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Motor Racing Days #9

MOTOR RACING DAYS Although my blogs are about living at Hoar Cross Hall, I would just like to give a bit of background about my dad’s racing career in the years leading up to moving to the Hall as this will set the scene for later instalments of my story. As mentioned in my first blog my dad used to be a racing driver but he actually started off racing motor cycles in the 1930s. Because of this he became a despatch rider during the Second World War and spent a lot of time in North Africa. After the war he started racing motor bikes at nearby Donington Park and he raced there up to the beginning of the 1950s. After that he moved onto cars and drove a Cooper 5...

What the butler saw!

...n the mid-1930s.  When the family left the Hall in the 1950s and bought the smaller Hollybush House in nearby Newborough he went with them until his retirement.  He and his wife celebrated their Diamond wedding anniversary in 1972. However, when at the Hall his main duties would have been looking after the wine cellar and silverware or plate as it was known.  This was kept in a room next to his bedroom so he could keep an eye on it and make sure no-one stole anything.  Similarly with the wine cellar, he would have kept it all under lock and key so none of the servants could have a crafty drink when no-one was looking.  He also waited on table at all the me...

The Haunting of Hoar Cross Hall #32

...re in the 1930s. She told them about the noises in the attic and how the servants complained about sleeping up there. Then she told them about someone knocking on their bedroom doors in the middle of the night. After that she told them about a little girl that used to run around the house, who could be heard giggling, of a room in the basement where the door always got stuck and the handle could be seen moving on it’s own. So many stories! Viv sat listening in amazement, enraptured. “Did you find out who the little girl was?” she eventually asked. “Oh yes,” answered Mrs Meynell. “She lived here during the Victorian days and had been left alone in t...

Motor Racing Days #9

...Although my blogs are about living at Hoar Cross Hall, I would just like to give a bit of background about my dad’s racing career in the years leading up to moving to the Hall as this will set the scene for later instalments of my story. As mentioned in my first blog my dad used to be a racing driver but he actually started off racing motor cycles in the 1930s. Because of this he became a despatch rider during the Second World War and spent a lot of time in North Africa. After the war he started racing motor bikes at nearby Donington Park and he raced there up to the beginning of the 1950s. After that he moved onto cars and drove a Cooper 500cc (which is the...

A Christmas Haunting! #34

...re in the 1930s. She told them about the noises in the attic and how the servants complained about sleeping up there. Then she told them about someone knocking on their bedroom doors in the middle of the night. After that she told them about a little girl that used to run around the house, who could be heard giggling, of a room in the basement where the door always got stuck and the handle could be seen moving on it’s own. So many stories! Viv sat listening in amazement, enraptured. “Did you find out who the little girl was?” she eventually asked. “Oh yes,” answered Mrs Meynell. “She lived here during the Victorian days and had been left alone in t...

Royal Visitors at Hoar Cross Hall #49

...uring the 1930s a lot of weekend parties were held at the Hall. One young man who became a close friend of the Meynell family made regular visits to Hoar Cross and recalled the happy times he spent there as “.....the last days of the traditional English country house with weekend parties full of gracious living and good company.” The people who came to the parties were usually young aristocrats such as Lady Diana Legge and her sister Lady Elisabeth Bassett, who was lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother from 1959 – 1993, when she retired at the age of 85! Lady Elizabeth Bassett (in the dark dress)   However, the Meynell family also spent a lot of time...