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Moving Into a Mansion #67

As summer turns to autumn my thoughts have gone back in time to 1970 when my family moved house at this time of the year - not to any old house, but to a 70-roomed stately home in Staffordshire!  The whole process of moving  was done over the summer months as we lived about 20 miles away in an old vicarage with a large garden and lots of outbuildings. This house was about 200 years old and they say Bonnie Prince Charlie marched past it on his way to battle back in the day, for all you history buffs out there!  Actually I love history and I think my interest was fuelled by living in these historic houses as a child.  My dad used to be a racing driver in the 1...

Hoar Cross Hall meets Downton Abbey #99

...le 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 artefacts discovered in the tomb and some of these items are on show at Highclere today in their basement rooms.  View website here. When my parents bought Hoar Cross Hall, we opened it to the public as my father wanted to display his collection of arms and armour, the largest private collection in the country in the 1970s.  We also had a lot of work to do to the hous...

Alice - the ghost in the mirror #38

...ft in the 1950s.  And so herein lies the connection between Alice and the Hall! Fast forward to the 1990s when Hoar Cross Hall had a new owner, Steve Joynes. He converted the Hall into a Spa Hotel and managed to source a lot of the original furniture from the Victorian era when Emily Meynell (nee Wood) lived there with her husband, Hugo. He found the original mirror which came from Hickleton Hall and now it hangs over the fireplace in the Library, just as it did all those years ago (see header picture). But it seems that the ghost of Alice may have come with the mirror. Ever since the mirror was installed in the Library people have seen a little girl standing...

Like Father, Like Sons #19

...LIKE FATHER, LIKE SONS:    As previously mentioned in earlier blogs my dad used to be a racing driver during the 1950s and ran his own team in the 1960s, Shardlow Motor Racing, 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 the...

Race Day Parties #25

...ghout the 1950s alongside great names such as Graham Hill and Jim Clarke. So it seemed appropriate that his ex-driver should buy the track that he used to race around! Chris decided to hold a party there when he re-opened it and so we all went along to celebrate. It was similar to the Donington party with lots of different races and marquees full of free food and drink! They went on all day and my friend Janine came along to join in the fun. We went into one of the marquee parties and pretended to be Swedish aux pair girls (this is what we did for fun in those days!). I could hardly speak any English so Janine would ‘translate’ for me, then we would jabber...

Alice - the ghost in the mirror #28

...ft in the 1950s.   The mirror which inspired Lewis Carroll   And so herein lies the connection between Alice and the Hall! Fast forward to the 1990s when Hoar Cross Hall had a new owner, Steve Joynes. He converted the Hall into a Spa Hotel and managed to source a lot of the original furniture from the Victorian era when Emily Meynell (nee Wood) lived there with her husband, Hugo. He found the original mirror which came from Hickleton Hall and now it hangs over the fireplace in the Library, just as it did all those years ago (see header picture). But it seems that the ghost of Alice may have come with the mirror. Ever since the mirror was installed in...