TRIVIA: Places with a North, South, East or West prefix that don't have a geographical opposite number

[61653 HTAFC]

To turn this thread on its head, how come there's Bridgnorth in Shropshire, but no Bridgsouth?

A suffix rather than prefix, but Haverfordwest doesn't have any cardinal siblings

According to Half Man Half Biscuit's latest album there is a Haverfordeast... rumour has it that 'Awkward Sean' moved there.

 

[Calthrop]

West Virginia seceded from Virginia. The rump Virginia didn't add East to its name. Incidentally, the westernmost point of (East) Virginia is west of the entirety of West Virginia.

Is there not a mournful folk-type song called East Virginia, with those words in the first line? -- though poetic licence, of course, allows anything-and-everything.

 

[nw1]

West Grinstead is a village between Horsham and Worthing. It used to have a station on the Itchingfield Junction-Shoreham line.

Interesting in some cases the places are quite some distance apart, such as this example. Presumably there were two entirely separate and unrelated "Grinstead"s and then when travel became a bit easier, they took on the "East" and "West" prefixes.

North and South Baddesley in Hampshire are a similar distance apart, one is near Romsey and the other is in the southern New Forest, not far from Lymington.

In Dorset, there is a West Moors but no East Moors.

Eastleigh is appropriately named since it is at the eastern end of Leigh Road, but its western counterpart is named Chandler’s Ford rather than Westleigh.

I never knew that! So Leigh Road existed before Eastleigh, the town, existed at all.

Presumably Chandler's Ford is an older settlement in any case, being on the old Southampton-Winchester road.

Bournemouth has a Northbourne, Westbourne and Southbourne but no Eastbourne. The nearest settlement of that name being some hundred miles away in Sussex.

Likewise the Southbourne and Westbourne in West Sussex (between Chichester and Havant) don't, AFAIK, have opposite numbers.

There's plain old Byfleet, served by Byfleet & New Haw station. Not aware of an East Byfleet in the area (nor an Old Haw, for that matter).

Or even just "Haw", without the "Old" prefix, in the same way that the Yorkshire city has not been renamed "Old York".

 

[PTR 444]

I never knew that! So Leigh Road existed before Eastleigh, the town, existed at all.

Before the railway arrived, the area around the station was simply known as Bishopstoke.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Or even just "Haw", without the "Old" prefix, in the same way that the Yorkshire city has not been renamed "Old York".

Though a few miles down the line from Byfleet & New Haw is the town of Woking... which has the village of Old Woking nearby- so the "Old" prefix isn't unheard of.

 

[nw1]

North Macedonia. Renamed a couple years ago to make Greece happy

An alternative viewpoint of course is that plain "Macedonia" for the country was a poor choice of name which had to be corrected to something more appropriate. For one thing it was geographically inaccurate; it is merely the northern part of the ancient (and ethnically Greek) realm of Macedonia.

Before the railway arrived, the area around the station was simply known as Bishopstoke.

Ah interesting, because Bishopstoke is now, of course, the area to the east of the Itchen. Presumably the station was in Bishopstoke parish.

Though a few miles down the line from Byfleet & New Haw is the town of Woking... which has the village of Old Woking nearby- so the "Old" prefix isn't unheard of.

That's true; see also "Old Alresford" - the larger place is formally, I believe, "New Alresford" but more normally referred to without the "New" prefix.

 

[Calthrop]

Interesting in some cases the places are quite some distance apart, such as this example. Presumably there were two entirely separate and unrelated "Grinstead"s and then when travel became a bit easier, they took on the "East" and "West" prefixes.

I seem to get the picture that a lot of place-name-type "re-jigging" happened in Britain, subsequent to introduction in 1840 of postage stamps and country-wide regular postal services, hence great increase in correspondence: it was found rather urgent to do a lot of imposed-from-top rationalising / standardising, re both spelling and nomenclature; to improve the chances of mail getting to the correct addressee.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

That's true; see also "Old Alresford" - the larger place is formally, I believe, "New Alresford" but more normally referred to without the "New" prefix.

And in the same part of the country, you have Old Basing. I'm guessing that maybe the 'new' one is the town of Basingstoke. And just a few miles out from there is the village of North Waltham: I'm not aware of any corresponding South Waltham

 

[gg1]

West Bromwich - it's east counterpart is Castle Bromwich

 

[nw1]

And in the same part of the country, you have Old Basing. I'm guessing that maybe the 'new' one is the town of Basingstoke. And just a few miles out from there is the village of North Waltham: I'm not aware of any corresponding South Waltham

I'm not aware of one either; possibly it's in relation to Bishop's Waltham in the same county.

 

[zero]

South Garth, which is on Yell, one of the islands of Shetland, doesn't have a North Garth*, which is understandable as anything further north is in the sea! Makes me wonder if there's anywhere further north that calls itself "south"??

Plenty. Suðuroy, meaning Southern Island, of the Faroes. Furthermore there is no counterpart called Norðuroy, but there is a region called Norðoyar (Northern Islands) comprising 6 islands.

Many places in Iceland are south-something. The northernmost one I could find is a small village called Suðureyri meaning the South Bank, presumably of the fjord it is situated in, although it has a counterpart - apparently a farm - on the north bank.

Even further north we have Южный (South) island on Novaya Zemlya in Russia, and Sør-Spitsbergen National Park in Svalbard (no counterpart as the opposite is called Nordvest-Spitsbergen).

Is Northern Cyprus the official name?

I believe it's the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, yes. Though official only in its self understanding and that if Turkey for like South Ossetia it doesn't officially exist.

I don't think Northern Cyprus can be said to have no counterpart, because Turkey calls the Greek part "Southern Cyprus" in English, for example on this sign at Istanbul Airport:

https://liveandletsfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Turkey-Visa-On-Arrival-2021-Prices-1-1536x1152.jpeg

There's also inner Mongolia in China. The sovereign state is simply Mongolia. (Not a compass point but similar idea)
Sudan Vs South Sudan

Timor Leste

In Chinese it is often still called Outer Mongolia although I assume Mongolians would find that pejorative. The Republic of China, which controls Taiwan, formally regarded Outer Mongolia to be one of its "lost" provinces until 2002; while the People's Republic of China, which controls the mainland of China, recognised Mongolia as independent pretty soon after it became established.

Timor Leste unofficially has a counterpart as West Timor (Timor Barat in Indonesian) is often used. On the other hand, another nearby island, New Guinea is divided into West Papua, a province of Indonesia and part of a sovereign state, Papua New Guinea, which is never and has never been referred to as "East Papua".


If we are going to go into "New" vs "Old" then there must be hundreds or thousands in the US and Canada, for example New York and Nova Scotia.

 

[al78]

South Georgia.

 

[D6130]

Kiwis refer to Australia as 'West Island', but don't have an East Island.

 

[75A]

Between Fishbourne and Havant is Southbourne a good 100 miles or so from Eastbourne both in the County of Sussex as was.

 

[zero]

Further non-UK examples:

Norway means "northern way".
East London, South Africa (double hit!)
Palmerston North, New Zealand is much larger than the original Palmerston which is on the South Island.
Northern Mariana Islands
Northwest Territories, Canada
Western Australia (NT and SA also kind of count, someone already mentioned NSW)
Western Sahara (a partially recognised state)
West Bank - while there are a few sources for "East Bank" it is now the country of Jordan.
Western Samoa renamed itself to just Samoa in 1997. The eastern islands of that group are American Samoa.

Two groups of countries use a common currency with a compass point name: the West African CFA franc and the East Caribbean dollar, with no opposite directional currency. (There is the Central African CFA franc as well as the previous and proposed East African shilling.)

Shaanxi, Yunnan, Jiangxi provinces of China, as well as Tibet which is Xizang in Chinese. There are 8 provinces which are counterpart compass points of each other (Shandong/xi, Guangdong/xi, Hebei/nan and Hubei/nan).
Hokkaido, Japan.
Beijing and Nanjing, China and Tokyo, Japan mean N, S and E capitals, albeit Tokyo refers to being east of the earlier Japanese capital at Kyoto, not the Chinese capital. There is currently no W capital, but Xi'an in China has been called that in the past.

Yugoslavia
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia
Severnaya Zemlya, Russia

 

[nw1]

East London, South Africa (double hit!)

North Africa of course exists as a region, though not a country.

East London is an interesting one, as it is a little east of actual London - though one might think South London would be the most obvious name.

Western Samoa renamed itself to just Samoa in 1997.

I never knew that. I remember hearing Western Samoa mentioned a lot during a rugby world cup (in which they were presumably doing well) but that was presumably before 1997.

The eastern islands of that group are American Samoa.

Beijing and Nanjing, China and Tokyo, Japan mean N, S and E capitals, albeit Tokyo refers to being east of the earlier Japanese capital at Kyoto, not the Chinese capital. There is currently no W capital, but Xi'an in China has been called that in the past.

So "Xi" means west - does that mean that the name of the Chinese president in English is effectively "Jinping West" (correct me if I'm wrong, in Chinese isn't it order surname then first name?)

Yugoslavia

"South Slavic land", isn't it, literally?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

So "Xi" means west - does that mean that the name of the Chinese president in English is effectively "Jinping West" (correct me if I'm wrong, in Chinese isn't it order surname then first name?)

I believe in this case the Xi means, to study. Each - what we would think of as a syllable - in Chinese can have several unrelated meanings, in part depending on the tone with which it is pronounced, and in part deduced in conversation from the context.

 

[nw1]

I believe in this case the Xi means, to study. Each - what we would think of as a syllable - in Chinese can have several unrelated meanings, in part depending on the tone with which it is pronounced, and in part deduced in conversation from the context.

Ah ok, thanks for that. I have to admit I know next to nothing about the Chinese language.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Clapham North and Clapham South, but no Clapham East or West. Well, I suppose Clapham Park would be Clapham East, but a Clapham West would immediately run into Battersea.

Speaking about Wandsworth Council wards, there is now a South Balham ward, but no North Balham ward. North Balham being the Balham Hill area, and is pretty much a Clapham/Streatham border zone. South Balham also only refers to what's on the east side of the High Street, the other side of the high street (south of the station) begins bleeding into Wandsworth Common. Of course the entire geographical southern region of Balham is actually Upper Tooting, but I don't think anyone actually sees themselves as "Upper Tootingites"

 

[Dai Corner]

British Rail had Eastern, Western and Southern Regions but no Northern one. Perhaps the Scottish Region should have been given that name?

Let's not mention the North Eastern Region!

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

South Greenford has no northern counterpart

 

[Mcr Warrior]

South Greenford has no northern counterpart

Although there is a North Greenford United Football Club.

 

[4COR]

A few further rail examples from the Southern Region:

West, East and South Croydon (but no North)
Waterloo East (only a plain Waterloo - no West)
West, East, North Dulwich's (no South. East is further north than North too....)

 

[mikeg]

East Garforth. The station towards the western part of Garforth is simply 'Garforth'.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

East Garforth. The station towards the western part of Garforth is simply 'Garforth'.

Although, having said that, the opposite end of the West Yorkshire town in question, where the A63 and A642 meet, is however definitely known as 'West Garforth'.

 

[madjack]

Hokkaido, Japan.

I enjoyed the examples, though as this is a trivia thread, I thought you might be interested as I was to learn that Hokkaido (North Sea Region) was formed more recently in the 19th century by analogy with Nankaido (South Sea Region) which - along with Tokaido and Saikaido - have much longer histories as geographical concepts. So if I'd been typing this 200 years ago, I'd have been right to say Nankaido!

Hokkaido is of course a correct response to the OP, as it's the only modern-day prefecture with a compass point.

 

[Graham H]

Theres an East Grinstead but no other Grinsteads afaik

West Grinstead 20 or so miles to the west surprisingly enough. Was on the Shoreham to Horsham line

 

[nw1]

Also in West Sussex, South Harting which has no North Harting counterpart (though there is also an East and West Harting).

Very close to there, there's North, West and East Marden, but no South Marden. There is however Up Marden at about the right place for a South Marden to be - but no matching Down Marden.

 

[bearhugger]

In Middlesbrough there are two suburbs, North Ormesby and plain Ormesby but no East / West / South Ormesby.
And is there an opposite for Westward Ho! in North Devon?

 

[madjack]

I don't think we've had the North Sea yet?

(Wikipedia mentions the South Sea off the Korean coast but that's a translation from the local language and surely a coincidence, both of which would I think be against the spirit of the OP)