Trivia: Most ridiculously named station in UK

[Bob M]

Mitcham Eastfields
Acton Main Line - trains don't go further than Hayes, and you might as well call every mainline station that way - Raynes Park Mainline.
Tattenham Corner?
South Greenford - to the east of G
Micheldever - nowhere near M, 6km away, might as well Parkwayify it (A303). The area around it is called "M.. Station"
Upwey - no excuse for this ridiculous name
And don't get me started on East London stns - Maze Hill, Seven Kings, Waterloo East, even Luffboro Jcn which has no relevance to the area. Bristol Parkway should be called Stoke Gifford.

Why is Upwey ridiculous? The station is at a place called Upwey. Wey is a very old pre-Celtic word for a river, and Upwey is up from Weymouth. The prefix Up is common in this part of the world: there is Uploders, Uplyme, Upcerne....

 

[jhy44]

'University' in Birmingham. There are many universities in the UK, in fact there are 4 in Birmingham alone. It's especially ridiculous considering CrossCountry trains stop at the station which serve other cities which contain Universities too.

'Birmingham University' would be a much more appropriate title, or 'Edgbaston South' if that is deemed to still be too unclear.

 

[Boysteve]

Shame we are only looking in the UK;
https://map.search.ch/Bern-Wankdorf-Station-Stop

 

[Kneedown]

Saint Mary's Church In The Hollow Of The White Hazel Near A Rapid Whirlpool And The Church Of St. Tysilio Of The Red Cave Parkway

Change here for Pringles!

 

[Scotrail84]

Edinburgh Gateway, its not Edinburgh as such and its certainly not a gateway...

 

[dk1]

Shippea Hill in the fens such a flat low level landscape no such thing as hills

Named after a local farm apparently. The Hill was used in its name as potatoes grown higher where deemed to be better back in the day.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Shame we are only looking in the UK;
https://map.search.ch/Bern-Wankdorf-Station-Stop

See also Hell, Norway.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Station

 

[roversfan2001]

Be nice if station names were truthful....
Bolton Are You Sure?
Westhoughton 1971
Clifton Nothing To See Here
Dent It's Miles From The Village
Arnside The Water's Dangerous
Grange-Over-65
Moses Gate Really?
etc....

Chorley (alight at your own risk)
Teesside (sort-of near the) Airport

 

[roversfan2001]

Shame we are only looking in the UK;
https://map.search.ch/Bern-Wankdorf-Station-Stop

Is that anywhere near the Wankdorf Stadium, where BSC Young Boys used to play?

 

[SWTrainspottin]

Stations on the Marston Vale Line seem to have weird names. Aspley Guise, Fenny Stratford, Woburn Sands, etc...

Also there's Bat & Ball, who names a station that?

 

[CeeJ]

Saint Mary's Church In The Hollow Of The White Hazel Near A Rapid Whirlpool And The Church Of St. Tysilio Of The Red Cave Parkway

This train terminates at...Middletown.

 

[sw1ller]

Hope.

 

[dgl]

Why is Upwey ridiculous? The station is at a place called Upwey. Wey is a very old pre-Celtic word for a river, and Upwey is up from Weymouth. The prefix Up is common in this part of the world: there is Uploders, Uplyme, Upcerne....

It's technically in broadwey though.

 

[Statto]

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

English translation, which will take length of the time the train stops there to say it.

 

[PR1Berske]

'University' in Birmingham. There are many universities in the UK, in fact there are 4 in Birmingham alone. It's especially ridiculous considering CrossCountry trains stop at the station which serve other cities which contain Universities too.

'Birmingham University' would be a much more appropriate title, or 'Edgbaston South' if that is deemed to still be too unclear.

Seconded. Never made sense to me how a railway station was given such a generic name. Surely the University itself would prefer its name included?

 

[PR1Berske]

Nelson – not just the station but the whole town – is named after the Lord Nelson pub. And there is Old Roan station in Liverpool, next door to the eponymous (but last time I looked, closed) pub.
This could be a whole new thread.

Old Roan is very much closed. Think it's very much dilapidated.

 

[lejog]

There's some information about Shippea Hill on this page.

It says that it was renamed from Mildenhall Road to Burnt Fen in 1885 when the line to Mildenhall opened. It was renamed Shippea Hill in 1905. The page quotes the reason you gave, but doesn't say if it's true or not. There may not be anything left now which says why the change was made, only that it was made.

The Mildenhall line closed in 1962, and it says Shippea Hill was used by people going to and from RAF Mildenhall until the 1980s. It doesn't say what happened after that, but there's not much chance of a reversal in the station's fortunes with the base scheduled to close in 2023.

"Lyndhurst Road" seems like quite an ambiguous name to me. It's only about a mile nearer to Lyndhurst than Beaulieu Road is, as the railway takes a big detour around Lyndhurst.

Named after a local farm apparently. The Hill was used in its name as potatoes grown higher where deemed to be better back in the day.

How many times does this nonsense about potatoes have to be mentioned on this thread? At least three now. As I posted before Burnt Fen was renamed Shippea Hill in 1905 when a branch line was built to the nearby Shippea Hil factory, which was itself built on the land of Shippea Hill farm, which stood on a "hill" above the 0m contour. Here (hopefully, you may have to cursor around a little) is an old OS map showing the factory as a chicory and herb drying factory, dried chicory being a coffee substitute. The factory (and farm?) belonged to Chivers family, best known for a jam factory in Histon, but also major land owners in the region. The nearby level crossing is still known as Chivers crossing.

The article kieron mentions is interesting as it states that as well there being a Shrub Hill tramway nearby, there was a Shrub Hill station at the junction. So the next station to Shippea Hill (then Mildenhall Rd) was ..... another hill!

 

[dk1]

How many times does this nonsense about potatoes have to be mentioned on this thread? At least three now. As I posted before Burnt Fen was renamed Shippea Hill in 1905 when a branch line was built to the nearby Shippea Hil factory, which was itself built on the land of Shippea Hill farm, which stood on a "hill" above the 0m contour. Here (hopefully, you may have to cursor around a little) is an old OS map showing the factory as a chicory and herb drying factory, dried chicory being a coffee substitute. The factory (and farm?) belonged to Chivers family, best known for a jam factory in Histon, but also major land owners in the region. The nearby level crossing is still known as Chivers crossing.

Just what I've been told over the years by so many riding in my cab. Didn't know it had been posted a staggering 3 times as so many pages I couldn't be arsed to read them all

 

[DelW]

'University' in Birmingham. There are many universities in the UK, in fact there are 4 in Birmingham alone. It's especially ridiculous considering CrossCountry trains stop at the station which serve other cities which contain Universities too.

'Birmingham University' would be a much more appropriate title, or 'Edgbaston South' if that is deemed to still be too unclear.

Seconded. Never made sense to me how a railway station was given such a generic name. Surely the University itself would prefer its name included?

There is at least one other station with a generic name where you're just expected to know which city it's in, "Exhibition Centre" in Glasgow being an example that comes to mind.

 

[AM9]

See also Hell, Norway.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Station

Imagine asking for a return ticket to there.

 

[Mag_seven]

See also Hell, Norway.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Station

I've been there.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

If we were to extend the question to tram networks, how about Halfway on the Sheffield Supertram, not least because it's a terminus!

 

[lejog]

Just what I've been told over the years by so many riding in my cab. Didn't know it had been posted a staggering 3 times as so many pages I couldn't be arsed to read them all

Can I recommend the search this thread option on the search function. And the next time you're told this wibble about potatoes, ask if the bricks from Shrub Hill were better for being produced at a great height

 

[dk1]

Can I recommend the search this thread option on the search function. And the next time you're told this wibble about potatoes, ask if the bricks from Shrub Hill were better for being produced at a great height

So I take it Jam wasn't produced at the AHBs just before Shippea either then? Driving trains is a boring task & the mind tends to wander

 

[markindurham]

See also Hell, Norway.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Station

There was a station at Paradis in Norway too, at one time...now there would be a good old return ticket to have as a collectible!

 

[Julia]

How many times does this nonsense about potatoes have to be mentioned on this thread? At least three now. As I posted before Burnt Fen was renamed Shippea Hill in 1905 when a branch line was built to the nearby Shippea Hil factory, which was itself built on the land of Shippea Hill farm, which stood on a "hill" above the 0m contour.

It's barely recognisable as a hill, or course, but the name Shippea (like Manea, Stonea, Ely, and others in the area) comes from it having been an island prior to the Fens being drained. The "summit" may not even be in the same place, given that the land has shifted and shrunk as it's dried out over the years. http://www.greatfen.org.uk/holme-fen-posts

 

[backontrack]

Corkickle has a nice ring to it.

 

[snowball]

Can I recommend the search this thread option on the search function.

I thought that went away when the board was moved to new software recently. If it's still available, I haven't found it.

 

[xotGD]

'University' in Birmingham. There are many universities in the UK, in fact there are 4 in Birmingham alone. It's especially ridiculous considering CrossCountry trains stop at the station which serve other cities which contain Universities too.

'Birmingham University' would be a much more appropriate title, or 'Edgbaston South' if that is deemed to still be too unclear.

I used to ask for a ticket to "University station, Birmingham" when I was a student.

 

[DarloRich]

Grindleford, Bootle, Dinsdale, Uphall and Alnmouth all stations named after small places but are located in or nearest to another place.

Alnmouth station is located in Alnmouth

Dinsdale was named for the nearby Dinsdale Spa

Milton Keynes Central - because there is no other Milton Keynes anything.

The other four do not have the name "Milton Keynes" in them.

There was, I think, a plan to rename the 4 other MK stations to something similar to MK South/North etc. It never happened. MKC central is, however the central station for the town.

Bletchley has been called Bletchley long before Milton Keynes ever existed.

Correct. Unsure of your point?