Story Search Results

The origins of the stately home #43

...uarters). Hoar Cross Hall had 70 rooms although the kitchens had been knocked down so it would have had maybe another 10 rooms on top of that – a lot to keep clean! A Palace could have up to 300 or more rooms. Typical rooms in a stately home would be a Long Gallery (for promenading along during the winter months), a saloon, a library, a drawing room, a snooker room and master and guest bedrooms. Rooms on each floor were laid out as follows:-   The basement - kitchens and sculleries plus male servants' bedrooms The ground floor - dining room and morning room The first floor - drawing room The second floor - bedrooms Top floor/attic - nurseries and female...

Things that go bump in the night #3

...Going to sleep in a big old house is quite scary when you’re young but going to sleep in a big old house that’s haunted is even more scary!! That first winter at Hoar Cross Hall was like that. Every time there was a windy night I could hear a window banging in the attic – all night long it kept me awake. The next day I would go upstairs to close it but there would be no windows open or even loose. They were all tightly shut as they had been for 20 years. I remember standing there in the attic rooms feeling a tingling down my spine and goose bumps all over as I felt the atmosphere closing in on me - and I quickly legged it back downstairs! On other nights...

Ghouls Galore! #18

...One of the great things about living in a stately home is that you can have a wild party with the loudest of music – and no-one will hear it! I was now going out with Kev, whom I had met at college. Mum was a bit disappointed that my sensible boyfriend and I had parted company after 18 months of an on/off relationship but she accepted Kev into the fold and eventually met all the other members of the band. I think she wanted to put her mind at rest that they were a bunch of nice lads and not a drug crazed rock band eating bats! Which of course they were! No – I’m only kidding! After the awful split up at Christmas my parents were now living at each end of t...

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...

Meet the Neighbours - Coombe Abbey # 81

...Although this house isn’t quite so neighbourly to Hoar Cross Hall as the others in this series, it is loosely linked to the Hall as it was the inspiration for the Mediaeval Banquets that my parents ran in the 1970s.  They went along one night, to one of their banquets, to see what the format was and saw immediately how popular they were and so decided to start their own brand of banquets.  The Coombe Abbey banquets were very traditional and had minstrels playing lutes etc while people ate their meal.  The entertainment too was typical of mediaeval amusement of the times and I remember my parents saying it was an enjoyable night out but not terribly lively!�...

Meet the Neighbours - Alton Towers #82

...bit like Hoar Cross Hall – but I suppose they are big places!).  It also had similar rooms to the Hall, including a Chapel, Library, Long Gallery and Drawing Room and was renamed Alton Abbey, despite there being no religious connections.  After moving into the house in 1814 work began on the grounds, turning the farmland around the house into one of the largest formal gardens in Britain.  Several gardens were made including a rock garden, a Dutch garden and a water garden.  13,000 trees were planted all down the valley to the River Churnet and fountains and streams were created among the gardens that passed through various lakes and pools.  It really was...