Story Search Results

The Graveyard Shift..... #24

THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT...... Life carried on at the Hall as best it could in difficult circumstances.  My dad continued to go to arms fairs to buy and sell antiques and we also went to a mediaeval banquet in Cheshire one night, although it wasn’t anywhere near as good as ours!  Once or twice we took my dad out with our friends to Derby, where he originated from, and that seemed to cheer him up.  But he really needed to get away from the house for longer periods of time and when he saw a boat advertised for sale at Caernarvon he jumped at the chance and bought it.  It was an ex lifeboat called The Benbow so quite sturdy, although in need of a lick of paint and...

The War years and beyond

...ps of the Church of England in the early 1990s, the first and only twins to have done so at that time. Ironically the house became a Hotel and Spa in 1990 with a swimming pool in exactly the same location as where the monks were going to put theirs! And so onto 1970 when my family bought the Hall.  Apparently my dad had seen a notice about the contents sale of Dr Gillies in 1963, and had shown an interest in the Hall back then.  I imagine my mother said ‘No’ as she had two small children at that time!  Mrs Meynell had kept his phone number and rang him up in 1969 to see if he was still interested in buying the Hall after the monks had left. He turned up...

The Graveyard Shift! #25

...THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT!       Life carried on at the Hall as best it could in difficult circumstances.  My dad continued to go to Arms and Armour Fairs to buy and sell antiques and we also went to a mediaeval banquet in Cheshire one night, although it wasn’t anywhere near as good as ours!  Once or twice we took my dad out with our friends to Derby, where he originated from, and that seemed to cheer him up.  But he really needed to get away from the house for longer periods of time and when he saw a boat advertised for sale at Caernarvon he jumped at the chance and bought it.  It was an ex lifeboat called The Bembo so quite sturdy, although in need of a li...

Whodunit in the Library? #26

...WHODUNIT IN THE LIBRARY?       When we first moved to Hoar Cross Hall, growing up in a stately home seemed an idyllic way to live – and lots of fun if you’re a child.  This rambling old house full of empty rooms and secret doors, wild gardens and woods to explore, was in some ways a dream come true for our family, certainly for my dad.  But as we turned from children to teenagers the isolation and lack of public transport was frustrating.  Coupled with this was my parents fighting and subsequent split, living at each end of the house and battling for the house and business through their solicitors. The effect this had on me, as the eldest child who p...

Alice - the ghost in the mirror

...at Christ Church in Oxford.  A new dean, Henry Liddell, started around about that time and brought with him his wife and young family.  One of his daughters was called Alice and this little girl was widely thought to be the inspiration behind his stories but Carroll always denied this.  In 1852 he became a tutor for the children of Charles Wood of Hickleton Hall in Yorkshire.  During the summer a friend of the children, Mary Heath, stayed at the hall and this is the little girl believed to be his inspiration for Alice.  But also, the room in which he taught the children had a lovely mirror over the mantlepiece which is exactly the same as the picture of th...

The graveyard shift #24

...THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT:    Life carried on at Hoar Cross Hall as best it could in difficult circumstances.  My dad continued to go to Arms and Armour Fairs to buy and sell antiques and we also went to a mediaeval banquet in Cheshire one night, although it wasn’t anywhere near as good as ours!  Once or twice we took my dad out with our friends to Derby, where he originated from, and that seemed to cheer him up.  But he really needed to get away from the house for longer periods of time and when he saw a boat advertised for sale at Caernarvon he jumped at the chance and bought it.  It was an ex lifeboat called The Bembo so quite sturdy, although in need of a...