Home Sweet Home

Jack and Vera Duckworth took the naming of their house to a completely new level.

If you recall, on Coronation Street ,theirs was a narrow fronted two storey mid terrace straight to the pavement.

After putting the stone cladding onto the original brick the only thing left was to give the place a suitable name.

Vera was the driving force behind the choice of "The Old Rectory".

They came in for a lot of ridicule for it but they were simply following the trend in the UK to give a bit of character and prestige to the old four walls by attaching to it an iconic, romantic or self indulgent label.

There is factual as well as anecdotal evidence that the name of a house can be an indicator of its grandeur, market value and can also help in attracting a buyer in the scenario of a sale.

In 1988 the Halifax, then still a Mutual Building Society run for the benefit of its members, carried out a survey of the names of the houses on which it had provided mortgage lending.

Most popular, but rather boring, was The Bungalow, suggesting a bias in their customer base towards traditional purchasers of a single storey dwelling. This was followed by The Cottage, again rather vague and alluding towards a comfortable middle class idyll and compounded by, in third place, Rose Cottage which is the epitomy of an Englishman's dream dwelling.

In fact, in the late 1980's the calibre of the Halifax top ten most popular names suggested that the UK population lived in some splendour in picturesque villages and towns or large rural estates and parkland and in huge, palatial or quaint residences. The placings from third to tenth, inclusive, were occupied by The School House, The White House, Hillcrest, The Lodge, Woodlands, The Coach House and Hillside.

As you can see there was no correlation to the actual socio-demographic of the nation at that time as dwellers of the inner city, larger conurbations, New Towns and suburbs.

A repeat of the survey in 2003 did not show any great change in the hierarchy apart from the relegation of The Bungalow to third place after being jumped by respective second and third placings from 15 years earlier. New entries of The Willows and Ivy Cottage just followed the chintzy and rather predictable inverted snobbery theme.

It was the turn of The Royal Mail in 2015 to produce their own list based on a study across nearly thirty million UK addresses, considerably more than the Halifax sample.

You would expect this to be a more representative survey but the results again perpetuated the love affair of house owners with heritage, arts and crafts, bygone eras and pre-industrialisation, hence the top five consisting of The Orchard, The Meadow, Rose Cottage again, Holly House and Oak House.

Ironically for a Royal Mail initiative a name bubbling under was The Old Post Office, obviously a consequence of the closure of many such operations on a national basis.

Populist and TV cultural influenced names making their way into the list included Nampara (from the Poldark series), Martell and Bolton from Game of Thrones, Highclere from Downton Abbey, Bag End from The Hobbit, Hogwarts from, well you know what and references to classic literature including Toad Hall and Pooh Corner.

Just underneath these newbies there were encouraging signs of innovation, individuality and humour.

I have personally seen the almost Tolkeinien "Ersanmyne", and the grumpy old man induced "Sodemall".

"Izzy In" and "Sokozee"remain towards the top of my own favourites but just today I have found my new champion.

The name, in this case of a 1950's detached chalet bungalow, was "Shasta".

It was originally built for the owners of a seaside holiday camp.

I thought, rather stereotypically that it might be a combination of his and hers names, as in Sharon and Stan.

On a vacation theme perhaps it derived from an exotic location with it sounding a bit tropical.

The bungalow was an export from the British occupation of India and so the name could be evocative of the sub-continent.

The true back story explained it all.

In the halcyon days of the British seaside in the post war era, I mean before the continental package tours captured our interest and pounds, there were fortunes to be made in that sector.

Although nowhere near the scale of Butlins or Pontins, the holiday camp owners were obviously making a good living.

The bungalow,although in a quiet open rural location was a mere three fields away from the chalets and club-house of their Empire. It was intended to be an ideal escape from the demands of the seasonal clientele.

No expense was to be spared in the design and materials and the best trades-persons for miles around were contracted to the build. Unfortunately for the bricklayers, joiners and skilled craftsmen the wife would pop back to the site many times during the day from her role at the nearby holiday camp and each time would change her mind about the specification and in fact all aspects of the project.

Whatever she wanted, she got.

If she didn't like something it was changed. Kitchens and bathrooms came and went if they offended her. If the brickwork looked funny to her, it was demolished and done again. If she saw something new in a magazine or on the television she had to have it. Glass, woodwork and fittings had, on her whim, to be sent back. The position of cupboards and wardrobes changed constantly to her order.

Her husband knew that, to keep the peace, it would be necessary to give her free rein on the amendments to the original plan and budget. Out of her earshot he felt that he had to apologise regularly to the contractors, many he knew well from their good works at the camp, for the constant chopping and changing.

They could not understand why she was so demanding and fussy about everything.

He got tired of saying, " she has to"

It was only natural, therefore to call the house when finally completed to her exact wishes-"Shasta".