The next house in this series is a mere half hour from Hoar Cross Hall and we often visited it during the summer months and later, when my children were born, we’d take them for a visit too! Seated on the edge of Cannock Chase this elegant house was once a manor house owned by the Bishops of Lichfield, until the dissolution of the monasteries around 1540. Later it came into the hands of the Anson family, who were ancestors of the Earls of Lichfield, and stayed there for three centuries. Wil...

Continuing the series on neighbouring houses to Hoar Cross Hall, let me introduce you to Sudbury Hall, which is about 7 miles away and on the border of Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The manor of Sudbury was listed in the Doomsday Book following the Norman Conquest in 1086, so a lot older than the Hall, and is a Grade I listed building. The Vernon family came to Sudbury after a 16th century marriage between Sir John Vernon, from Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, and the Sudbury heiress, Ellen Montgome...

This month I start a brand new series on stately homes local to Hoar Cross Hall and the first one is Blithfield Hall, which was probably the nearest stately home neighbour to Hoar Cross Hall and had been privately owned by the Bagot family since the 14th century. The house, which is Grade I listed, is situated between Rugeley and Abbots Bromley and is about 6 miles from the Hall. I remember calling round with my parents once to see Nancy, Lady Bagot, and admiring the goats they had roaming aro...

Before we moved to Hoar Cross Hall my father had bought an old manor house in the village of Shardlow, near Derby, which had previously been a vicarage among other things. I think my parents must have had a love of historic buildings and indeed were members of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings and Monuments. My dad had a business in Derby at the time making alabaster items such as table lamps and candlestick holders and when he bought the manor house he moved his business t...

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...