TRIVIA: Places with a North, South, East or West prefix that don't have a geographical opposite number

[Mcr Warrior]

Theres an East Grinstead but no other Grinsteads afaik

There's very definitely a 'West Grinstead', population is ~3,000.

It's a small village near Horsham in West Sussex, and before the Beeching Cuts, once had its own railway station, albeit not since the mid 1960s.

 

[Gloster]

Theres an East Grinstead but no other Grinsteads afaik

West Grinstead is a village between Horsham and Worthing. It used to have a station on the Itchingfield Junction-Shoreham line.

 

[D6130]

and no Eastgate to match Westgate-on-Sea, near Margat

There is an Eastgate in Co. Durham - the current physical terminus of the Weardale Railway, although passenger services don't normally run beyond Stanhope - but, ironically, it is located further West than Westgate-on-Sea.

North Frodingham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, has a semi-twin across the Humber as an area of Scunthorpe....but this is known simply as 'Frodingham', without the 'South' prefix.

 

[Enthusiast]

There is an Eastgate in Co. Durham -

There is also one just along down the road from Walmington-on-Sea. Captain Square was the Commanding Officer of Eastgate platoon, Home Guard, and he had a friendly rivalry with the infamous CO of the Walmington-on-Sea platoon, Captain Mainwaring ("Main-Wearing", as Capt. Square deliberately mis-pronounced it). Don't know whether it had a railway station, though!

 

[Howardh]

Westhoughton.

 

[Herefordian]

North Watford.

 

[Tester]

North Watford.

Then historically West Watford also

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Is there anything corresponding to West Kirby?

Or anything corresponding to West Hampstead in London, or West Byfleet in Surrey?

There are lots of examples of stations with a North, South, East or West prefix that don't have an opposite number, but that doesn't necessarily mean no area with that name exists. I mean actual places that don't have a geographic opposite number as such.

I'm going to hazard a guess that, where such places exist, the reason in many cases will be that a 'West X' or 'South X' etc. station was built, and then a community grew around the station that took it's name from the station.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

or West Byfleet in Surrey?

There's plain old Byfleet, served by Byfleet & New Haw station. Not aware of an East Byfleet in the area (nor an Old Haw, for that matter).

 

[W-on-Sea]

West Hampstead (the settlement, not just one of the stations, almost) was originally "West End". As distinct from the West End of London. I suppose the implication is that it was the West End of Hampstead, but more recently the term seems to be used often as a way of saying "Kilburn" (which itself has West and South variants, but nor North or East), as it apparently sounds more prestigious. What I find slightly odd round there is that whereas West End Green is a focal point of what is now West Hampstead, South End Green is some miles (in a north-easterly direction) from what we now call South Hampstead. Arguably the location of the Heath rules out the possibility of North or East Hampsteads....

 

[Sorcerer]

Liverpool West Derby (both the suburb and constituency) as far I'm aware has no opposites.

Is there anything corresponding to West Kirby?

There is not. The "West" prefix was to distinguish it from Kirkby-in-Walea (now Wallasey). There is an East Kirkby in Lincolnshire but it's totally unrelated, just a fun fact.

 

[Howardh]

South Garth, which is on Yell, one of the islands of Shetland, doesn't have a North Garth*, which is understandable as anything further north is in the sea! Makes me wonder if there's anywhere further north that calls itself "south"??

*Well not a settlement anyway, to be pedantic there's a bay called North Garth!

 

[mikeg]

Presumably this is about places and not stations. If so, it applies to whole nations too. There is a Northern Ireland but it's counterpart is simply Ireland.
There's also inner Mongolia in China. The sovereign state is simply Mongolia. (Not a compass point but similar idea)
Sudan Vs South Sudan

Timor Leste
On a more controversial note, South Ossetia
Any more examples?

 

[PGAT]

Any more examples?

North Macedonia. Renamed a couple years ago to make Greece happy

 

[Howardh]

North Macedonia. Renamed a couple years ago to make Greece happy

Is Northern Cyprus the official name?

 

[mikeg]

Is Northern Cyprus the official name?

I believe it's the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, yes. Though official only in its self understanding and that if Turkey for like South Ossetia it doesn't officially exist.

 

[PGAT]

Is Northern Cyprus the official name?

Yes but its disputed

 

[W-on-Sea]

Presumably this is about places and not stations. If so, it applies to whole nations too. There is a Northern Ireland but it's counterpart is simply Ireland.
There's also inner Mongolia in China. The sovereign state is simply Mongolia. (Not a compass point but similar idea)
Sudan Vs South Sudan

Timor Leste
On a more controversial note, South Ossetia
Any more examples?

There is a North Ossetia, as a Republic within the Russian Federation. Both territories were effectively founded by Stalin, although the Southern one always had a lesser status (as well being tiny). It appears that many South Ossetians (or at least their political leadership) would like the two territories to be unified, despite the peaks of the Great Caucasus Range (and a connecting tunnel beneath them) being in the way.

 

[eoff]

Not sure if Northolt counts in modern times.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Not sure if Northolt counts in modern times.

Or Southwark.

Tangentially related, what football team should you support if you live in the South End of Preston?

 

[John Hunt]

South Wigston.
(interesting photo collection here - https://www.wigstonhistoricalsociety.co.uk/Photographic Memories of Old Wigston Stations.pdf )

 

[A0wen]

An oddity from Herts - there is a village named North Mymms - but the nearby South equivalent is South Mimms.

 

[Dai Corner]

An oddity from Herts - there is a village named North Mymms - but the nearby South equivalent is South Mimms.

I wonder if the villagers wanted to disassociate themselves from the motorway service area?

 

[PTR 444]

In Dorset, there is a West Moors but no East Moors.

Eastleigh is appropriately named since it is at the eastern end of Leigh Road, but its western counterpart is named Chandler’s Ford rather than Westleigh.

Bournemouth has a Northbourne, Westbourne and Southbourne but no Eastbourne. The nearest settlement of that name being some hundred miles away in Sussex.

Perhaps going off topic a bit, but Southampton and Northampton are appropriately named for their geographical positions despite also being 100 miles apart and in completely separate counties. Is there any connection between the two places at all?

 

[Merseysider]

Close to home, we have:

Birkenhead North (but no station named South - instead you've got Green Lane etc)
West Allerton (with Northallerton on the opposite side of the country bearing no relation)

Then there's South Milford with no North etc.

 

[Bald Rick]

Theres an East Grinstead but no other Grinsteads afaik

East Grinstead being in that part of the world known as North East West Sussex (and very adjacent to North West East Sussex).

 

[High Dyke]

There's not a West Kilbride as far as I know.

Already mentioned, but yes there is. Visited the award winning CAMRA pub there in June.

The pedant would suggest Eastgate, to match Westgate-on-sea was a place in Dad's Army.

In the real world I don't believe there is an East Ashby to match West Ashby, a village in Lincolnshire.

 

[oldman]

erhaps going off topic a bit, but Southampton and Northampton are appropriately named for their geographical positions despite also being 100 miles apart and in completely separate counties. Is there any connection between the two places at all?

According to my Concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names, they are indeed named to distinguish them from each other, though this happened a long time ago. In the Domesday Book, North- has the prefix but South- doesn't. Both are also the names of counties so that would be an extra reason to distinguish them.

 

[EdinRH]

West Virginia seceded from Virginia. The rump Virginia didn't add East to its name. Incidentally, the westernmost point of (East) Virginia is west of the entirety of West Virginia.

New South Wales has no North counterpart.

There is a West Pilton estate in Edinburgh with numerous street name with West Pilton in their names. The corresponding eastern estate as a whole is sometimes called East Pilton but the street names are just Pilton Drive, Avenue etc. with no compass point. There are streets with names beginning East Pilton Farm, but these were built years after the rest of East Pilton when housing replaced a fire-ravaged factory that formerly stood on the site.

 

[Zamracene749]

The ports are all confused. Most well known is arguably Southport. Then there is Westport in Ireland, slightly south of Southport. Then Northport. In Dorset, a heck of a way south of the other two!