Story Search Results

Royal visitors at Hoar Cross Hall #10

...d include servants, private secretaries and equerries. The whole household would be in an uproar as servants rushed to get ready guest rooms and bathrooms along with the extra space needed for the royal servants. This scenario was acted out in a Downton Abbey episode when King George V and Queen Mary came to stay for a few days. In actual fact the storyline was based on true events when they stayed at a stately home called Wentworth Woodhouse in Rotherham in 1912. They were guests of Earl Fitzwilliam and their stay was to include a visit to Cadeby Colliery, the scene of a recent mining disaster, which made many a headline at the time. Wentworth Woodhouse A...

Moving On #33

...f the old servants’ quarters – it was barely recognisable!  In 2005 we went back again with my mum and two of our children, Lee and Hannah.  Again, it was great fun to explore the house and grounds and show my children where I had lived as a child.  I was particularly fascinated to see the attic rooms as these had always looked so spooky and were obviously haunted – how strange to see those dusty old rooms decorated and carpeted! This year we were back again to make the video for the tour of the house to accompany my blogs.  Again, it was lovely to be there and spend two whole days having a good look around the house that held so many memories, good...

The Schoolroom Maid's Story

...THE SCHOOLROOM MAID’S STORY:       For the first 75 years of the Hall’s history about 50 servants were employed by the Meynell family in the house and grounds.  Among these was a young girl of fifteen who started work in 1920 as a Schoolroom Maid.  Her name was Miss Inez Sophia Large and she had connections to Hoar Cross through her grand-parents, William and Mary Tooth, who lived in the village where William was the blacksmith; his smithy was just along from the Meynell public house.  He had worked on the ironwork of the Hall during its construction in the 1860s.  Inez’s aunt, Constance Madeley, was the wife of the landlord at the Buffalo Inn, in...

The War Years and Beyond #36

...During the Second World War, life in country houses changed dramatically. It was no different at Hoar Cross Hall. The flower borders on the main lawns were turfed over to reduce maintenance and vegetables were grown in areas formerly restricted to flowers. Evacuees from Birmingham came to stay for the duration of the war and they lived in the basement, as it was considered to be the safest place. I imagine that they must have been in the care of the servants as they were living amongst them but it must also have been quite exciting for them to move from a bombed out city to the relative safety of the countryside, although they must have missed their parents of c...

Royal Visitors at Hoar Cross Hall #49

...d include servants, private secretaries and equerries. The whole household would be in an uproar as servants rushed to get ready guest rooms and bathrooms along with the extra space needed for the royal servants. This scenario was acted out in a Downton Abbey episode when King George V and Queen Mary came to stay for a few days. In actual fact the storyline was based on true events when they stayed at a stately home called Wentworth Woodhouse in Rotherham in 1912. They were guests of Earl Fitzwilliam and their stay was to include a visit to Cadeby Colliery, the scene of a recent mining disaster, which made many a headline at the time.   Wentworth Woodhouse...

Hoar Cross Hall meets Downton Abbey #99

...domestic servant in those days could be quite hard with long hours and not much down time.  However, they were families like the rest of us with their ups and downs, scandals and tragedies.  The Crawley family at Downton certainly had a few of those but had to learn to move with the times as women became more independent after the Great War.   servants wait on table in the 1950s at Hoar Cross   In 1907 the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, an enthusiastic Egyptologist, hired Howard Carter to search for the tomb of Tutankhamun - eventually, when they were about to give up, they found it in 1922!  And what a find!  Half the world queued up to see the beautiful...