Story Search Results

Skools out for Summer! #58

...broad – Europe’s climate and way of life suited me and after two weeks I never wanted to come home but home we did come as we still had our own visitors to attend to in the holidays. Sometimes my friend Janine came round to stay for a few days and this would break the monotony a bit. Once we dressed up in the Victorian dresses that were on show and walked around the grounds and then over to the church in them. People must have thought they were seeing ghosts! Library with secret door (far left corner)   Another time we decided to play tricks on the visitors by using the secret door in the Library. There were two secret doors, one which was always ope...

Moving Into a Mansion #67

...all over Europe to race at all the famous circuits, so the outbuildings were always full of bits of racing cars and engines!  All this stuff had to be moved and my dad did most of it by travelling back and forth each day with vans and trailers full of the contents of our house and outbuildings – an enormous undertaking!  He knew some students and used to pick them up en route to help and they also stayed on to help tame the gardens which were very overgrown, the grass standing about 2 feet high.  As I’m sure you can imagine, after 20 years of neglect, the gardens were a sorry sight having once been very grand.  The neglected gardens   Apparentl...

Skools out for Summer #98

...broad – Europe’s climate and way of life suited me very well and after two weeks I never wanted to come home, but home we did come as we still had our own visitors/patrons to attend to in the holidays, as our house was open to the public during the summer months.   Sometimes my friend Janine came round to stay for a few days and this would break the monotony a bit.  Once we dressed up in the Victorian dresses that were on show and walked around the grounds in them and then over to the church.  People must have thought they were seeing ghosts! Can you spot the secret door in the Library?   Another time we decided to play tricks on the visitors by...

Behind the green baize door #47

...inings in Europe – also games tables. I'm sure you are all familiar with pool and snooker tables showing off their red and green baize cloth. Baize was also used as clothing for monks, nuns and soldiers as it was very warm and hard wearing. Is there no end to the talents of this serviceable cloth? The green baize door was usually at the end of a long corridor leading from the kitchens, which were strategically placed at one end of the house for deliveries from the kitchen garden and home farm. Long before labour-saving devices, servants staggered up staircases with hot water for baths and coal for the many fireplaces. When you went through the green baize do...

The country house in society #48

...Country houses are to be found throughout the British Isles and are a peculiarly English phenomenon. Houses range from mediaeval manor houses to classical Palladian mansions, elegant Georgian residences to the Gothic buildings of the Victorian era. A great many have survived for two main reasons: Britain has been spared much of the havoc of war and revolution affecting other countries. Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire   Wentworth Woodhouse (above) is one of the largest stately homes in Europe and was visited by King George V and Queen Mary in 1912. It is now with the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust and is much bigger than this photo shows!   The...