Story Search Results

Calendar Girls and Front Covers #7

CALENDAR GIRLS AND FRONT COVERS: Occasionally people would hire the Hall and during the summer of 1973 a photographer from London hired the place for a day.  He brought two models with him, one English and one German and they were taking photos for a glamour calendar.  We were told to keep right out of the way as they were taking photos in the gardens as well as the house.  Naturally we wanted to see everything that was going on and Gavin especially was very keen to watch – so much so that he found a pair of binoculars to follow all the proceedings!  We managed to find all sorts of hiding places eventually settling in our attic room to keep tabs on everyt...

Coming Of Age #21

...we had a ghost at each end of the house.  What a night! We were now spending more of our social time in the Meynell Arms, the local pub. We had also become engaged and I stayed at Kev’s house in the week so I could get to work easily having failed my driving test a couple of times; weekends were spent at the Hall.   Hoar Cross and the surrounding villages were a bit of a Birmingham commuter belt area and a lot of the families were quite well-to-do.  We met up with a crowd of young people in the Meynell every weekend whose fathers were stockbrokers, barristers and local gentry; most of their houses had swimming pools and we would often go back to one or a...

Here comes the bride (Part 1) #30

...t see the ghost of the lady who wanders through the woods!   Don’t miss Part 2 of ‘Here comes the bride’ next week and find out what caused the congregation to gasp as we exchanged our vows!   To read my story from the beginning, please Click Here!...

My Dad Bought A Mansion! #1

...fessional ghost hunters -  but that’s another story which will be featured in a later blog! Don’t miss next week’s instalment:  Moving into the Manor...

Reburbishing our Mansion #4

...eing that ghost and I hated all those suits of armour looking at me so I would leave the lights on and let my mum switch them off later!  However, if I heard any strange noises in the night at least I could blame the new tenants now and not think about the attic ‘tenants’. Around the back and side of the house was a dry ‘moat’ as we called it.  Not full of water but there to allow light into the basement rooms.  A stone balustrade surrounded it and we loved to walk along the top of it even though it was a long drop if we’d fallen off!  These moats were full of soil and dead leaves which all needed to be cleared and the only way of accessing them w...

More Tea Vicar? #13

...ns of our ghost was buried – the small child whose cries we often heard.  She was buried in the churchyard and we had found her grave after hearing the noises and stories about her.  I think she was about 9 years old and the grave belonged to a Rose Meynell. Because we lived at the Hall the vicar expected to see us at church every week; however, weekends were our busy time so we didn’t go every week but managed to attend at Easter and Christmas.  I have to say we were non too keen on going to church as we had to be on our best behaviour (something which didn’t sit easily with us as you’ve probably guessed!).  Afterwards though we all went across the...