TRIVIA: Places in the UK with a namesake (or similar sounding place name) in mainland Europe

[Trackman]

He's such a legend isn't he!

I concur!

 

[John Griffiths]

Malden, in Gelderland in the Netherlands (where my aunt and uncle live); and Maldon (Essex) and New Malden (London)

 

[Calthrop]

I concur!

I'll gladly confess that I live under a rock; but, please -- who is this chap in the video?

 

[Trackman]

I'll gladly confess that I live under a rock; but, please -- who is this chap in the video?

His name is Benjamin Rich, there’s more about him on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_and_Bankrupt

 

[Calthrop]

Thanks. I don't after all, feel quite in the league of the long-ago elderly judge asking, "who are the Beatles?". This bod sounds definitely interesting !

 

[Scotty]

It's always better when he's got Alina with him... she certainly attracts attention with locals!

 

[Jamesrob637]

Speaking of Bald and Bankrupt, Vauxhall shares its name not with an actual place, but with the Russian for train station "Voksal." I believe that stems from a Russian oligarch visiting London in Victorian times and the start of the railways, and ending up near/on Vauxhall station!

 

[Bedpan]

Beaulieu Hants and Beaulieu Sur Mer, near Nice

Banff in Scotland and Canada

I'm not entirely sure that Canada is part of mainland Europe despite their agreement with the EU. it does remind me though of somebody I used to work with who, when I said we were going to Vancouver, asked if I would be catching a Eurostar....they thought it was in Holland!

Hope (Kreis Hannover) and the two in the UK, one in England and one in Wales.

Sadly the station in the former closed in about 2000 so you can't go from Hope to Hope to Hope any more

You could go from Hope to Schwarmstedt, but then you'd be beyond Hope

 

[Whistler40145]

Beaulieu Hants and Beaulieu Sur Mer, near Nice



I'm not entirely sure that Canada is part of mainland Europe despite their agreement with the EU. it does remind me though of somebody I used to work with who, when I said we were going to Vancouver, asked if I would be catching a Eurostar....they thought it was in Holland!




You could go from Hope to Schwarmstedt, but then you'd be beyond Hope

My apologies, I'm not perfect

 

[Senex]

Same formation, even if they don't sound the same: Peterborough and (St) Petersburg.

 

[JamesRowden]

Brede, East Sussex
Brede, Denmark

 

[Calthrop]

Speaking of Bald and Bankrupt, Vauxhall shares its name not with an actual place, but with the Russian for train station "Voksal." I believe that stems from a Russian oligarch visiting London in Victorian times and the start of the railways, and ending up near/on Vauxhall station!

An alternative explanation, involves a pleasure-garden set up originally in the late 18th century, under the aegis of the then Tsar, a little way out of St. Petersburg -- named after London's famous Vauxhall pleasure gardens -- thus, "Voksal". Russia's first railway, opened in 1837, was a short line from central St. Petersburg, to these Voksal gardens: the name somehow became the generic Russian word for a railway station.

From what has come my way about the Russian-visitors-to-London version; I've heard: rather than oligarchs -- a delegation sent to Britain in the 1840s by Tsar Nicholas I, to find out more about railways, in the country where railways were born. Vauxhall station in London featured prominently in these gentlemen's comings and goings; hence their misinterpretation. I find in this version, a suspected inconsistency as regards dates.

Have entertained a fancy about how in times past, when Great Yarmouth's main -- and now only surviving -- station, was identified as and officially named, Yarmouth (Vauxhall); Russian mariners putting in at the port, might well have been charmed by the name, and appreciated its being a touch of home.

 

[Bedpan]

My apologies, I'm not perfect

I have fallen into the same trap many times!

 

[John Griffiths]

Same formation, even if they don't sound the same: Peterborough and (St) Petersburg.

A slight sideways curve, if I'm allowed, to St Petersburg - Leningrad, and Lenin Terrace in Stanley, Co Durham (and also Chopwell, same trad county and since 1974 in Tyne & Wear).

 

[181]

Same formation, even if they don't sound the same: Peterborough and (St) Petersburg.

I seem to remember once seeing something in Italian (I can't remember where) about 'Pietroburgo' and briefly wondering what it had to do with Peterborough, before realising that it was in fact St. Petersburg.

I was intrigued to read, in something written by @Calthrop elsewhere on the Internet, that there used to be a place in East Prussia called Groß Brittanien, which as many people will recognise is almost identicel to the German for 'Great Britain'. It's now called Щегловка (Shcheglovka); German Wikipedia has a page on the village and one on the narrow-gauge railway that used to begin there.

 

[AY1975]

And there's Watten in Northern Scotland on the line to Wick with a closed station and Watten in Northern France on the line to Calais - but the French station is called Watten-Eperlecques incorporating the name of the nearby wartime German bunker, now a visitor attraction

There's also Wattens in Tirol, Austria.

 

[AY1975]

Beaulieu Hants and Beaulieu Sur Mer, near Nice

And Beauly north of Inverness.

 

[AY1975]

Brede, East Sussex
Brede, Denmark

And Breda, Netherlands. I would presume that Brede, East Sussex is pronounced "Breed" and Brede, Denmark is pronounced like Breda.

 

[AY1975]

Leek in Staffordshire and in the Netherlands not been mentioned yet I don't think

Also the Dutch/Flemish name for Liège, Belgium is Luik.

 

[AY1975]

Stone, Staffordshire and Stein-am-Rhein, Switzerland (Stein means Stone in German).

 

[Bedpan]

And Beauly north of Inverness.

Oh yes, so there is. I forgot about that one -- possibly a contender for the station with the shortest platform too (or is Conan Bridge shorter?).

 

[scotrail158713]

Oh yes, so there is. I forgot about that one -- possibly a contender for the station with the shortest platform too (or is Conan Bridge shorter?).

Beauly is the shortest - see this video from All the Stations

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Rotherham United play at New York Stadium, which is in New York.

 

[mailbyrail]

Bures in Essex on the line to Sudbury and also on the closed line to the East of Caen in Normandy, France

 

[Zamracene749]

Not a settlement, but there must be a link between our Pennine mountains and the Apennine mountains in Italy?

 

[Calthrop]

Not a settlement, but there must be a link between our Pennine mountains and the Apennine mountains in Italy?

According to Wiki: "Various etymologies have proposed treating 'Pennine' as though it were a native Brittonic / Modern Welsh name related to "pen [=head]". It did not become a common name until the 18th century and almost certainly derives from modern comparisons with the Appenine Mountains, which run down the middle of Italy in a similar fashion." (The article continues to expound on this theme, in considerably greater detail.)

 

[Zamracene749]

According to Wiki: "Various etymologies have proposed treating 'Pennine' as though it were a native Brittonic / Modern Welsh name related to "pen [=head]". It did not become a common name until the 18th century and almost certainly derives from modern comparisons with the Appenine Mountains, which run down the middle of Italy in a similar fashion." (The article continues to expound on this theme, in considerably greater detail.)

Interesting, thanks Calthrop!

 

[Jamesrob637]

Reading Berkshire and Réding in France

 

[AY1975]

Melling, Merseyside; Melling, Lancashire; Mellin near Beetzendorf, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany; Mellingen, Thuringia, Germany; and Mellingen, Aargau, Switzerland.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

And Beauly north of Inverness.

Almost a fourth on this one: the village of Beulah in Powys.