What's in a name?

No, it's not "like the Razor Blade"? That's 'MIN' . Nor is it "like the Jewish Candlestick". That's 'MEN'. And that ends ORAH, with an H. It does not even, (as our daughters fondly imagined) signify that this is a "Little Manor".

So what does it mean?

Actually it doesn't really mean anything. It is just a nostalgic memory of a special place.
A place on the West Coast of India where Pixie and Keith would escape briefly from the horrors of the Second World War and Keith's time on the Burma Front. A place that they would bring back to South Africa; by naming their first real home after it.

Pixie and Keith Hammond lived on the sub-continent for over 30 years. And in all that time they lived in rented homes or army barracks, albeit it Officer's quarters. Their final flat in Calcutta was both spacious and comfortable, but it wasn't HOME. And Keith never stopped dreaming about the prime piece of ground he had successfully bid for among the plots in the new Kokstad Extension when this was opened up in 1948. No 54 Strachan Street was a gently sloping corner plot, knee-deep in veldt grass, with nothing between it and Mount Currie. Except, still clearly visible, coming down from the original site of Kokstad Town, the deeply grooved tracks of the early Griqua ox-wagons; evidence of the final trek from the original site to the present-day town after the devastating blizzard of 1898. Keith took personal pride in the way they crossed the bottom corner of the garden and would delight in pointing out this route to all visitors.

Finally, in 1952 the foundations were laid and building began. Pixie was South African, Keith a Londoner, born and bred. The little thatched house, acknowledged their combined backgrounds as it grew and grew. If an Englishman's home is his castle then it goes without saying that he will often grace it with a name and from the start the choice was clear. From the time it existed only on a rolled-up plan, the new Hammond family seat was known, in memory of their favorite holiday spot on the West Coast of India as -