Welcome to The Swastika, please make yourself at home

[James18]

No, don't be alarmed, I'm not a Nazi.

http://search.findmypast.co.uk/addresses?id=tna%2Fr39%2Fstreet%2F0ca697df47371a35 b7866a4b05880879&_page=2

I was browsing the 1939 register for relatives and discovered that there's a way to search households by address rather than name. Whilst looking at Slade Road, Ottershaw, where numerous of my grandmother's family lived, I discovered my favourite house name to date.

Being from 1939, I'm yet to decide whether the owner either had a typically British sense of humour, or was in fact a fervent Nazi. Who knows?

Regardless, if any of you are moving house or have children or friends that are in the process of doing so, please consider The Swastika. You'll be the talk of the town.

[Jill]

Bet they were popular with the neighbours! The residents are retired gardener William Luker b24 Jul 1851 and Minnie R Luker b11 Sep 1868. "Little Cottage" is crossed out and replaced by "The Swastika" (Little Cottage appears again further down the page.

[Margaret in Burton]

Does the name Luker sound German?

Have you discovered spies James? Lol, not very clever ones, too blatant. :D:D

[Merry]

Ironic?


http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/3145141/LUKER,%20JAMES%20DOUGLAS

[Olde Crone]

The Swastika only fell into disrepute after it was adopted as a symbol of the Nazi party. Before that it was a symbol of good fortune. Perhaps the Lukers hadn't picked up on the connotation by 1939. I wonder when the name was changed?

OC

[Merry]

The address was the same when Minnie died in 1954!

[Olde Crone]

Hmmm. Making a statement then. They must have known by 1954!

OC

[Jill]

The house is called the same in the electoral roll in 1913, a Percy Allen Gates is living there.

[Michael]

There are still plenty of swastikas on display in India and some SE Asian countries - it had been used as a religious symbol for centuries before the Nazis appropriated it for their own purposes.

[James18]

There are still plenty of swastikas on display in India and some SE Asian countries - it had been used as a religious symbol for centuries before the Nazis appropriated it for their own purposes.
I know that, Michael. I think a lot of people know that.

Still, try naming your house after one. ;)

[Shona]

Interesting house name. As the name predates WW2, there could by lots of reasons to use the name. As others have said, it is widely regarded as a good luck symbol in many Asian cultures and communities. Saw it a lot on doors where I lived in London, especially during festivals. It's a Celtic symbol, too, and appears in Roman mosaics. Aviators, in the early days of flight would sew a swastika on to their outfits for good luck. Wonder why the occupants went for the name?

[Margaret in Burton]

And why they didn't change the name during or after the war Shona

[Olde Crone]

Margaret

Yes, it's not so much why they called it that in the first place, more why they didn't change the name during/after the war.

OC

[Kit]

Maybe they refused to allow the Nazi's to ruin the good meaning of the name and spoil whatever reason the house was named that name.

[Jill]

Very British - one in the eye for Hitler!