These are the names of my parents' 6 houses from my birth to their demise.
Paris House
Gazeley
Lane End
Leylands
Hilltop
And finally Ash Grove (below, where my parents retired, and sadly died).
My own homes have had less 'personal' names, other than the first.
Orchard House (Wales)
Pagot
Rue St Georges
Peyrot (below, where we now live).
French country houses don't usually have names as such, just 'settlement' names. If there are five houses all in the same tiny hamlet, they're all called by the name of the hamlet (le lieu dit); it's up to the postman (or any other caller) to know who lives where.
If, in France, you should see a cast iron house sign like 'Rose Cottage' above (but in French), it's more than likely the home of a Brit.
p.s. Our first house here (Pagot) had a reasonable size copse of very productive grafted Chestnut trees. My late father christened the house 'The Nut House'; I wonder why? We did consider calling our present home La Taupinière, but that's another story.
29 comments:
The more I see pictures of your house Ithink it is such a beatiful house. (clipping the square boosh must be hard work)
My house is called Poplar Farm and there isn't a poplar tree in sight and nor is it a farm.
I love the look of your parents last home. I have always lived in houses with numbers until now - all of the houses in the village are known by their names - my favourite - 'Raven'
My parents' final home was in Shropshire, in a small village.
It's a very friendly little house.
We have a friend whose house is called 'Giblets'; I don't think there are any giblets there either.
Your cottage is beautiful.
Twas not always thus!
Interesting. My in laws house in Ireland has no name and no number (Ireland doesn't t use postcodes either). One just writes their name, the name of the hamlet and the postman does the rest.!
Like here. More civilised eh?
The houses I have lived in we're no. 2; no. 35; no. 4
ps, there is a house near here, I kid you not, called Dunromin'
The ones that make me cringe tho, are the ones which are, so obviously, a combination of the owners names!
I LOVE Ash Grove Cro …. Do you have any internal photos of it ? I do have a fasination with old houses. …. our 17th century cottage was called ' Hermitage ' and the house we live in now { and have done for 28 years } is late a Victorian/early Edwardian double fronted house and is called ' The Laurels ' and has two laurel bushes in the front. It was built by a theatrical costumier. He built three the same, ' The Laurels, ' The Briars ' & ' The Ivys '. Only ours and ' The Briars ' remain as, ' The Ivys ' fell down before we moved here !! My sister and brother-in-law's house, another Victorian house, is called ' Holly House '.
XXXX
I don't think I ever took any photos inside. It was a nice house, but the location wasn't perfect. Having moved from a gorgeous thatched house in Sussex, it had a lot to live up to.
I had to look up taupiniere (obviously) as my french allows me to ask the price of something, but not understand the answer and to say I'm English (no shit) and my french is not good. I have never had the need to discuss moles nor a particular cheese. I hope you will enlighten us with another story.
Our house is called Woodlands
Our house is called Stradbroke, a very functional and hard sounding boring name. My brother in Australia called his house 'Kindear'. I'll leave you to work out why.
Jean
x
A clue: it was expensive
I love that homes are named. Your parents home is gorgeous with the white gables and luscious vines. I've always loved your home as it looks so cozy and quaint to me. We are building a home in the country presently and talked about calling the homestead Fox Grove as not only are there fox here and there but Fox was my grandfather's name. They were the original owners of this land. Have a nice weekend, Cro. Deb
I think we Brits love out house names. When I was a child in a village I could start at one end of the village and recite all the names of the houses through to the other end. The one i have never forgotten was EMOCLEW
(in case you haven't realised, it is welcome backwards!!)
We rented a little terraced cottage in a square of a medieval ring-shaped town near Carcassonne once, and every house in it was dilapidated, with peeling paintwork and shutters hanging off - except one, with glaringly fresh paintwork and pots of flowers either side of the door.
We made enquiries about it, and found it was owned by some near neighbours of ours, here in Bath... Spot the Brits.
Your home is lovely and I know you have put quite a bit of work and sweat into it to make it so. The results must make you proud.
I call my house "Mine".
I think I got the idea. Is your sister called 'Chrissie'?
It's beautiful. Is that what is called a 'rubble' wall?
It's just an old stone wall (it's all like the top half). It's the ancient lime and earth rendering that makes it look rubble-ish.
Fox Grove sounds perfect; it also explains some of its history which is nice.
Indeed; I could show you some horrors!
Funny, I have been reminiscing over the past couple of days as I came across a bundle of old letters.
Naming homes is so much more romantic and satisfying than our practice of giving them all numbers. If we were to name our house, I reckon we'd have to call it something like "Suits Us."
I have several American friends who live in houses with HUGE five-figure numbers. You must have very long streets over there!
No names for houses I've lived in, either, just house numbers. Although the house i'm currently living in is old by US standards, and in old records, it's listed as 'the Oxton Homestead'. When people who are local ask me where I live, I tell them the name of the owners who lived in it before me, and they nod and know right where it is.
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