An Englishman's Home is his Castle

I am currently reading a book called Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour, by anthropologist Kate Fox. It was recommended to me by my Russian friend, Sergey, who has lived over here, and is familiar with some of our peculiar ways!


It is quite an amusing read, because reading about the behaviour we take for granted, I can see why other nationalities would find us anything from quirky to downright strange.


One of the chapters discusses our seeming obsession with privacy to the point where we make it almost impossible for a stranger to locate our house. The author states:

 that house numbers and names are usually at least as well camouflaged as the street names

Our own road is no exception to this rule. We live at number one. In the photograph below I am standing at the end of our road, at the junction with the High Street. I am on the even numbered side.

Note the car in the distance, that hasn't even reached
our house

People approaching from this end quickly lose their nerve as there are no houses. Those approaching from the other direction always drive straight past because they can see there is still a lot of road in front of them and we must be at the end!

Outside our house
The car in the distance is just approaching
the junction with the High Street

The house next door to us in number three, as you would expect. The house next door to that has a name. It is a recent barn conversion that used to belong to the next house along, which logic would lead you to believe would be number five. You'd be mistaken. The next house is number nineteen!


And so it goes. The houses on our side have either a name or what appears to be a randomly selected odd number. Then before you know it, you are no longer on the same road in the same village in Bedfordshire, you are on the High Street of the next village in an entirely different county! You wouldn't know it because you are travelling in a straight line and there is nothing to indicate that the road name has changed.


On the opposite site of the road numbers appear to be allocated in the same haphazard manner. The first three house have no numbers and then there are houses, two, four, and six, followed by twelve. 


Just to add further confusion, our road forks at the top. From the High Street the extra spur of road is clearly named, but there isn't a single house on it. People get the the junction, seen in the pic below, after the bus stop, and do not have a clue which way to turn.

So if you are ever thinking of popping in for a cuppa, call me first and I will send you a detailed map. Oh, and don't think of searching for us on Google Street View, as that will send you to the next village!