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Victorian Courtship - gloves #92

This is the second blog in the series on Victorian courtship and is all about the use of gloves. During the Victorian era, gloves were deeply connected to the notion of the “perfect hand” which were to be “shapely, finely made, white with blue vein, taper fingers, rosy nails and slightly arched”.  They were seen as social markers and accordingly, ladies wore gloves which were too small for them in order to shrink their hands. Following an old French practice, glove length was traditionally measured in buttons based on the distance between the base of the thumb and the top edge of the glove.  Until Queen Victoria’s reign gloves were quite short.  F...

Victorian Society #93

Victorian society was built around Queen Victoria’s reign, loosely between 1820-1914.  It was characterised by a class-based society and Britain being the most powerful empire in the world. Hoar Cross Hall was built in 1870, at the height of the Victorian era, and boasted up to seventy rooms, twenty-five of them for the servants, approximately fifteen for the kitchens and utility areas, leaving around thirty rooms for the family and their guests.  During this time a lot of people, particularly women, went into domestic service and the Housekeeper at the Hall earned about £50 a year, while a housemaid earned £15 a year – quite the difference!  By all ac...

Temple Newsam and the Meynells #40

Hoar Cross Hall was built by Hugo and Emily Meynell Ingram in 1871 and this week I am delving into the family background of Hugo to explain how Emily came to own the Temple Newsam estate after his death. In 1782, Hugo's grandfather, Hugo Meynell of Quorndon, the 'father of fox hunting', married the Hon. Elizabeth Ingram Shepheard.  She was the daughter of Charles Ingram, 9th Viscount Irwin and Lord Ingram.  The family seat was Temple Newsam in Yorkshire and this was how the Meynell family became associated with this great house.  Through this marriage of Hugo and Elizabeth, the Meynell family also inherited the Ingram estates in Lincolnshire, acquired by Sir...

The Kitchen Maid's Tale #41

...� In 1958 Queen Elizabeth II announced that she would no longer have debutantes presented at court and although balls carried on for a number of years, they gradually died out in the 1970s.   A debutante arrives for the Ball in her Rolls Royce   Once the season was over and Jenny returned to the Hall she was busy in the kitchen straightaway. She tells how there were visitors arriving and her statement below shows the implications for the staff of a large country house:- “I don’t know who they were, but they were a lady and gentleman, a valet and lady’s maid, a grown-up daughter, and a very young child. Young enough to have a nanny. That meant th...

Panto Pranks! #23

...PANTO PRANKS!       During the 1970s Hoar Cross Hall was used from time to time for local community activities and one such event was the production in 1978 of a traditional pantomime, ‘Midnight and a Journey back to Happiness’.   It was written by local people, Robert Leighton from Yoxall and the Hon. Alexandra Meynell, daughter-in-law of Mrs Jean Meynell whom we had purchased the Hall from.  The words and music were written by local songwriter, David Matthews, who had written songs for quite a few pop artists during the 1960s, his most famous being Matt Munro’s ‘We’re gonna change the world’.  So off to a good start there! For those of you...

Panto Pranks! #22

...PANTO PRANKS!      During the 1970s Hoar Cross Hall was used from time to time for local community activities and one such event was the production in 1978 of a traditional pantomime, ‘Midnight and a Journey back to Happiness’.   It was written by local people, Robert Leighton from Yoxall and the Hon. Alexandra Meynell, daughter-in-law of Mrs Jean Meynell whom we had purchased the Hall from.  The words and music were written by local songwriter, David Matthews, who had written songs for quite a few pop artists during the 1960s, his most famous being Matt Munro’s ‘We’re gonna change the world’.  So off to a good start there! For those of you w...