Welsh house names
The Telegraph (print only) has an item about a Welsh nationalist / cultural pressure group that is up in arms about people renaming Welsh language house names, and wants the law changed to require planning permission to do so, with a spokersperson claiming "It is very important to speak out against this sort of cultural vandalism". I do not regard this as a fit area for legislation, but I do have a sneaking sympathy with this group, and I hope that their comments will give people pause before re-naming their houses. I feel much the same way about re-naming pubs, so maybe I'm just a sloppy sentimentalist.
I grew up in a 'name' house, it being named after an East Coast seaside town that my family had never visited, but they stuck with it. I suppose I tend to think that it is bad karma to rename a house, although I can understand why my then neighbours switched from 'Mordref' (what?) to 'Woodstock'....
The Telegraph (print only) has an item about a Welsh nationalist / cultural pressure group that is up in arms about people renaming Welsh language house names, and wants the law changed to require planning permission to do so, with a spokersperson claiming "It is very important to speak out against this sort of cultural vandalism". I do not regard this as a fit area for legislation, but I do have a sneaking sympathy with this group, and I hope that their comments will give people pause before re-naming their houses. I feel much the same way about re-naming pubs, so maybe I'm just a sloppy sentimentalist.
I grew up in a 'name' house, it being named after an East Coast seaside town that my family had never visited, but they stuck with it. I suppose I tend to think that it is bad karma to rename a house, although I can understand why my then neighbours switched from 'Mordref' (what?) to 'Woodstock'....
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on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 at 9:55 am.
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I too hate the renaming of pubs.When the saracens head becomes o'mickey plastic irish bar,my heart sinks.it's another part of our history gone.
hate seeing old buildings knocked down too.
And I think our Irish friends find mock mick pubs deeply irritating, as they tend not to decorate pubs in Cork etc with old road signs and the like.
Still, a ghastly pub name acts as fair warning that it will be a ghastly pub too, so it isn't all bad...
I was brought up in a house called Wensleydale and one day my dad packed us all in the car and drove us there to explore the area, it was well worth the trip. If only it had been called something more exotic like Monte Carlo or Santorini.
Ellee - Ah well, you can't win 'em all, can you? Santorini is rather fine, although I prefer Wensleydale to Feta cheese.
PCF - having just checked, it turns out Hopton is nowhere near the coast, so I've got no idea why I ever thought it was.
Skegness would be a novel name for a house, but it does rather sound like a disease. (No insult to the fine people of Lincolnshire intended)
PCF - ho ho, like it.
Mind you, stranger things have been known - think about all those houses called 'The Old Vicarage', 'The Old Post Office' etc, if updated we could have 'The Old DTP Shop', or 'The Old Accountancy Practice'. Or more realistically, 'The Old Starbucks', 'The Old Carphone Warehouse', and wait for it.....
'The Old MacDonalds'.
Dear lord, some people do choose some odd names, don't they?
Where I grew up in God's County (for the uninitiated, that's Essex) there were a fair few crimes against taste on the architecture and house-naming front, with one stand out a fairly ordinary detached house which had pillars at the front and styled itself 'The White House'. Yes, really.
My father once put his foot in it by quipping that a friend's house called 'Mon Repos' would have been better dubbed 'Mud Repos'. Fortunately it was a safe vote....
no but I live in a semi called-by previous owners I hasten to add-The Rose House.
What do I do?
Can't believe that the duke of kent reads this blog.
they obviously had a sense of humour!!
PCF - if you could err on the side of less combative language in future I'd appreciate it, please.
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