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Place name differences: the railway calls it by this name, but everyone else calls it by that name!

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DelW

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Uphall Station in West Lothian is another one with the station called Uphall being in the separate settlement of Uphall Station.
On the same theme, the village now called Micheldever Station is 2 & 1/2 miles from the original village of Micheldever, even though the railway line passes less than 1/2 mile from the old village centre.
 
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urbophile

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Well, not everyone, these days anyway, but for the old locals Clapham Junction was Battersea ( more 'up the Rise' than 'up the Junction'!)
Clapham Junction *is* Battersea. OK, Clapham common is just a short walk away, but Clapham town centre is another mile or so.
 

6Gman

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I've heard people refer to Crewe as "Crewe Junction".

Which grates.
 

6Gman

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There is, of course, a station in Anglesey called Llanfairpwll by the railway, but variously known locally as Llanfair, Llanfair P.G., or by a rather longer form (but the last form only to impress visitors).

:D
 

6Gman

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I think there are a few older locals who still refer to Sandbach station as Elworth.
 

msussams

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Once I heard a conductor announce the list of stations. As Bath Spa, Oldfield Park, Keynsham and Somerdale and Bristol Temple Meads

It hasn’t been known as Keynsham and Somerdale for many years just Keynsham
 

Altnabreac

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Alnmouth Station is in the small town of Bilton, next to the larger town of Lesbury. Its about a mile further to Alnmouth.

And Tring Station ? It is near an old cana,l and a forest, and a golf course, and a phone box. . . . . . And only half a mile from Aldbury village.

As a former local I would tend to say that Alnmouth Station was in Hipsburn rather than Bilton, though of course the railway line is the divide between Hipsburn and Bilton so I suppose it is reasonable to claim either. Back in the day before the west side car park opened and the only access to the station was on the Hipsburn side of the line I think most locals if asked would have said it was Hipsburn rather than Bilton.

In reality though the names round there are fairly flexible. Alnmouth Utd FC and Alnmouth and Lesbury Cricket Club both play their matches adjacent to Hipsburn Primary school in Hipsburn.
 

BigCj34

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Green Road serves The Green, while Cark and Cartmel is really in Cark. Maybe Cark and Flookburgh might be better as the latter is much nearer?
 

Railsigns

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Cark and Cartmel is really in Cark. Maybe Cark and Flookburgh might be better as the latter is much nearer?

The last time I was there (about three years ago), the station signs said just "Cark".
 

astock5000

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Garston - everyone calls it the name of the nearby estate, the Meriden.
I wouldn't go as far to say that. While I personally consider the Meriden estate to be part of Garston I'm aware that for many people they are separate places. However the housing on the northwest side of the railway is certainly Garston and not Meriden. The station platform is indeed on the Meriden side but one footpath runs down to Garston Lane where that road passes under the line, and the houses on neither side of that bridge are part of the Meriden estate - that begins further down at The Gossamers / Phillipers / Whitwell Road (where the other exit from the station leads to).
Whether the Meriden estate is thought of as part of Garston or not, the station certainly serves both and I have never heard the station referred to by anyone as "Meriden".
 

tsr

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Dormans is, to all extents and purposes, a station name invented by the railway to cater for Dormansland, Felcourt and (now) Dormans Park.

Dorking (Deepdene) would be better known as Deepdene (Dorking).

Box Hill and Westhumble is occasionally misspelt in documentation as "Boxhill and West Humble". So far as anyone can make out, there's no overall location of Humble for which you could have a Western variant, and Box Hill is definitely a name which is divided into the two separate words!

Shippea Hill settlement doesn't exist at all. It's in an area called Burnt Fen and is slightly above sea level. It used to serve Mildenhall military camp before road transport became widespread and I presume was another station that did more trade in goods than passengers.

Isn't there a Shippea Hill Farm? Using that name would therefore be no more obscure than calling the station anything else!
 

snowball

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Isn't there a Shippea Hill Farm? Using that name would therefore be no more obscure than calling the station anything else!
It appears from the OS map that Shippea Hill Farm is a mile and a half from the station. Two or three other farms seem to be nearer.
 

Mag_seven

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Glasgow folk refer to Glasgow Central as just "the Central". Similarly Edinburgh folk refer to Edinburgh Waverley as just "the Waverley".
 

PeterC

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Colchester is often referred to as North Station.

Sometimes the name will follow the station, Gidea Park and Squirrels Heath was quite clearly in the latter but the more up market name from 5 minutes walk away was preferred by developers and became applied to the area around the station so now it is just Gidea Park.
 

Dr_Paul

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Shippea Hill settlement doesn't exist at all. It's in an area called Burnt Fen and is slightly above sea level. It used to serve Mildenhall military camp before road transport became widespread and I presume was another station that did more trade in goods than passengers.

I heard that Shippea Hill station was one of the many stations across that area that were mainly intended for loading agricultural goods. Like several fen-land stations, it was quite some way from any village. It was there long before the aerodrome at Mildenhall, which I think was one of those built in the Second World War. Up until the early 1970s, there used to be a bus service from the station to the air-base, which when I used it was run by a local garage using a somewhat geriatric motor-coach.
 

DelW

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The borough name is Haringey.
When the current borough was formed in the 1960s from the previous boroughs of Hornsey, Tottenham, and Wood Green, IIRC the older spelling of Haringey was adopted to differentiate the name of the borough from the smaller area already known as Harringay at the northern end of Finsbury Park. Allegedly one of the other options touted was "Horntotwood" so the residents got off lightly :D. The station names (Harringay itself and Green Lanes) have never been changed as they're in the 'original' Harringay area. My grandparents lived then near Harringay Station, and always chose to refer to the area as Hornsey, rather than Harringay or even Crouch End.
 

stut

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There's a slight difference between Letchworth and Welwyn, in that Welwyn comprises Welwyn (village) and Welwyn Garden City which are very much separate places. It's quite common locally to hear "Welwyn Garden" to refer to WGC. By contrast, hardly anyone refers to Letchworth by anything other than plain Letchworth, the renaming of the station was largely done for political reasons.

On a related note, there are still people of a certain age who still say "Stevenage New Town", with some derogatory inference.

And of course, there's Welwyn North, which is in Digswell.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Colchester is often referred to as North Station.

Sometimes the name will follow the station, Gidea Park and Squirrels Heath was quite clearly in the latter but the more up market name from 5 minutes walk away was preferred by developers and became applied to the area around the station so now it is just Gidea Park.
Think if that decision was being made now, the 'quirky, wacky, cute' Squirrel's Heath would win hands-down!
 

Bletchleyite

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The last time I was there (about three years ago), the station signs said just "Cark".

It seems to change roughly as often as the TOC changes its socks (or station nameboards, at least). The on board announcements on Class 185s definitely say "Cark & Cartmel".

It probably makes sense to drop the suffix completely, because if going to Cartmel you're better off getting off at Grange where you might have a hope[1] of a taxi or (during the day) bus connection.

OK, if you're walking the walk from Cark is a bit nicer (done it myself), but who on earth would be walking that (a short hike, really, requiring appropriate clothing and a torch at night) who hadn't already looked at a map to decide which station to use?

[1] No guarantee - the taxis are mostly one man bands and you have to ring round, and if they're booked, they're booked - there is no big taxi firm operating any nearer than perhaps Ulverston or Barrow.
 

krus_aragon

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For convenience, I think most locals refer to Penrhyndeudreath as plain Penrhyn; the Cambrian Coast line station (properly named as the full monty) is almost at sea level and the Ffestiniong's is very much higher up the hill (which tempts some wits to unofficially rename it as Penrhyn Uchaf ie Penryhn upper or higher : nor is this an interchange, unlike the next station, Minffordd).

Similarly, many locals refer to Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr as 'Llan' and 'Pen' respectively. That's fine for local useage, but doesn't work on a more national scale. The road signs all read the same as the railway signs, so you can'tr really say the railway's at fault.
 
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krus_aragon

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There is, of course, a station in Anglesey called Llanfairpwll by the railway, but variously known locally as Llanfair, Llanfair P.G., or by a rather longer form (but the last form only to impress visitors).

:D

And the official name of the village is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll!

BR did a lot of work to sort out station names in Wales in the 70s-80s (?), doing away with spellings like Llanelly and Caernarvon, but this one was seemingly left alone.
 

msussams

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Lowestoft in Suffolk is referred to as Lowestoft Central on signage even though it’s been Lowestoft on its own for a while
 

Bletchleyite

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BR did a lot of work to sort out station names in Wales in the 70s-80s (?), doing away with spellings like Llanelly and Caernarvon, but this one was seemingly left alone.

Shortening it could well have an impact on tourist ticket revenue (certainly it got a fiver out of me a couple of weeks for nothing other than going to the station there - there is no other reason to go there, it's utterly nondescript). Arguably printing the full version on tickets would increase it!

FWIW I believe the long form was created by the railway for precisely that reason.
 

snowball

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I think the full name of Cark (the place, not the station) is Cark-in-Cartmel.
 

TheEdge

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One that continually pops up is Wickham Market, actually in Campsea Ashe, a good mile and a bit from the village itself...
 

DanTrain

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Alnmouth Station is in the small town of Bilton, next to the larger town of Lesbury. Its about a mile further to Alnmouth.

And Tring Station ? It is near an old cana,l and a forest, and a golf course, and a phone box. . . . . . And only half a mile from Aldbury village.
In other words, Alnmouth for Alnwick - in neither Alnmouth nor Alnwick!


Dodworth near Barnsley is pronounced by locals as "Dodduth", matching nearby Cudworth (Cudduth). However the robot-woman (unlike some, I'm not on first-name terms with any of them I'm afraid ;)) at Huddersfield says it as it's written.
So it is pronounced like that. I thought so, but I’ve heard several people pronounce it ‘Dod-worth’, even in Dodworth itself (I’m not sure they were local though).
 
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