house names

Is that right Granjura? I thought they were nowhere near speaking French round here then? Given that a lot of older people still speak patois now? I have even found similarities to English in some patois words, which bear no resemblance to modern French.

Rosesarered- the Normans were of course not French at all- but Vikings- and only cousins to 'our' Harold and entourage. The French really mocked their strange accent and clumsy use of the language.

There is a street at the other side of town which has almost the same name as mine - mine is X Road, the other X Street. Letters are always arriving here for the Street.

Recently I was accosted by a man with a briefcase who was looking for X Court. "It is somewhere near here", said he.

"No", I replied, "I have lived here for nearly 50 years and I have never heard of it. With a name like X Court it must be a new development in someone's garden, and there are none around here. It must be near X Street, down off Easter Road. Try there."

"No, it's here," he insisted, "It says so in my instructions from the office."

"Sorry, I can't help you then," so off he went.

I looked it up on Google Maps. Yes, a small development of new housing down near Easter Road. But what did I know? I have only lived here since 1967. He had been sent by Head Office.

Thanks granjura now I realise where we get the name 'curate' from!The Normans, bless them!

I love that Granjura. Lots of houses here called things like "l'ancienne maison Dubois", even though the family moved out 20 years ago. I do think the one postcode for several communes is daft though.

Our last house in the UK was called 'Threeways' - friends often laughed and said we were not very imaginative ;)

Our current house has had its name since 1587- La Cure (the Vicarage)- and is now called 'l'Ancienne Cure' (the old Vicarage).

It shows they don't read the whole address, and what is the point of having a postcode if THEY don't use it?!

The address of our last house was Blenheim Avenue. A few years after we moved in a development of flats was built on the corner of another road about 100 yards away and despite the complaints of many Blenheim Avenue residents it was called 'Blenheim Court'

Despite having different postcodes, both postmen and delivery drivers persistently delivered letters and parcels to the right number but the wrong address.

My postman is dyslexic, I'm sure of it!

Postmen soon get used to knowing which house is which, but yes, delivery men, that's another subject, especially as a lot now are foreign.

janerowena do hope your Mother won't be reading this!

I wonder if they will ever give us a number? No-one has approached us yet. Perhaps they gave up, we used to just be house name then village name, in one place. I think someone else mentioned that earlier. Some roads have several names, depending on which direction the locals approach it from.

I get a lot of very confused delivery men around this way in the lead-up to xmas!

I love house names though, they are more individual and you feel you have a picture of the inhabitants, even if you are completely wrong. My mother's last cottage was Rose Cottage and she is definitely more the thorny type.

Mamie It's not just France. We have a similar village problem in the UK. We didn't want to give our house a name but the PO insisted - so it is Anonym House

We are lucky, the old houses in our village formed part of an academic study in the 1970s and were re-examined again in the last five years. It means we know exactly how old our house is, who built it and that he was fined by the manor court for blocking the highway with building materials when doing so - and we thought skips blocking the road were a new phenomenon!

Fascinating, isn't it? Think of all those lives lived in your houses!

rosesarered I speak of England and in the past. All the houses in our road have names and/or numbers now, but historically this is relatively recent, probably only been required for the last 75 years or so.

In France we live in a farm house with a farm name that can be traced into the mists of time. The earliest reference is around 1400.

To be fair we have records for our own house going back to the 15th century, but we would like to know who actually lived on the premises on the dates the census was taken The census takes place every 10 years and census returns from 1841 to 1911 are now available online so when researching the history of the house, we should, in theory, be able to trace who lived in the house for every decade between the those two dates, but because throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century there were neither names nor numbers for all the cottages in the village it is impossible to identify which run of cottages in the census makes up our house.

Ours has no number - nor do any of the others on the road. (In the UK).

Is this your house in Uk flicketyB or the house in France?I did think that here in the UK all houses now HAD to have a street name and number and postcode, but maybe not?

The tendency for village houses not to have numbers, or even names has made tracing the history of our house difficult. Looking at the census records, they name our road and then the census addresses go; cottage, cottage, cottage, cottage........etc. there are occasional breaks with something like 'shop' or 'forge' interpolated but with houses having been demolished, combined and rebuilt, businesses all have long gone and the buildings demolished that trying to work out which run of cottages represents our house is impossible.

Songbird I think I may have changed my house name if it had been Dallas but Park House sounds rather nice.
Thanks kitty and also Jane for your information on rectories and board schools, now I know the difference.
Daisy I like the Firdene for 13.

Our first house was on a Wimpey estate, number 13. I called it 'Firdene', unofficially.

roses, As I understand it, board schools were made compulsory for all villages from 1870. Our village already had a church school but, as it was a big village even then, a farmer gave a field and donations were sought from wealthy people in the area.

This school was extended twice but had no upper floor. We have been told that the rooms had such high ceilings because the regulations stated that there had to be a specific cubic footage of space allocated to each child and it was cheaper to allocate it upwards! We have three bedrooms, a study, sitting room and two bathrooms in the roof space!!

The original building had one long room, about seventy feet by twenty, with one pot bellied wood burning stove at one end.

One of my sons-in-law went to school here and finds it quite weird coming in via the 'Girl's' entrance which is now our front door.

My Daughters house is called ''Dallas'' lol not their choice, it was already named when they moved in. Mine is ''Park House'' as I am on the last piece of park land

Rectors historically had some kind of financial investment in their property and were often paid tithes. They were responsible for upkeep of various, if not all, aspects of their lives. They often bought their positions, many years ago. Vicars usually had a house that came with the job automatically, a salary for the job and no tithes.

In this village, my friend lives in The Parsonage - no idea how that one happens!

Yes, Bleak House is in Kent, not the one in Rochester though. It is in mid Kent and currently inhabited by one of my best friends.

The Outlaws live in The Old School House in their village. It must have been freezing a couple of hundred years ago. Two very large rooms in the original downstairs, only one with a fireplace and chimney, the 2 teachers lived upstairs so heaven only knows what happened if they married, I suppose they had to move out. Maybe they only ever employed 2 unmarried women. There are lots of extensions now, it is right next to the church and certainly it is impossible to forget what time it is!

My mother, like me, lives in a village of no numbers and only house names. Hers is called Woodside, she has a vast wooded area of hillside at the bottom of her garden.

That's very interesting jane I think you have had a lot of good names for the houses you've lived in and I quite like Jorvik too [there's a Jorvik centre in York.]Was Bleak House in Kent?I know C D did stay in a lot of places, but settled in Broadstairs [I think] for a while.Did it inspire you to start a novel?What is the difference [if any] between a vicarage and a rectory? I've never been sure about that.
kitty I have seen lots of lovely converted school houses on tv aren't you lucky? Again, what is the difference between a Victorian village school and a V board school?