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Goring-By-Sea - Why?

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TrainBoy98

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I was wondering whether anyone knew why station such as Goring-By-Sea are called that? Its over 2 miles from the sea?

Even weirder is Durrington-On-Sea! Why? its not on the sea, its not even near the sea!

Can anyone help?
 
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Ivo

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Goring-by-Sea is so-named because the area is called Goring-by-Sea. Durrington's "suffix" was probably invented to add impetus for people to visit, and also to match the other numberous "-by-Sea"/"-on-Sea" stations around. (N.B.: The opposite may also be true as shown below by swt passenger.)

P.S.: Neither is more than about one mile from the sea. Indeed, Durrington is no further from the sea than Hove, and only slighter further than Brighton.
 

swt_passenger

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I was wondering whether anyone knew why station such as Goring-By-Sea are called that? Its over 2 miles from the sea?

Even weirder is Durrington-On-Sea! Why? its not on the sea, its not even near the sea!

Can anyone help?

Simples.

The usual explanation is that as the railways became widespread, they (ie the railway companies) needed a way of differentiating places whose names repeated all over the country. There are a significant number of duplicate place names around the country where 'on sea' was a suitable addition to one of them that prevented confusion.

In these examples there's a Durrington in Wilts, and a Goring in Oxfordshire (or is it Berkshire?)...

The locality then gradually changed its name to that of the station...
 

455driver

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Not forgetting Gillingham (with a hard G) in Dorset and Gillingham (pronounced Jillingham) in Kent, and yes people do occasionally go to the wrong station.
 

stut

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South Kent and parts of Sussex do have an increasing coastline - don't forget that Rye used to be a coastal port. Lots of the land deposited there has been washed round from East Anglia, particularly the disappearing towns of Dunwich and Happisburgh.
 

jopsuk

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I once overheard a very confused tourist at Stratford upon Avon asking for directions to the Central Line!

I bet there's now lots of confused tourists rock up at Abbey Road DLR station wondering where the zebra crossing is...
 

Yew

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You can get a train from Mansfield to Woodhouse Via Mansfield Woodhouse. Also confusing as all the locals call mansfield woodhouse 'woodhouse' Fortunately I havent bought the wrong ticket yet, but i bet most guards wouldnt bat an eyelid if I did ;)
 

johnnychips

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Didn't a lady a few years ago at Paddington who wanted to go to Turkey, presumably via Heathrow, end up in Torquay?
 

DownSouth

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Didn't a lady a few years ago at Paddington who wanted to go to Turkey, presumably via Heathrow, end up in Torquay?
That sounds a little too implausible, it's probably a joke about people with some particular accent.
 

EM2

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I've heard numerous tales of customers trying to board EMT services to go to Loughborough Junction, and conversely FCC services to go to Loughborough.
Also, customers who have wanted to go to Mottingham and bought tickets to Nottingham.
 

sbt

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Then there is me, who was sold a Period Return to Kendal rather than Kemble and only noticed when about to travel home. In those days I was much less assertive and just coughed for a Kemble to home single.

Its not just railways that get place names changed. CranLEIGH was CranLEY before the local Postmaster got it changed to avoid all the misdirected letters due to the problems distinguishing between N and W in people with poor handwriting. Stuff for CraNley was ending up in CraWley and vice-versa.

Names don't just change, they move. What is now Woking was once Woking Common, until they built a Station of that name, serving what is now Old Woking.
 

pendolino

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Its not just railways that get place names changed. CranLEIGH was CranLEY before the local Postmaster got it changed to avoid all the misdirected letters due to the problems distinguishing between N and W in people with poor handwriting. Stuff for CraNley was ending up in CraWley and vice-versa.

I was once told that Dorking used to be Darking until the Ordnance Survey misspelt it on the map, but I've never been able to corroborate that one, so may have been the victim of a wind-up.
 

apk55

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There needs to be a way of distinguishing places and stations with a similar name apart. For example there is another Goring in the Thames Valley served by a station "Goring and Streatley" Look through any road atlas index and some names crop up many times around the country. Other examples of names that crop up many times and may need prefixing or followed by a description is Ashton, Newcastle, Newton, Newbridge, Whitchurch (and I am sure many more can be found.)
 

wintonian

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Not that long ago outside Southampton Central someone asked me how to get to “the airport” - further exploration reviled that they actually wanted Heathrow. :?
 

Stats

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I was once told that Dorking used to be Darking until the Ordnance Survey misspelt it on the map, but I've never been able to corroborate that one, so may have been the victim of a wind-up.
That cannot be true as OS was formed in 1791 and literary evidence proves the dispute between the 'o' and 'a' spellings was around in the early 1700s.
 

pendolino

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That cannot be true as OS was formed in 1791 and literary evidence proves the dispute between the 'o' and 'a' spellings was around in the early 1700s.

So it may have originally been called Darking, but the change wasn't down to the OS then?
 

ChristopherJ

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I was once asked at Stratford (London) by a women with a deep African accent "haw da I get ta Klap-cton?"

This conversion took place on Platform 10 of Stratford (Regional) station, where direct trains depart for Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, which is where I assumed she wanted to go... but she actually wanted to go to Clapton in the London Borough of Hackney - just two miles down the road... :oops: :oops: :oops:

Clacton... Clapton... how was I supposed to know? :p

There have been more stations called Newport on the UK railway system than any other name.

How about in Europe? There are three stations called Luxembourg in the EU; one in the country of Luxembourg proper, one in Belgium and one in France.

Gare Lëtzebuerg / Gare de Luxembourg / Bahnhof Luxemburg (Luxembourg)
Gare du Luxembourg (RER B, Paris, France)
Gare de Bruxelles Luxembourg / Station Brussel-Luxemburg (Line 161, Brussels, Belgium)

Must be one almighty cock-up if you wanted to go from Brussels to Luxembourg and end up in Paris! <D
 
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apk55

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Just a thought - from Manchester you can catch a train two different Adlington stations, one North near Chorley and one South near Macclesfield. I wonder how many people have ended up at the wrong one?
 
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