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Here Comes the Bride (Part 1) #32

HERE COMES THE BRIDE (Part 1):   Now my dad was having to move out of the Hall we had decided to bring our wedding forward so that we could get married in the Church in the grounds (the Church of the Holy Angels) and then have the reception afterwards in the Hall, which was after all our family home. The wedding preparations were going quite well and as we knew lots of musicians it wasn’t hard to find a local band and a DJ to do the disco. A friend of my dad’s offered to do the catering and the bar was set up with plenty of kegs from the local brewery in Burton on Trent. I had two bridesmaids and we all went to Birmingham one day to choose our dresses and...

Get me to the Church on time #31

And so our wedding day at Hoar Cross Hall arrived bright and clear, all thoughts of solicitors, legals, fights and arrests behind us! Myself and my bridesmaids went to get our hair done in the morning and Kev slapped a piece of steak on his jaw to bring the swelling down after the rather unfortunate fight at his stag do. Fortunately, the bruise didn’t show up too much on the photos! My brother Gavin drove my dad’s Mercedes Benz car all the way down the drive and back up the road to the Church – this is one of the drawbacks of having a Church next door to your house; you don’t get to drive all through the town with everyone looking at you! At least a sma...

More Tea Vicar? #13

...s was The Church of the Holy Angels.   Mrs Meynell Ingram commissioned Bodley to commence work on the Church in 1872 in memory of her husband who had died the previous year.  It was generally regarded as one of the finest Victorian Churches in the country and was known locally as the “Cathedral of the Midlands”.  It was indeed a huge Church (for a village) and always open to the public so we would sometimes go and have a look inside.  On one occasion there was no-one around so Gavin and I lit all the candles in the Church as we thought it looked really pretty and brightened the place up a bit.  Oh dear – that was definitely not the right thing to do!...

Here Comes the Bride (Part 1) #29

...HERE COMES THE BRIDE (Part 1)     After the court case my dad was given 3 months to move out of Hoar Cross Hall. We had decided to bring our wedding forward so that we could get married in the Church of the Holy Angels in the grounds and then have the reception afterwards in the Hall, which was after all our family home. The wedding preparations were going quite well and as we knew lots of musicians it wasn’t hard to find a local band and a DJ to do the disco. A friend of my dad’s offered to do the catering and the bar was set up with plenty of kegs from the local brewery in Burton on Trent. I had two bridesmaids and we all went to Birmingham one day to c...

The Chapel #68

...built the Church of the Holy Angels in memory of her late husband in the grounds of the Hall. The Church of the Holy Angels   The four stained glass windows contain the Meynell family’s Coats of Arms since the 13th century and the altar originally had altar frontals finely embroidered in gold thread.  To the left of the door was the organ with the Bodley organ casing.  The organ console was mid-eighteenth century but not working when we moved there.  However, various organ enthusiasts tried to fix it but it was a big job and continued to be a work in progress whilst we were there. The organ   After the chapel was built, in the early part of...

Here comes the Bride (Part 1) # 30

...HERE COMES THE BRIDE (Part 1):    Now that my dad was having to move out of the Hall we had decided to bring our wedding forward so that we could get married in the Church in the grounds and then have the reception afterwards in the Hall, which was after all our family home.  The wedding preparations were going quite well and as we knew lots of musicians it wasn’t hard to find a local band and a DJ to do the disco.  A friend of my dad’s offered to do the catering and the bar was set up with plenty of kegs from the local brewery in Burton on Trent.  I had two bridesmaids and we all went to Birmingham one day to choose our dresses and shoes – it was all...