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The Library #69

The Library at Hoar Cross Hall is a delightful room, not huge like the other rooms, but not too small either – a room fitted with mahogany bookshelves on three sides and a bay window overlooking the terrace and the gardens.  From this window, on a clear day, it is possible to see the “Three ladies of the vale” – the spires of Lichfield Cathedral.  Libraries have been around for centuries with evidence pointing to the Romano-British world when documents and manuscripts were stored in chests in special rooms where people could study them sitting at a table, not unlike today's libraries.   In the 15th century classical works were collected by men such...

Change and the Country House #61

Hoar Cross Hall was clearly a very different house in the Victorian era compared to today.  Like other country houses it has not been immune from the social and economic changes affecting all walks of life over the last hundred years. At the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1837 the local landowner with his country house and estate was the focal point of the community, often dispensing law, charity and education.  The estate would also provide employment for the local people and over fifty locals were employed on the Hoar Cross estate in the house and grounds plus many more on Home Farm along with carpenters, electricians and plumbers to keep the esta...

The life and times of an upper class family #44

On 11th August 1863, Hugo Francis Meynell Ingram married the Hon. Emily Charlotte, daughter of Sir Charles Wood, Bart, afterwards 1st Viscount Halifax. The Woods were an old gentry family, for many centuries respectable York merchants. They were later to turn grand upon the discovery of coal beneath their ancestral estates. This was the great Barnsley field, with several hundred acres of Britain's deepest and finest coal. Sir Charles Wood was created 1st Viscount Halifax in 1866 and had a very distinguished political career. The family seats of Garrowby, Pocklington and Hickleton (where Emily was born) had been acquired by his father from the Wentworth family; t...

Meet the Neighbours - Alton Towers #82

When you say the name ‘Alton Towers’ most people in the UK will think of the theme park with spectacular rollercoaster rides.  It really has changed beyond all recognition to the days when I used to go there back in the 1970s.  In those days it was a lovely house set in beautiful grounds with a few fairground rides to one side of the car park!  Well, it still is a lovely place to visit but the rides have taken over now so that people only think of it as a theme park with fantastically themed hotels and an enchanted village! However, this estate started life as an Iron Age Fort built on Bunbury Hill. Then later on in the 11th century, Alton Castle was bui...

Hoar Cross Hall - a bit of history #11

HOAR CROSS HALL - A BIT of HISTORY:      Hoar Cross was part of Needwood Forest, the 11th century lands of Henry de Ferrers.  The land was passed down to Henry’s son and subsequent various people over the course of 500 years ending with the Webb family, around the 1730s, who bought the land and house known as the Manor of the Cross.  This was quite a large house built on a hill near Yoxall (which is the village next to Hoar Cross).  In 1740 the manor house was demolished and later the Hon. Charles Talbot bought the estate for £17,000.  Eventually it was sold to Hugo Meynell, who already owned huge amounts of property all over the county. This branch...

Hoar Cross Hall meets Downton Abbey #99

With the new Downton Abbey film out this month I thought I would do a comparison of the two family homes, Downton and Hoar Cross Hall, the latter being my old family home for those of you who are new to these blogs.  Although Downton Abbey is fictional, the house on which it is based is not, it being Highclere Castle in Hampshire which was built in 1679 and is owned by the earl of Carnarvon. Hoar Cross Hall was the original home of the Meynell Ingram family who first came from Leicestershire and was built in 1863.  Hugo Meynell of Quorndon was the High Sheriff of Staffordshire and Member of Parliament for Lichfield and the family owned considerable property in...