Story Search Results

Hoar Cross Hall - Life below stairs #19

...cut by a horse-drawn mower, although this was the chauffeur’s job surprisingly. The kitchen garden also supplied the house with flowers and during important functions at the house they would bring across masses of palms and pot plants to decorate the rooms. Home Farm supplied the estate with as much produce as was needed. In addition to the farm workers, the estate employed bricklayers, a stone mason, foresters and thatchers, carpenters, a joiner, a plumber and an electrician. They looked after the Hall and the workers’ cottages and all tenanted properties. The head gardener had a lot of authority outside the house and even the mistress would have to seek h...

The Graveyard Shift #23

...ringing a horse into the pub one lunchtime and standing with it in the bar while he sipped his G & T ! Only in rural England!   Don’t miss next week’s exciting instalment:    'Whodunit in the Library?'   If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, click here and please feel free to share with your friends.   Please subscribe to  my youtube channel and follow me around my childhood home where I bring my blogs to life!  Click here for the tour.  ...

The Graveyard Shift! #25

...ringing a horse into the pub one lunchtime and standing with it in the bar while he sipped his G & T !   Only in rural England!   Don’t miss next week’s exciting instalment:  Whodunit in the Library?   A sordid tale of attempted murder gone wrong! If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, click here and please feel free to share with your friends.  ...

The Kitchen Maid's Story #35

...e clothes horse.  At 12.40am she was ready for bed! Eventually though, in the Spring of 1929, she obtained a job as a head kitchen maid in London – ‘to better herself’.  She remained in service until the Second World War when she noticed a big difference in domestic service.  ‘The lower classes no long curtsy and bow, or work for the love of their betters’.  She married and eventually settled in Norfolk.  Her musical aspirations were partially fulfilled by amateur dramatics and she wrote two books about her time in service and the Americans in Britain during the war.  Her university dream was finally realised in 1981, when at the age of 74, she...

Hoar Cross Hall - Life Below Stairs #35

...cut by a horse-drawn mower, although this was the chauffeur’s job surprisingly. The kitchen garden also supplied the house with flowers and during important functions at the house they would bring across masses of palms and pot plants to decorate the rooms. Home Farm supplied the estate with as much produce as was needed. In addition to the farm workers, the estate employed bricklayers, a stone mason, foresters and thatchers, carpenters, a joiner, a plumber and an electrician. They looked after the Hall and the workers’ cottages and all tenanted properties. The head gardener had a lot of authority outside the house and even the mistress would have to seek h...

Gardeners' World at Hoar Cross #36

...cut by a horse drawn mower, a task carried out by the chauffeur of all people!    One of the family told us that back in the early days the head gardener was pushed around in a wheelchair when he was older, inspecting the lawns – apparently if he saw a weed amongst the grass blades he would tell one of the gardeners to pluck it out straightaway! Emily Meynell Ingram employed a Mr Rowley especially to carry out her plans of planting the yew hedges, of which there were many.  At each side of the garden was a long walk bordered by yew hedges down to the ha-ha wall at the bottom.  Across the bottom of the gardens were smaller square gardens (including the s...