house names

You asked about Rectories - well yes, but it had stoped being called that as it was in fact only early 1800s and the 1600s Old Rectory was only two houses away, we were The Rectory and New Rectory was two miles away. We renamed it The Wrecktory but the people who now own it didn't find that funny so called it Corner House. I think Maytum Cottage was my favourite though.

I now live in a far smaller and newer house, and it too has a name but no number. I don't like the name but don't feel the urge to change it any longer. the houses in this lane were all built in the late 50s and early 60s in the style of Suffolk cottages, steep upper storeys but with tiles instead of thatch. It drives the postmen mad when they are new, and they have to trail along behind older postmen at first until they know where we all are. My current house is called Jorvik, meaning York in viking, so presumably a couple from Yorkshire lived here at some point. Definitely not a 'posh' thing, it's very common in the countryside to have small houses and no numbers. We even have a lane without a name of any kind in this village, with three houses in it, right in the centre of lots of other old cottages.

The very first house I lived in with a name was called 'Tumbleweeds', how can I have forgotten that one. Built in 1850, I have no idea how it came by its name. It was a much-extended farm cottage when we bought it. The original was a small farm cottage, two up, two down and a loft. When I was shopping in Tesco one day the woman on the till (back in the days when you put your address on the back of the cheque!) screeched 'Oh! That's where I used to live!' She was one of eleven children, her father was a farm labourer. This must have been in the early 80s and I would have said that she was around 50 at that time. The extensions must have been added soon after WW2.

After Maytum Cottage I went to Bleak House, so called because Charles Dickens stayed there for quite some time and wrote some of the book there, not because it is bleak! he did get around, I reckon he saved on fuel bills by staying in other people's houses.

No such luck Relative of estate worker

Sorry, I'm repeating myself - a sure sign the DGC have over stayed!!

I remember that windmill, we used to pass it when we were on the bus, a beautiful area

This is all fascinating, what a mixed bunch we are.

I lived near to a working windmill, not in the countryside but on the outskirts of a shipbuilding town.

nanav123, you must be a Bowes-Lyon. Nice to know that the contents of Gibside were removed to Glamis when the house was no longer lived in.

Not a chapel or a windmill roses but we live in a converted Victorian Board School

anno, I meant it was new THEN.

Take to the hills, men!The Campbells are coming.

Sorry, we're on about St Andrews student residences!

I learn more, anno and Elegran. I hadn't heard of the Chattan Confederation.....

I only ever looked up the Fighting Littles....and my ancestors don't seem to connect with thm, although Scottish!

Have I missed something, with this talk of McIntosh Hall?We are into esoteric Gaelic mysteries now.
grannyactivist you sound to have been very lucky in all kinds of ways, not least having lovely in-laws.
This thread is proving very interesting in all kinds of ways.We have even had a sniff of Royalty, as well as The Inland Revenue [motto; we always get our man, with or without soap.]
Am just waiting now for someone who lives in a windmill.Or a converted chapel.

New? Alie? that was,as you well know, 56 years ago! McIntosh Hall is John and Eliza McIntosh Hall though I never thought to find out who they were. Clan McIntosh was also known as Clan Chattan, as your link explains, Elegran.

Reason for Chattan/McIntosh Hall? Chattan

Dad always named the house we lived in Gibside after it being the estate his grand parents lived , and he was baptised in the private chapel there

Yes, I did sort of have a 'wow' moment when I saw it,but the address gave me a clue. Actually, although my parents in law's house was classical Georgian they made it into a warm family home where the kitchen (and the Aga) were the hub. So although it was a 'posh' house from the outside it was homely and I always felt welcomed there. My youngest daughter has never got over it being sold, it was where she spent all her holidays as a child and she spent many years feeling bereft when it went out of the family. My mother (who lives in a small 3 bed roomed council house) was always very comfortable there when she joined us for holiday visits and used to enjoy strolling out into the fruit garden and coming back in with bowls full of luscious ripe fruits.
As for my father in law; he's the loveliest man and apart from having a huge intellect and being incredibly knowledgeable about all sorts of things, he's quite ordinary.

Thanks anno - I learn things every day! I never knew it was so new.

.....to continue - why 'Chattan' for MacIntosh Hall? - and why the MacIntosh to start with?

The soap was dished out as requested from a locked cupboard roses and the towels went to the laundry periodically - someone was deputed to collect the used ones and handed out a fresh one. There were no roller towels or dryers in the loos at the time. I think that changed in the early 90s before I left in 1996.

There were certainly some "odd bods" working there, real characters, and when I first started all the women over about 40 were always called "Miss..." or "Mrs...". A bit like in "Are you being served".

Probably was, originally, Alie. Before it became a University residence it was the Abbotsford Hotel. I was one of the first students in it.

On a slight tangent (for annodomini) - was Abbotsford in St Andrews named after Sir Walter Scott's house?

Quite fancy calling mine Chatsworth. Has a nice ring to it.....

Don't worry about sticking to the OP phoenix and Gagagran more anecdotes about the castle and the Inland Revenue [we always suspected oddness from both places.]
grannyactivist did you audibly gulp when you saw your In-laws huge house? Did you complain to DH that he could have told you he lived in a mansion? Did his father even have a proper name or just introduce himself as Essex, Arundel, or whatever?

What a hoot! bars of soap!phoenix I am curious as to the 'how' the soap was given[never mind the WHY] did you stand in line as it was dispensed[soap......dispensed, geddit?]was there any touching of forelocks needed, or was the bar of soap simply left on the doorstep like an unwanted baby?Well, at least it was Bronnley, unlike the Inland Revenue [cheapskates!]Gagagran was the soap and hand towel handed over while you were at your desk, or if not, HOW did you receive it?Did anyone ever laugh?Answers on a postcard please.

Not relevant at all to the op but you have triggered a memory phoenix. I worked for the Inland Revenue for many years and we were issued with a bar of soap periodically (not posh Bronnley though - more like floor scrubbing soap) and a cotton hand towel. Like the toilet rolls in the ladies (and gents I suppose) it was stamped "Stationery Office".

My then husband was a woodcarver and guilder in the Royal Household. (One of the projects he worked on was the gold coach for the Silver Jubilee). We were allowed to live in "grace and favour" accommodation. Our flat was on the bottom floor of Lancaster Tower, which if you were looking up the Long Walk was the left hand one of the two either side of the central archway.

Lots of ups and downs, some of them very odd, for example the soap allocation. Every month each member of staff was given a large bath size bar of Bronnley soap