Trivia: geographically anomalous station names

[urbophile]

Shippea Hill seems to be hitting the headlines, if not attracting passengers, for its lack of use. What puzzles me is why a station in the middle of the Fens should be called anything Hill.

Is there a slight incline, or a little bit of land above sea level, that would count as a hill? Maybe it is just the station platform.

A similar anomalous station name, though attracting more custom, is Hillside station near Southport. On a clear day, with good eyesight, one can just see the nearest hill some 20 miles away.

Rainhill is not exactly in mountainous country either, though it does rain a lot.

Any more examples?

 

[AndrewR232]

Flowery Field

 

[furnessvale]

Flowery Field

Rose Grove, Pleasington.

 

[NSE]

Bat and Ball, University (relevant, but not to the fact its Birmingham Uni), The Lakes (not to say there aren't any Lakes near it, but I always thought it was up in the Lake District before I actually checked)

 

[contrex]

Bat and Ball

Bat & Ball railway station is located on Bat & Ball Road, and was named for the Bat and Ball Inn which no longer exists.

I have always thought the three Dulwiches were oddly named.

 

[furnessvale]

Bat and Ball, University (relevant, but not to the fact its Birmingham Uni), The Lakes (not to say there aren't any Lakes near it, but I always thought it was up in the Lake District before I actually checked)

Even if it referred to the Lake District, it should be Lake, singular.

As we all know, there is only one lake in the Lake District.

 

[fowler9]

Sandhills would be better named Scrapheap Challenge.

 

[yorkie]

There are numerous good ones, except I disagree with:

Bat and Ball, University (relevant, but not to the fact its Birmingham Uni), The Lakes (not to say there aren't any Lakes near it, but I always thought it was up in the Lake District before I actually checked)

• University, as you say is at a University!
• The Lakes looks accurate to me.

Incomplete, maybe, but not anomalous.

 

[thenorthern]

Bicester Village, Bicester is a town.

Kirkstall Forge, the "forge" closed a long time ago so why not just Kirkstall?

Curriehill, I never understand why when the town is Currie.

St Helens Junction, I don't think it is a junction any more.

Birmingham International, not served by international services.

Sinfin Central was certainly not in the middle of Sinfin.

Burton-on-Trent, such a town named Burton-on-Trent does not exist.

 

[DaleCooper]

Whittlesea - the beach is disappointing

 

[TheEdge]

The OP mentions Shippea Hill, the local claim is the name was a bit of Victorian PR. For selling potatoes to London Shippea Hill sounded nicer than Mildenhall Road on the side of bags of potatoes.

 

[37 418]

Georgemas Junction, there is no locality of that name. The 2 nearest are Sibster and Clayock.

 

[najaB]

Some of these names (e.g. Kirkstall Forge, St Helens Junction or Georgemas Junction) were perfectly accurate when named. It's not their 'fault' that times have moved on. Though that might be worth it's own thread 'Stations named after things that aren't there any more'.

 

[59CosG95]

Bat and Ball, University (relevant, but not to the fact its Birmingham Uni), The Lakes (not to say there aren't any Lakes near it, but I always thought it was up in the Lake District before I actually checked)

As a student at the aforementioned university I will HAVE to roundly disagree with you.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Earlestown - The station is closer to the centre of Newton-le-Willows than Newton-le-Willows is!

 

[steevp]

I think Amberley is actually in Houghton Bridge

 

[Richard_B]

Bicester Village, Bicester is a town.

Kirkstall Forge, the "forge" closed a long time ago so why not just Kirkstall?

Curriehill, I never understand why when the town is Currie.

St Helens Junction, I don't think it is a junction any more.

Birmingham International, not served by international services.

Sinfin Central was certainly not in the middle of Sinfin.

Burton-on-Trent, such a town named Burton-on-Trent does not exist.

Birmingham international is harsh to critique, with the airport effectively co-located, and the reason behind the naming - and it is definitely an international airport

 

[thenorthern]

London Fields, well I suppose there is a park there.

 

[edwin_m]

Shippea Hill seems to be hitting the headlines, if not attracting passengers, for its lack of use. What puzzles me is why a station in the middle of the Fens should be called anything Hill.

Is there a slight incline, or a little bit of land above sea level, that would count as a hill? Maybe it is just the station platform.

"ea" (or "y" in Ely) is an old ending meaning "island" and indicated a piece of land that was mororless dry in the days when the Fens were marshes, hence an obvious place for settlement. Parts of Manea and Whittlesea for example above the 5m contour on the OS 25000 map (the surrounding land being below sea level), but there is nothing big enough at Shippea Hill to merit a contour. There may be a rise of less than five metres, or as suggested above the fact the name dates from much later may mean no connection to any change in elevation.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Some of these names (e.g. Kirkstall Forge, St Helens Junction or Georgemas Junction) were perfectly accurate when named. It's not their 'fault' that times have moved on. Though that might be worth it's own thread 'Stations named after things that aren't there any more'.

Kirkstall Forge only opened this year, the Forge is long-gone! Georgemas is still a junction...

One mentioned in the OP is Southport, which is neither a port nor in the South, though that's the town name that's anomalous rather than the station.

Neither Canterbury East nor West are significantly further in either direction than the other.

 

[gsnedders]

IBM, perhaps? Though they might still have one or two small offices there, actually, think of it—certainly it's not a private station with no public access nowadays!

 

[najaB]

Georgemas is still a junction...

It's the Georgemas part that is outdated - there used to be a Georgemas festival held there.

 

[Andyjs247]

"ea" (or "y" in Ely) is an old ending meaning "island" and indicated a piece of land that was mororless dry in the days when the Fens were marshes, hence an obvious place for settlement. Parts of Manea and Whittlesea for example above the 5m contour on the OS 25000 map (the surrounding land being below sea level), but there is nothing big enough at Shippea Hill to merit a contour. There may be a rise of less than five metres, or as suggested above the fact the name dates from much later may mean no connection to any change in elevation.

Shippea Hill has always intrigued me. There's certainly no obvious hill there nor any settlement - in fact I believe it could even be below sea level! The land is below even if the level crossing might be around about sea level. A consequence of draining the fens causing the peat to shrink.

 

[AlterEgo]

Birmingham international is harsh to critique, with the airport effectively co-located, and the reason behind the naming - and it is definitely an international airport

Birmingham International Airport was renamed quite a while back to just "Birmingham Airport" for branding reasons.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Neither Canterbury East nor West are significantly further in either direction than the other.

If you go by the location of the station buildings, Canterbury West is a smidgen further West than Canterbury East...though Canterbury North (for West) and South (for East) would be more accurate.

 

[thenorthern]

Oxenholme Lake District, its not within the Lake District National Park.

Penrith The North Lakes, again its not in the Lake District National Park.

Belfast Central, its not most central station in Belfast.

Mill Hill Broadway, North London is not really a place known for acting or musicals.

Birmingham International Airport was renamed quite a while back to just "Birmingham Airport" for branding reasons.

Many airports that retain the word "International" in their title are small ones such as Exeter, Cambridge, Norwich, Kent Manston or whatever it was called, Blackpool and others that I can't think of.

 

[iain-j]

Glenrothes with Thornton is not in Glenrothes and is in the village of Thornton (That originally had a station) so should really be called Thornton for Glenrothes.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Glasshoughton is an odd one: 10 years or so before the station opened, the name "Glasshoughton" was not used for the area now known as such.

 

[urbophile]

Earlestown - The station is closer to the centre of Newton-le-Willows than Newton-le-Willows is!

Not if you mean the High Street, surely. Though what and where Earlestown actually is, is the question.

Clapham Junction is not in Clapham. Just that it sounded posher than Battersea when it was opened.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

It closed in 1983, but Clayton West station may lead you to believe that the station served the West of a settlement called Clayton and/or that there is/was a station called Clayton East. In fact the station is/was fairly central to the village of Clayton West and there was never either a village or station called Clayton East.