Trivia: Cardinal directions in station names

[D6130]

Isn't there a tunnel called Tunnel Road Tunnel somewhere?

Yes....it's the first tunnel between Edge Hill and Liverpool Lime Street.

 

[Gloster]

Wasn’t there also a Junction Road Junction on the Tottenham & Hampstead Joint.

Because the line was measured from Waterloo via Eastleigh and Botley, wasn’t Fareham East Box to the west of Fareham West Box.

 

[snowball]

Looking here (OS map from the 1960s) there is community "Livingston Station" by a station - so "Livingston Station Station"?

There are other places with "Station" in their name, such as Widdrington Station and Kiveton Park Station.

 

[Timmyd]

Whatever the reason, it creates some funny anomalies. A good one being East Dulwich, which is north of North Dulwich.

This is a good example of how you can't have hard and fast rules here as people locally would very much say they lived in either East Dulwich or West Dulwich, but not typically North Dulwich (which serves Dulwich Village, although estate agents have inevitably invented a 'North Dulwich Triangle') or South Dulwich. Actually it would make a lot more sense for Sydenham Hill station to be have been called South Dulwich - it is very much in Dulwich and nowhere near Sydenham, and linked to a road called Sydenham Hill by a long and steep woodland footpath which is a bit spooky at night.

 

[Lockwood]

Aren't the Placename Station settlements from when the station for Placename was built a fair way from Placename, for track placement reasons or landowners not wanting to grant access?

Properties would be built around Placename station, rather than around Placename, so this new community got referred to as Placename Station, and the name stuck.

So, you should not get Placename Station Station, as the settlement is named after the station rather than the other way round. But perhaps the settlement should be Placename Station Town?

 

[hermit]

North Berwick and (formerly) North Sunderland are separate places, nowhere near the places they are north of.

 

[Rescars]

Stoats Nest became Coulsdon West before it became Coulsdon North. Coulsdon became Coulsdon East before it became Coulsdon South and remained as Coulsdon South after Coulsdon North closed. Coulsdon South thus became the only station named Coulsdon until Smitham was renamed Coulsdon Town.

 

[WesternBiker]

I recently read how the village of Micheldever Station grew up around the station - three miles from the original village of Micheldever. (The station was opened as "Andover Road" - as with most stations of that name, a long way from the town after which it was named.)

 

[Cdd89]

I am a little surprised there isn’t a station with a diagonal direction, such as North East. Excluding Wigan North Western of course, for the reason mentioned upthread, which nearly caught me out the first time I looked at it in a list!

 

[zwk500]

I am a little surprised there isn’t a station with a diagonal direction, such as North East. Excluding Wigan North Western of course, for the reason mentioned upthread, which nearly caught me out the first time I looked at it in a list!

I suspect very few towns had enough stations to need more than the normal Cardinal directions. If you had a 'North' and 'East' Station I suspect for clarity you'd want a 'Church Road' station before 'North East'

Out of interest, are there any towns that had stations with all 4 Cardinal Directions in them?

 

[Cdd89]

Out of interest, are there any towns that had stations with all 4 Cardinal Directions in them?

There’s Acton, which has all four (all preceding the name), plus “Main Line”, “Central” and “Town”.

 

[The exile]

There are other places with "Station" in their name, such as Widdrington Station and Kiveton Park Station.

Both of which still live up to their name. Others, such as Ratho Station, are not so fortunate!

 

[Western Lord]

I recently read how the village of Micheldever Station grew up around the station - three miles from the original village of Micheldever. (The station was opened as "Andover Road" - as with most stations of that name, a long way from the town after which it was named.)

In Devon the village of Halwill Junction is a couple of miles from the (smaller) village of Halwill.

 

[RH Liner]

In Devon the village of Halwill Junction is a couple of miles from the (smaller) village of Halwill.

The other place with Junction in its name is Langwith Junction, although it’s station name subsequently became Shirebrook North. Langwith Junction is physically attached to the town of Shirebrook, but is outside the town boundary. The station and junction are long since closed.
Nearby an area of Sutton-in-Ashfield is known as Sutton Junction after the former station, but this is an unofficial name. When the Robin Hood Line reopened Sutton Junction station didn’t, it was replaced by Sutton Parkway a little to the south. Neither Sutton Junction (the actual railway junction) nor its station now exist, but the area is still unofficially called Sutton Junction.

 

[snowball]

There’s Acton, which has all four (all preceding the name), plus “Main Line”, “Central” and “Town”.

Not to forget Bridge!

 

[Rescars]

I suspect very few towns had enough stations to need more than the normal Cardinal directions. If you had a 'North' and 'East' Station I suspect for clarity you'd want a 'Church Road' station before 'North East'

Out of interest, are there any towns that had stations with all 4 Cardinal Directions in them?

Well, Coulsdon has managed this, but not all at the same time!

 

[snowball]

Both of which still live up to their name. Others, such as Ratho Station, are not so fortunate!

The station in the village of Kiveton Park (admittedly at its west end, and close to the village of Wales) is called Kiveton Bridge. The station and hamlet called Kiveton Park Station are some distance east of the village of Kiveton Park.

 

[D6130]

What about Allens West, between Darlington and Eaglescliffe? I believe that the station was opened during WW2 to facilitate the commuting of workers to the nearby Royal Naval Supplies Depot, Eaglescliffe but, on examining the local OS maps and street atlas, I can find no settlement, farm or road with that name and there is definitely no Allens East! Perhaps it was the name of the family who originally owned the land on which the RNSD was built?

 

[30907]

Because the line was measured from Waterloo via Eastleigh and Botley, wasn’t Fareham East Box to the west of Fareham West Box.

It was - until the SR decided to re-label boxes alphabetically (they never did Salisbury, for some reason - not that it was a problem geographically).

 

[matchmaker]

The other place with Junction in its name is Langwith Junction, although it’s station name subsequently became Shirebrook North. Langwith Junction is physically attached to the town of Shirebrook, but is outside the town boundary. The station and junction are long since closed.
Nearby an area of Sutton-in-Ashfield is known as Sutton Junction after the former station, but this is an unofficial name. When the Robin Hood Line reopened Sutton Junction station didn’t, it was replaced by Sutton Parkway a little to the south. Neither Sutton Junction (the actual railway junction) nor its station now exist, but the area is still unofficially called Sutton Junction.

There's also Carstairs Junction, which is separate to Carstairs.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Not a major surprise, I would suggest, that a number of communities have established themselves over the years around a nearby railway station, and thus are now nearer than the place that the station was originally named after.

 

[D6130]

There's also Carstairs Junction, which is separate to Carstairs.

.....and Llandudno Junction, which is separate from Llandudno.

 

[Andyjs247]

And Clapham Junction named after the eponymous station and distinct from Battersea

 

[thenorthern]

It's important to remember as well that until the Big 4 and British Rail stations would often just have the name of the town in the station name which would often result in several stations in the same place all with the same name. For example Chesterfield had 3 stations all called "Chesterfield" which over time became Chesterfield Market Place, Chesterfield Central and Chesterfield Midland. Chesterfield Midland is the current Chesterfield.

Looking here (OS map from the 1960s) there is community "Livingston Station" by a station - so "Livingston Station Station"?

Nearby Uphall is in Uphall station. The original Livingston Station itself closed in 1948 and the current Livingston North opened in 1986. Livingston is of course mostly a new town.

There are several places that are named after railway features they were built around such as Llandudno Junction and Windermere the town which is named after Windermere station which was named after the lake.

 

[306024]

Time to mention an old favourite station sign from a few years back which read:
Network South East
North London Line
Welcome to West Hampstead