repair of its pony roller, used to maintain the lawns. It must have been popular as its still going strong! Although you may enjoy the tennis I think people love the strawberries and cream too that are famously served there! Or you may like a tour around the museum - check it out here Wimbledon Many stately homes would have had tennis courts including Hoar Cross Hall. However, when we moved there in the 1970s you couldn’t see them at all as the grass had grown long and wild and it looked liked a wilderness. In fact, we didn’t even know that there were tennis courts there until Mrs Meynell, the previous owner, told us! Mowing the old tennis courts in 1984 Of course, back in the 1930s the younger members of the Meynell family often played on them during their weekend house parties (see header picture). One young man who became a close friend of the Meynell family made regular visits to Hoar Cross and recalled the happy times he spent there as “.....the last days of the traditional English country house with weekend parties full of gracious living and good company.” The people who came to the parties were usually young aristocrats such as Lady Diana Legge and her sister Lady Elisabeth Bassett, who was lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother from 1959 – 1993, when she retired at the age of 85! (see below) Lady Elizabeth (in the dark dress) Am-dram at a weekend house party on the tennis courts! I remember Mrs Meynell recalling a funny story about when they moved out of the Hall to a smaller house in the neighbouring village. Apparently her husband had come home one day to tell her he’d bought the house (without even consulting her) and the reason was that it had hard tennis courts, 'so much better than our grass ones' he told her! How different things were in those days – however, the servants were very pleased about the move as it meant less rooms to clean! And also less mowing now that they had hard courts! Don't miss next month's blog: 'Summer Balls and Garden Parties' If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, please click here and feel free to share with your friends.Follow me on a personal tour of my childhood home on YouTube. Click here to view and subscribe to my channel.OUT NOW!! 'My Dad Bought a Mansion' book is available on Amazon....
