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Hoar Cross Hall - Life below stairs #45

...ng in the Church choir! Boys from the local orphanage were also required to offer their services to the choir. During the 1920s there was a chauffeur and an under-chauffeur, although the Meynells had run a motor car since the early part of the 20th century. The chauffeur was always addressed as Mr, showing that this position had succeeded that of the groom. Around 28 people were employed on the grounds. Two young boys were employed just to sweep the pathways and were known as bothy boys. The most common of all male servants was the gardener as they were responsible for producing all the fruit, vegetables and herbs which were used in the kitchens as well as keep...

A Bit Of Background #1

...built The Church of the Holy Angels in the grounds of the hall in memory of her husband.  This is the Church that I got married in many years later.  On Hugo’s death Emily inherited many large estates and they say she was a double millionairess – which in those days was a huge amount of money!   And so we moved to this house with all its history and tragedies in the summer of 1970. My family consisted of my dad and mum, William and Gwynyth, descendents of an old Derbyshire family and from the Prices of Meirionydd, and two younger brothers, Gavin and Piers and the five of us were about to take on a stately home in the middle of nowhere, or so it seemed t...

Here comes the bride (Part 2)

...HERE COMES THE BRIDE (Part 2)      And so our wedding day 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!  Gavin drove my dad’s Mercedes Benz car all the way down the drive and back up the road to the Church – this was one of the drawbacks of having a Church in your grounds; you don’t get to drive all through the town with everyone looking at you!  Neve...

The tax man cometh! #29

...THE TAX MAN COMETH:   My parents’ court case was finally over and my dad had six months to leave the house.  In the meantime my mum had to find the funds to buy him out and he had to find another house to live in.  He also had an awful lot of stuff to move too!  He eventually found a house in nearby Burton-on-Trent but as it was obviously a lot smaller he had to get rid of a lot of his possessions and one of the first things to go was his Lotus Elite.  He advertised it in the local paper but instead of getting a phone call from a likely buyer, the first call was from the local tax office.  Back in those days they used to check advertisements in the news...

Here comes the Bride (Part 2) #31

...HERE COMES THE BRIDE (Part 2):        And so our wedding day 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!  Gavin drove my dad’s Mercedes Benz car all the way down the drive and back up the road to the Church – this was one of the drawbacks of having a Church in your grounds; you don’t get to drive all through the town with everyone looking at you! ...

The Schoolroom Maid's Story #34

...THE SCHOOLROOM MAID'S STORY:       For the first 75 years of the Hall’s history about 50 servants were employed by the Meynell family in the house and grounds.  Among these was a young girl of fifteen who started work in 1920 as a Schoolroom Maid.  Her name was Miss Inez Sophia Large and she had connections to Hoar Cross through her grand-parents, William and Mary Tooth, who lived in the village where William was the blacksmith; his smithy was just along from the Meynell public house.  He had worked on the ironwork of the Hall during its construction in the 1860s.  Inez’s aunt, Constance Madeley, was the wife of the landlord at the Buffalo Inn, in ne...