My point was that it's an Od English word we got from Old Germanic (of whatever), rather than an old English person. Going off at a tangent slightly, I can't think of any other --stall places. If there are any, and they're in a valley, that would be... interesting.
Nice try, but you're not having that! Paddington bear was re-named by the Brown family (after the station name) having found him there, and did so as his original Peruvian name was too hard to pronounce!
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "frith" comes from Old English.
"Tal" is German for valley. When a placename ends in "stal", I suspect the S comes from the previous element, as in Joachimstal = Joachim's valley maybe.Kirkstall Forge.
Kirk being Old Norse for 'church' and Stall being Old English for 'place'. Now: you could argue that Old English isn't foreign, but I've been to a place in Austria called Ötztal, the "Ötz valley". Kirkstall is in a valley, so I thing we got 'stal' from them and repurposed it slightly.
That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it
Yes, I'd forgotten about that. I believe it's pronounced 'Hoover' in Flemish (especially by class 50 fanatics!
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Not in the UK, but there was also a Tivoli station in the Irish Republic, on the Cork-Cobh and Youghal lines. The lines are still open - as far as Midleton in the case of the Youghal line - but Tivoli station is long closed, although a maritime freightliner terminal for rail/ship trans-shipment of Bell Line containers operated there until about twenty years ago.
It's quite amazing that I got that wrong when my example clearly backed up what you said!
Just out of interest, how is the Bristol Montpelier pronounced?
According to my brother, who lives in Bristol, it's pronounced 'Mont-peel-yer', but I'm open to correction - especially by the knowledgeable Bristolians on here!
On that basis, Denmark Hill... though "St. Germans" is a bit of a stretch!
However I do wonder whether it's an anglophone mis-spelling of the French city's name....as in Chatelherault above. I believe that there are also areas of Brighton and Cheltenham called Montpelier.
I've only lived in Bristol for 50 years, so I'm not actually a Bristolian by birth, but I have heard it mostly pronounced Mont - pell - i - er.
Not very far from either of us is Heptonstall, which is very definitely NOT in a valley
In my youth the station was ’Meldreth and Melbourn’. I’m afraid I don’t know when it became simply Meldreth.
It's pronounced "Bom-bard-eeay". The parent company, Bombardier Inc , is Canadian and was founded by Joseph-Armand Bombardier (from Québéc). He was the inventor of the snowmobile.
More Old Norse than pure Danish, although by does mean town, village, etc. in Danish.
Another Khyber Pass, this time in Stockport
Correct for Italian but not for Spanish.
