Trivia:Obsolete stations names

[The Planner]

Severn Beach is pushing it as well.

 

[Ianigsy]

Ben Rhydding was named after the long-gone hydropathic establishment, before which the village was called Wheatley.

 

[nw1]

Dudley Port?

Does that actually mean 'Dudley Gate', in the style that many languages use 'porte' / 'porta' or similar for a gate or door, and similar to 'portal' in English.

It looks like it's on a major road into Dudley, so that's certainly conceivable. Certainly about as far as you can get from a sea port!

I would imagine that some places called Newport might be named similarly, as some of them are well inland.

In a similar vein Stratford International as no international trains have ever stopped there.

I guess Birmingham International is not so silly as international flights do still go from the airport. So it is still a potential interchange from the railway to international travel.

 

[Tractor86]

Burnley Barracks has no barracks

 

[InOban]

Connel Ferry. Hasn't been a ferry since Connel Bridge was built.

 

[Taunton]

Severn Beach is pushing it as well.

Always known in Bristol as Severn Mud.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Connel Ferry. Hasn't been a ferry since Connel Bridge was built.

In 1896!

 

[hst43102]

Does that actually mean 'Dudley Gate', in the style that many languages use 'porte' / 'porta' or similar for a gate or door, and similar to 'portal' in English.

It looks like it's on a major road into Dudley, so that's certainly conceivable. Certainly about as far as you can get from a sea port!

I would imagine that some places called Newport might be named similarly, as some of them are well inland.

I think most of the "-port" places in the West Mids would have been named after a port on a canal. Dudley port certainly was, I think Stourport and Newport (Shropshire) might have been as well? Obviously there are no ports on the canals any more so all those names would be "obsolete"!

 

[Railsigns]

Connel Ferry. Hasn't been a ferry since Connel Bridge was built.

The ferry would have continued to operate for some years after the bridge was completed, since the primitive 'motorail' service only began in 1909 and the bridge had no roadway until 1914.

 

[PeterC]

Berney Arms as the pub that gave it its name is now closed.

Same for Bat and Ball

 

[Parallel]

According to Wiki, the well is still there and flourishing, "now in a small housing made of dressed granite". Its wish-granting capacity of course depends on what one chooses to believe...

I went to visit it out of curiosity in 2017, it was definitely still there and operational.

 

[xotGD]

I guess Birmingham International is not so silly

What is silly is that you need to get off at International for the National Exhibition Centre but not the International Convention Centre.

 

[MadMac]

There are many major stations where the name has been made obsolete by the closure of another major station and gradually fallen out of use.

Leicester Midland -> Leicester
Chester General -> Chester
Sheffield Midland -> Sheffield
and so on...

Not sure if they exactly fit your criteria though.

Was Leicester ever called "Midland"? I thought it was always London Road, if anything.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Was Leicester ever called "Midland"? I thought it was always London Road, if anything.

Believe it was 'Leicester London Road' until 1969, so, yes.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

New Pudsey isn't really new these days, though that is what the "New" in the name refers to, as in "the new station for Pudsey".

Also, I don't think I've ever seen either a friar or an American TV detective with OCD at Pontefract Monkhill.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

In a similar vein Stratford International as no international trains have ever stopped there.

Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International are currently in the same position.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

I think most of the "-port" places in the West Mids would have been named after a port on a canal. Dudley port certainly was, I think Stourport and Newport (Shropshire) might have been as well? Obviously there are no ports on the canals any more so all those names would be "obsolete"!

Dudley Port and Stourport are both canal names, yes - as is Ellesmere Port. Newport (Salop) isn’t.

 

[Djgr]

Dudley Port and Stourport are both canal names, yes - as is Ellesmere Port. Newport (Salop) isn’t.

Ellesmere Port is the port for Ellesmere (Shropshire). Is it not?

 

[AY1975]

Sevenoaks.....I believe that there has been only one since the March 1987 hurricane.

October 1987 actually.

Shepherds Well (serving the village of Shepherdswell that has no well)

Yes, and IIRC in BR days the station signs said Shepherds Well (two words) whereas the name of the village has always been written as Shepherdswell (one word). Southeastern has corrected that and replaced the BR/NSE era signs with standard Southeastern style signs that have it as one word, though.

As an aside, the village is also known as Sibertswold (it is shown as Shepherdswell or Sibertswold on OS maps).

Dover Priory (Priory long gone and remains as part of today's Dover College)

Yes, and it's been the only station in Dover since the closure of the Dover Western Docks branch in 1994.

 

[david_g]

Ellesmere Port is the port for Ellesmere (Shropshire). Is it not?i

Not really. It was the port at the end of the Ellesmere Canal (until the coming of the canal the settlement was named Netherpool).

The Ellesmere Canal wasn't completed in it's proposed form, linking Mersey & Severrn via Chester and Wrexham. As built there are two isolated sections from the Mersey to Chester and from Hurleston (near Nantwhich) and Llangollen with several branches, joined by the Chester Canal. The link to the Chester Canal at Hurleston was an afterthought brought about by the ruinously expensive nature of the original route.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Yes, and IIRC in BR days the station signs said Shepherds Well (two words) whereas the name of the village has always been written as Shepherdswell (one word).

Like this?

 

[Djgr]

Not really. It was the port at the end of the Ellesmere Canal (until the coming of the canal the settlement was named Netherpool).

The Ellesmere Canal wasn't completed in it's proposed form, linking Mersey & Severrn via Chester and Wrexham. As built there are two isolated sections from the Mersey to Chester and from Hurleston (near Nantwhich) and Llangollen with several branches, joined by the Chester Canal. The link to the Chester Canal at Hurleston was an afterthought brought about by the ruinously expensive nature of the original route.

Thanks for that. History is more complicated than appears on the surface!

 

[SargeNpton]

Still Shepherds Well in all official rail systems. If Southeastern have changed the signs at the station then they really need to get the name changed elsewhere so that everyone displays the same name (and that includes the Southeastern website!).

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Not really. It was the port at the end of the Ellesmere Canal (until the coming of the canal the settlement was named Netherpool).

The Ellesmere Canal wasn't completed in it's proposed form, linking Mersey & Severrn via Chester and Wrexham. As built there are two isolated sections from the Mersey to Chester and from Hurleston (near Nantwhich) and Llangollen with several branches, joined by the Chester Canal. The link to the Chester Canal at Hurleston was an afterthought brought about by the ruinously expensive nature of the original route.

Exactly - so in other words, it was the intended port for Ellesmere.

Shame the original route was never built, other than a short branch... it would have been spectacular.

 

[david_g]

Exactly - so in other words, it was the intended port for Ellesmere.

Shame the original route was never built, other than a short branch... it would have been spectacular.

Any traffic from Ellesmere was rather incidental to the intended purpose of the canal as a through route ‘twixt Mersey and Severn, also serving the lime/coal/iron traffic from the area round Wrexham. I don’t think traffic offered from Ellesmere would have justified building what became a substantial inland port, though the full extent of it had to wait until the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction opened.

 

[Efini92]

Birmingham New Street isn’t on New Street.

Wigan North Western is no longer owned by the London and Northwestern railway company.

 

[Watershed]

Birmingham New Street isn’t on New Street.

Wigan North Western is no longer owned by the London and Northwestern railway company.

...although it is in the Network Rail North West & Central region (but then again, so is Wallgate!)

 

[rower40]

Burton-on-Trent? The town name (officially?) is Burton upon Trent, with no hyphens and an extra "up".

Interestingly, only yesterday I noted a roadsign on the A38, for "Barton-u-Needwood" and "Walton-u-Trent"; the '-u-' being for "Under" and "Upon" respectively.

 

[JohnElliott]

Dover Priory (Priory long gone and remains as part of today's Dover College)

Blackfriars (the priory from which the district took its name was closed by Henry VIII in 1538)

 

[D6130]

St Albans Abbey. The abbey was converted to a cathedral several hundred years ago.