Trivia: Most ridiculously named station in UK

[driver_m]

Should reopen St Helens Jn - Rainford Jn. Both stations get to get their names being meaningful again, but even better, you get the opportunity to reopen Crank and the endless photo opportunities of having your photo taken next to the station sign.

 

[HowardGWR]

100% agree with you Wirewiper.

Furze Platt (Pratt)

One too many t's for that joke I am afraid.

 

[Andrewh32]

Oh yes there is - Shippea Hill farm lies on a "hill" which rises above the 0m contour!

I totally accept that Shippea Hill is the highest point in Burnt Fen indeed the only point above sea level but it is not on a hill, it simply isn't anywhere near big enough to qualify as a hill going on official guidelines

 

[Ianigsy]

Sandhills - if you want sandhills, stay on the train for another half an hour and get off at Formby!

 

[SSp]

Salford Central. Further away from Salford's meagre centre than Crescent...

 

[urbophile]

CHARING CROSS - I'd suggest the Bakerloo station would probably much better be called Trafalgar Square. Given the iconic nature of Trafalgar Square, in my view that name should feature somewhere on the map. At the very least Charing Cross should be officially named "Charing Cross for Trafalgar Square", although a Bank/Monument solution would be preferable.

It was, until the Jubilee line. Trafalgar Square was amalgamated with Strand and renamed because of its connection with the mainline station. The original LU Charing Cross station then became (logically and sensibly) Embankment.

Hillside station near Southport is odd because the nearest hill (apart from a few sand dunes) is several miles inland. Also on Merseyrail, Rice Lane used to be called Preston Road despite the street where it is situated being Rice Lane (which is the, or a, road to Preston but not named as such).

 

[markem41]

Trafford Park - get off the train in Stretford, walk down a long road in Stretford to get to Trafford Park.

 

[adamedwards]

Besses o'th Barn formerly a rail station and now on Metrolink. My favourite bus stop is Crooked Usage, which is just off the A1 in Barnet. It would be a great name for a station.

 

[RSimons]

I heard that in the 1800s potatoes from the fens had a poor reputation in London so fetched low prices. The local growers persuaded the railway company to change the name from Shippea to Shippea Hill as everyone knows there are no hills in the fens. Apparently it worked for a while!

 

[LDECRexile]

Hillside station near Southport is odd because the nearest hill (apart from a few sand dunes) is several miles inland. Also on Merseyrail, Rice Lane used to be called Preston Road despite the street where it is situated being Rice Lane (which is the, or a, road to Preston but not named as such).

As with Shippea Hill there's no hill at Hillside, but there are extensive sandhills. The station was built by the LMS between the wars to serve Southport's southerly expansion. The station was located between a substantial property called "Hillside" and another named "Hillside Farm", so it wasn't as crackers as it looks.

Please see this:

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=53.6198&lon=-3.0290&layers=175&b=1

Someone else commented on Sandhills station in Liverpool, which also relates to the area it is in (ie Sandhills) which historically was an area of sand hills, long since built over by docks, industry and housing.

Sorry to be a wet blanket on a fun thread.

 

[snowball]

Salford Central. Further away from Salford's meagre centre than Crescent...

This thread is repeating a recent one. I ws born in Salford and brought up there until age 11. I thought of the centre of Salford as being at Bexley Square, where the town hall was. This was quite near to the station then known as just Salford, now Salford Central.

 

[Agent_Squash]

Durrington-on-Sea, largely serving a suburb which is north of the railway and more than a mile away from the sea!

 

[The Quincunx]

Surely nothing here is as ridiculous as this, between Brussels and Leuven?

 

[Dr_Paul]

Wandsworth Road is between Battersea and Clapham, and a couple of miles from Wandsworth. This can be confusing for people from outwith the area.

There seems to be two different reasons for naming a station '### Road'. The first is that it is simply situated on that road: Wandsworth Road station is where the line crosses the Wandsworth Road (the next station is Clapham High Street, where the line crosses that street). The second is a station on the road to a town that was not served by a railway (or not by that specific railway company), and is usually a fair distance away, sometimes several miles. The suffix Parkway is the modern equivalent of the second definition of the Road suffix.

 

[gg1]

Oldham Mumps always struckly as a ludicrous name, what next, Rochdale Tonsillitis?

 

[edwin_m]

Coatbridge Sunnyside.

In similar vein, Flowery Field and Rose Grove.

 

[xotGD]

Wandsworth Road is between Battersea and Clapham, and a couple of miles from Wandsworth. This can be confusing for people from outwith the area.

There seems to be two different reasons for naming a station '### Road'. The first is that it is simply situated on that road: Wandsworth Road station is where the line crosses the Wandsworth Road (the next station is Clapham High Street, where the line crosses that street). The second is a station on the road to a town that was not served by a railway (or not by that specific railway company), and is usually a fair distance away, sometimes several miles. The suffix Parkway is the modern equivalent of the second definition of the Road suffix.

I thought that we had recently established up-thread that 'Parkway' just means a station with a big car park!?!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Surely nothing here is as ridiculous as this, between Brussels and Leuven?
View attachment 41080

I agree. I just checked on Google Maps, and the station is clearly nowhere near Erps-Kwerps. If Google maps is correct (I don't know the area), the station would be far more accurately called Schoonaarde.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

To take a different tack to those issues over "parkway" stations, the increasing usage of the term Interchange for a station that has a few bus stands nearby. Whilst the railway doesn't use the Interchange name, Denby Dale Interchange is rather overselling what is two bus shelters (one of which is disused!) in a turning circle 50 yards from the single platform. See also in the same neck of the woods, the short-lived "Waterloo Interchange" which was basically a grouping of a few bus stops at the junction of the Wakefield and Sheffield roads from Huddersfield.

 

[MotCO]

Oh yes there is - Shippea Hill farm lies on a "hill" which rises above the 0m contour!

Although in fairness, it's not possible from this extract to say whether Shippea Hill is actually on a hill or in a hollow!

 

[snowball]

Here's Streetview of the farm, looking east from the minor road on the left of that clip.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4...294.26044&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i13312!8i6656

 

[159]

Mitcham Eastfields
Acton Main Line - trains don't go further than Hayes, and you might as well call every mainline station that way - Raynes Park Mainline.
Tattenham Corner?
South Greenford - to the east of G
Micheldever - nowhere near M, 6km away, might as well Parkwayify it (A303). The area around it is called "M.. Station"
Upwey - no excuse for this ridiculous name
And don't get me started on East London stns - Maze Hill, Seven Kings, Waterloo East, even Luffboro Jcn which has no relevance to the area. Bristol Parkway should be called Stoke Gifford.

 

[Crossover]

Seamer station on the outskirts of Scarborough is actually situated between Crossgates and Eastfield - Seamer village itself is around a mile away from the station

 

[pdeaves]

Indeed and if they ever open it, 'Portway Parkway' will take the prize.

Although reported as Portway Parkway, I am led to understand that the 'approved' name (obviously it can change any time before or even after opening) is Portway Park & Ride, as per the adjacent bus P&R facility that it extends (see https://goo.gl/maps/tqkFtGiA2P32)

 

[lejog]

I totally accept that Shippea Hill is the highest point in Burnt Fen indeed the only point above sea level but it is not on a hill, it simply isn't anywhere near big enough to qualify as a hill going on official guidelines

Well you may not like it but hill is a local term for an area standing above the fen. In fact a mile or two east of the station the shortlived Shrub Hill tramway was built to connect the line to a brickworks at Shrub Hill, another small area above the 0m contour.

I heard that in the 1800s potatoes from the fens had a poor reputation in London so fetched low prices. The local growers persuaded the railway company to change the name from Shippea to Shippea Hill as everyone knows there are no hills in the fens. Apparently it worked for a while!

Urban myth I'm afraid. The station was renamed from Burnt Fen to Shippea Hill in 1905, not directly after Shippea Hill Farm, but when the Chivers Shippea Hill factory was built just south of the line on the Shippea Hill estate and a branch line built to serve it.

 

[thenorthern]

Grindleford, Bootle, Dinsdale, Uphall and Alnmouth all stations named after small places but are located in or nearest to another place.

 

[341o2]

seem to be repeating previous threads....
Splatt?....no, Treesmer
Misterton?... no, Crewkerne

 

[JonathanH]

Tattenham Corner?

Very much at Tattenham Corner. The station derives its name from a feature on Epsom Racecourse which predated the station.

I'm not sure what else you could call the station (other than Epsom Downs of course but that is taken). Arguably that could be called Drift Bridge or perhaps Nork West.

 

[kentuckytony]

I don't think it is ridiculous, but I am partial to rather humorous "Bat and Ball".

 

[AC47461]

Moreton station in Dorset, nearer Crossways than Moreton, but like Seamer mentioned above, the villages / estates / suburbs or whatever were probably not there when the line was built, and have grown to make the station name now look a bit odd.

And a lot of stations often took their 'West', 'South', 'Central' etc., not from their position but from their operating company, like Dorchester West (GWR) and South (South Western), although to be fair they aren't geographically bad either.....