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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...

Christmas High Jinks!

CHRISTMAS HIGH JINKS:     the sounds of La Golondrina floated through the air as Viv sat at the grand piano.  How pleased she was that someone had asked them to look after this fine musical instrument for a few months.  Having learned to play when she was younger, this gave Viv the opportunity to brush up on her skills as a pianist and she was thoroughly enjoying it.  the piano was in the Library and suited the room perfectly.  She could hear her father and an antique dealer talking in the Long Gallery as they haggled over the price of a painting that he was selling.  Viv gazed out of the window as she played and thought back to the Midsummer’s Eve Bal...

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...

More Tea Vicar? #13

...ounds 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...

the Chapel #68

...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 chapel and it seems that before the chapel was built, services had been held in another room of the house.  I would imagine that Emily Meynell wanted a proper consecrated...

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...