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Hoar Cross Hall - Life below stairs #18

...ld in the Chapel in the house. They were also expected to attend services at the church which had been built in the grounds; however, they weren’t allowed to walk down the drive to the church but had to make a detour around the perimeter of the grounds so that they wouldn’t be seen by the family! In the Victorian days a lowly housemaid earned about £10 a year compared to the house-keeper who earned the princely sum of £52 a year! The staff at Hoar Cross were well treated it seems. The family showed their concern towards the female members of staff if they wanted to leave the house to attend a local dance, and always made sure they were escorted to and fro...

Whodunit in the Library? #24

...down the Chapel Hall and into the Library – I really hoped a visitor didn’t see it! In an attempt to kill them off my dad poured rat poison down the holes in the floorboards in the kitchen and our lounge. Within a couple of weeks we knew they were dead – because of the awful smell! So even when we didn’t have to worry about rats in the house, we had to contend with the stench of them decaying under the floorboards! Then my dad had a brilliant idea – he poured bleach down the holes. It did sort of have the desired effect but we’ve never forgotten that awful smell of dead rat mixed with bleach! Eventually we had to get the floor boards up and we found...

Christmas High Jinks! #29

...CHRISTMAS HIGH JINKS:       The sounds of La Golondrina floated through the air as Viv sat at the grand piano. How pleased she was that someone had asked them to look after this fine musical instrument for a few months. Having learned to play when she was younger, this gave Viv the opportunity to brush up on her skills as a pianist and she was thoroughly enjoying it. The piano was in the Library and suited the room perfectly. She could hear her father and an antique dealer talking in the Long Gallery as they haggled over the price of a painting that he was selling. Viv gazed out of the window as she played and thought back to the Midsummer’s Eve Ball that...

Becoming a Rock Chick #17

...My schooldays were coming to an end now and I absolutely couldn’t wait to leave. The school itself was an old Victorian grammar school in Uttoxeter which still had wooden desks with inkwells in them! Even the teachers wore their mortar boards and gowns just like the ones at Eton and Harrow – or the Beano! However, in the last two years there I had made a few good friends and we would go into town every lunch time to meet up with a group of guys that worked at the local J. C. Bamford firm. They were all into motor bikes and one of the first films I watched was ‘Easy Rider’. They also went to a lot of concerts to see live music, something which was totally...

Like Father Like Sons #20

...LIKE FATHER, LIKE SONS  As mentioned before my dad used to be a racing driver during the 1950s and ran his own team in the 1960s, travelling all over  Europe in his trusty Volkswagon van with his two mechanics and driver.   He didn’t have big sponsorship money behind him and most of it was done on a shoestring but he came back with lots of funny stories of their van breaking down or some rural ‘hotel’ that they had stayed in.  From each country that he visited he always brought me back a doll dressed in the traditional costume of that country.  There was quite a collection and I still have them; I used to put them on display in the Library when our...

Hoar Cross Hall - Life below stairs #19

...ld in the Chapel in the house. They were also expected to attend services at the church which had been built in the grounds; however, they weren’t allowed to walk down the drive to the church but had to make a detour around the perimeter of the grounds so that they wouldn’t be seen by the family! The Yew Tree Walks were constantly being trimmed   In the Victorian days a lowly housemaid earned about £10 a year compared to the house-keeper who earned the princely sum of £52 a year! The staff at Hoar Cross were well treated it seems. The family showed their concern towards the female members of staff if they wanted to leave the house to attend a local...