Staines-upon-Thames

[Oracle]

Harlesden was born three months ten days before me! And evidently a few miles along the Thames ...me literally on the north bank of the river in Hampton-on-Thames [aka Teddington (-on-Thames)], and he in Staines-on-Thames...both in the county of the Middle Saxons. I agree it's darn ridiculous to spend all that money, provided by local taxpayers and for what?

Hearing the crud about residents trying to 'snob up' their locality reminds me of what I thought was a joke at the time, but now I am not si sure...residents of Crouch End, once upoin a time served by an ex-LNER station on the Northern Heights, were actualky suggesting that it should be pronounced to rhyme with 'crouton', i.e. 'crew-shon'!

 

[Eagle]

Hearing the crud about residents trying to 'snob up' their locality reminds me of what I thought was a joke at the time, but now I am not si sure...residents of Crouch End, once upoin a time served by an ex-LNER station on the Northern Heights, were actualky suggesting that it should be pronounced to rhyme with 'crouton', i.e. 'crew-shon'!

That sounds like the perennial argument over how to spell Stivichall (which is the official version that the council and the OS use) or Styvechale (which residents prefer on account of it looking more upmarket). Road signs, made by the council, all use the official spelling, but NXCov buses decide not to tempt fate and do not mention the suburb anywhere on their destination blinds and use Fenside instead...

By the way, Stivichall is pronounced STY-chul, no matter how you spell it.

 

[Oracle]

...and Romsey is 'Rom-Zee' and not 'Rum-Zee'! Romsey being a lovely topwn on the River Test in the Test Valley in Hampshire, with a railway station that has seen better days.

 

[Hydro]

"It's not Bucket, it's pronounced BOO-KAY!"

 

[Oracle]

"It was Bucket before we were married, and it's Bucket still!"

Still not sure whether St. Denys, Southampton is correctly 'Saint Dennis' or 'Saint Denise'! Regrettably it is still a problem area for youths, drinking and fighting even so.

 

[Schnellzug]

As it says in Wikky Pedia, The area is named after the 12th century St. Denys Priory, which never particularly thrived and of which now there is extremely little remaining. Doesn't sound much of a claim to fame, does it.

Similarly, what about Bevois Valley? It comes, of course, from the famous legendary hero Bevis of Hampton, as we know, so is it "Bevis" as in, er, Butthead, or as in le francais?

 

[Eagle]

It is "Beavis" and "Saint Dennis".

Belvoir, however, in Leicestershire, is "Beaver".

 

[SWT_USER]

Maybe they should try Feltham-upon-Crane. They've got nothing to lose in that area I don't think it can get much worse.

 

[Ivo]

I have resurrected this thread to advise you all that today is the day that Staines as an entity will be consigned to the history books. A formal ceremony will be held in the town's Memorial Gardens between the hours of 1100 and 1900, and will cover a large range of events in addition to the town's renaming.

As such, by the end of today (Sunday 20th May 2012) the town shall officially be known as Staines-upon-Thames.

 

[Temple Meads]

"It was Bucket before we were married, and it's Bucket still!"

Still not sure whether St. Denys, Southampton is correctly 'Saint Dennis' or 'Saint Denise'! Regrettably it is still a problem area for youths, drinking and fighting even so.

I generally pronounce it "Saint Denniz"...

 

[Eagle]

I generally pronounce it "Saint Denniz"...

With a 'z' is wrong.

 

[Temple Meads]

I blame the automated woman on SWT Desiro's :P

I could swear she pronounces it "Saint Denniz"!

 

[Eagle]

I could swear she pronounces it "Saint Denniz"!

She also says "Boyrnemouth" and "Poyrtsmouth".

 

[starrymarkb]

And yet no one was saying it was pointless when Royal Wootton Bassett extended its name last year...

Me, because since they changed it locations there don't fit in the boxes in the work system... Plus they changed it but not Royal Tunbridge Wells or Royal Leamington Spa (or indeed fix any of the other inaccurate data that is more pressing - like the Somerset town that is completely missing!)

I suspect they were afraid of media backlash if they didn't change it with all the armed forces hero worship that is the rage at the moment*...

*I have nothing against the forces, but speak to them and they don't want to be worshipped, just left to get on with it and supported if they fall!

 

[Ivo]

The Wiki article, which had the title "Staines" when I made the "resurrection" post at 0158, now bears the name "Staines-upon-Thames".

 

[Eagle]

Took a while... :P

13:08, 20 May 2012‎ Timrollpickering (talk | contribs)‎ m . . (20,134 bytes) (0)‎ . . (Timrollpickering moved page Staines to Staines-upon-Thames over redirect: Town's name has been changed) (undo)

 

[ChristopherJ]

Just to add insult to injury, I think it would of been a great idea to twin the newly renamed town with the Republic of Wadiya!

Puts the fear of god in to me that Sacha Baron Cohen can cause all this trouble. Knowing him he'll get us in to WW3...

 

[4SRKT]

It is really rather fortunate that Staines lies on the River Thames and not on the River Pant in Essex.........

 

[Eagle]

It is really rather fortunate that Staines lies on the River Thames and not on the River Pant in Essex.........

Or in Caithness...

 

[Bedpan]

What an entirely pointless exercise. Well, perhaps not entirely pointless as it makes Staines seem more ridiculous than it was was previously.

I've been looking at towns and villages along the Thames from London to its source and in virtually every case an "On Thames" or "Upon Thames" suffix has been used to distinguish a place on the river with a place with the same name somewhere else, eg Richmond (N Yorks), Kingston (Kingston Upon Hull and many villages around the country) Walton (Walton on the Hill, Walton Liverpool etc).

There are only two exceptions other than Staines, namely Sunbury and Lechlade. I think Sunbury might be excused as it sounds a bit like Sudbury (Suffolk, Derbyshire and and West London) but I don't know about Lechlade, maybe that has done a Staines.

Now......I wonder what the name Staines could be confused with????

I also think referring to a place as "Upon" rather than "On" is a bit supercilious, why use four letters when two will do?

 

[Eagle]

I also think referring to a place as "Upon" rather than "On" is a bit supercilious, why use four letters when two will do?

"Upon" does seem to be the more common of the two, though.

An interesting one is Stratford-upon-Avon (which has been so named for centuries). The district named after it, created in 1974, is called Stratford-on-Avon. This was actually deliberate, so that the town council and district council could be easily distinguished without having to add TC or DC at the end at every mention.

 

[W-on-Sea]

I've been looking at towns and villages along the Thames from London to its source and in virtually every case an "On Thames" or "Upon Thames" suffix has been used to distinguish a place on the river with a place with the same name somewhere else, eg Richmond (N Yorks), Kingston (Kingston Upon Hull and many villages around the country) Walton (Walton on the Hill, Walton Liverpool etc).

There are only two exceptions other than Staines, namely Sunbury and Lechlade. I think Sunbury might be excused as it sounds a bit like Sudbury (Suffolk, Derbyshire and and West London) but I don't know about Lechlade, maybe that has done a Staines. ?

Not forgetting Abingdon-on-Thames, which renamed itself thus earlier this year. So, in fact, Staines has "done an Abingdon"

One oddity: Leigh-on-Sea: in decades (centuries???) past this was known (no less accurately) as "Leigh-on-Thames"

 

[Ivo]

One oddity: Leigh-on-Sea: in decades (centuries???) past this was known (no less accurately) as "Leigh-on-Thames"

hock:

I never knew that. I guess merging with Southend-on-Sea (and Westcliff-on-Sea) would have created a bit of an anomaly itself if the three settlements together and only three miles apart went "-on-Thames"; "-on-Sea"; "-on-Sea" - why not all the same? As far as being a tourism hotspot goes, "-on-Sea" would be more appealing than "-on-Thames" given its seaside resort status, which may explain the choice?

 

[soil]

I think Semen Staines would be better.

 

[LE Greys]

hock:

I never knew that. I guess merging with Southend-on-Sea (and Westcliff-on-Sea) would have created a bit of an anomaly itself if the three settlements together and only three miles apart went "-on-Thames"; "-on-Sea"; "-on-Sea" - why not all the same? As far as being a tourism hotspot goes, "-on-Sea" would be more appealing than "-on-Thames" given its seaside resort status, which may explain the choice?

Wells, for no apparent reason, changed from -on-Sea to -Next-the-Sea. It's pretty much 'on sea' though.

As for Staines, I think the Thames is stained enough already.

 

[W-on-Sea]

hock:

I never knew that. I guess merging with Southend-on-Sea (and Westcliff-on-Sea) would have created a bit of an anomaly itself if the three settlements together and only three miles apart went "-on-Thames"; "-on-Sea"; "-on-Sea" - why not all the same? As far as being a tourism hotspot goes, "-on-Sea" would be more appealing than "-on-Thames" given its seaside resort status, which may explain the choice?

Well, Westcliff and Southend are, in their present forms, both far more recent settlements than Leigh (Southend being so named, as I daresay you know, because it was the south end of the more established village of Prittlewell). I'm not really sure when "on-Thames" fell out of favour, but the influence of Westcliff and Southend's suffix would surely have played a part

.... there's an art gallery/general toy and games store in an old warehouse on the High Street in Old Leigh that will happily sell you a print (or would, the last time I was there, anyway) of a painting of a Southend Corporation bus, of, I guess the 1950s, showing "Leigh-on-Thames" as its destination - so, if that is an accurate representation, seemingly the name was still in use relatively recently....

Anyway - as unpleasant places with unpleasant-sounding names, located in the Thames and that could do with a facelift/image-boost go,I can think of somewhere in far more dire straits than Staines: Grays-on-Thames, anyone?

 

[Schnellzug]

Anyway - as unpleasant places with unpleasant-sounding names, located in the Thames and that could do with a facelift/image-boost go,I can think of somewhere in far more dire straits than Staines: Grays-on-Thames, anyone?

Or they could go the other way and thoroughly embrace the prosaic, like my favourite station name, Mudchute.

 

[Eagle]

Or they could go the other way and thoroughly embrace the prosaic, like my favourite station name, Mudchute.

Although of course, it is impossible to be more prosaic than the hamlet of Shіtterton, Bere Regis, Dorset; its name means exactly what you think it means...

 

[W-on-Sea]

Although of course, it is impossible to be more prosaic than the hamlet of Shіtterton, Bere Regis, Dorset; its name means exactly what you think it means...

Hmm, and not so far away from this river, either
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=pu...=ZJRriNABmprIMNsoy7L4fw&cbp=12,354.42,,1,5.15

Clearly a plain-speaking part of the country

 

[Eagle]

Hmm, and not so far away from this river, either
Map

Quite a common river name actually. It's a Saxon word for "stream", which seems to have developed a few more unsavoury connotations of late.