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My Dad Bought a Mansion #1

MY DAD BOUGHT A MANSION!    It was the summer of 1970, Mungo Jerry was at the top of the hit parade and we were about to move house. But not to any old house – to a 70 roomed mansion in 20 acres of grounds! For years my dad had collected antiques, ever since he was a young boy of 12, and it was his dream to own a large house where he could put them on show to the general public. In the 1970s he owned the largest private collection of arms and armour in the country and his dream was about to be realised; but little did we know what a nightmare would unfold before us. Hoar Cross Hall was the home of the Meynell Ingram family who originated from Leicestershir...

The Tax Man Cometh! #26

My parents’ court case was finally over and my dad had six months to leave the family home, Hoar Cross Hall. 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 newspapers and...

Hysterical Productions #15

By the end of 1974 we had done about 40 banquets at Hoar Cross Hall and they were still going strong. Most of the original cast were still with us but we were on our second King now and also doing our own catering and bar, whereas when we first started, we had a catering firm in to do it all. Every weekend over 200 people came to sample our Noble Brose, Roast Lambe and Saracen’s Delight and sing along to ‘I’m Henry VIII’ whilst drinking beer, wine and mead. But it was a very adult environment for 15 year old girls to work in; a few of my school friends also worked at the banquets as wenches and we were constantly being chatted up by men who bought us dri...

A Home fit for a King #21

In this week's blog I am focusing on the royal family again and the stately homes which they grew up in. The main residence for the Royal family is Buckingham Palace which is the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom and where many state occasions take place, but Buckingham Palace was originally known as Buckingham House. The building at the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site that had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and became known as The Queen's House. During the 19th ce...

Gardeners World at Hoar Cross #43

In this week's blog I am focusing again on the servants who spent their lives looking after the Meynell family along with their home and gardens. In it’s heyday Hoar Cross Hall had around 28 people employed to keep the 20 acres of grounds tidy and weed free. In Victorian England the most common of all male servants was the gardener. At Hoar Cross the head gardener had numerous under-gardeners known affectionately as ‘digging slaves’! They were responsible for producing fruit, vegetables and growing luxury items in and out of season, much of it under glass. Adjacent to the house was the carp pool and greenhouse area along with a palm house; next to these wa...

Victorian Courtship - fans #91

For the next few months I will be doing a series on Victorian courtship starting in February, the month of love, as we have just celebrated Valentine’s Day on the 14th.  The Victorians used various items for flirting with, namely fans, gloves, parasols and handkerchiefs!  I imagine the Meynell family at Hoar Cross Hall held lots of dinner parties and Balls back in the Victorian days where most of the young ladies would have had their fans at the ready to signal to a secret beau.  But what were these signals and why were they used? The belief that the fan was used in society to express feelings or commands dates back to at least the early 18th century.  I...