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I think this has come up before, but Whittlesey on the Peterborough-March line, the station spells it Whittlesea. However since some other Fenland villages in this region are spelled Manea and Stonea, pronounced 'maney' and 'stoney' respectively, then possibly Whittlesey was spelt this way when the line was built and whereas the local spelling has changed to the more conventional over the years, the railway nameboards being produced centrally and changed by various railway companies and BR over the years will keep to the original spelling.

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Both The Midland and The LM&SR called it Hemel Hempsted.

It was only in BR days that it gained an a.

As for the next station on "the other line", Berko.

When I was at school there I was told that there were 56 valid spellings for the name of the town so that doesn't count.

Bernard

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  • 6 months later...

I remember in the early 80's when estate agents apparently started selling properties in St Reatham in South London. We also have a village near us pronounced as Ushent by the elder generation, not quite as it's spelt Urchfont. As my father had a pub there and plenty of the elder folk frequented it I now pronounce it Ushent too so hopefully it will continue to be so.

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Always Dormansland.  Not only on LT / LCBS destination blinds but on the station in BR green / white enamel and later as NSE and Southern versions.  Roadside signage points to "Dormansland" (always a single word) but while the 1950s-style "running-in" signboard proclaimed DORMANS LAND (on two lines no less) the more recent version has DORMANSLAND on one line.

 

The origin is the estate (i.e. the land) of the Dormans Park Estate thus Dormans' Land would be strictly correct and not Dorman's Land.  

 

Dormans, next door, has always been correctly spelled.

 

There would be many other similar examples.  I am reminded of the Melbourne suburb of Glen Huntly (which Jeff and I are both familiar with) which is always "Glenhuntly" on the railway, on tram destinations and on some maps but is correctly rendered as two words as on most maps and, ironically, in the name of the tram depot which proclaims itself "Glen Huntly Depot" but trams terminating there show the destination "Glenhuntly Depot".

 

 

Urchfont

 

I know this as "Ershent" or "Urshent" as well.

Edited by Gwiwer
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Back in the mid-70s, Corporate Signage (black on white stuff) was still being applied for the first time in places. Boxhill & Westhumble received a full set of signs, unfortunately proclaiming it to be Boxhill & Westhamble. Back they went.

 

I think it was the Regional Public Relations & Publicity office (I think a classmate's dad had formerly been chief there) that was responsible for getting engineering works posters printed when out-of-the-ordinary work was afoot. You might think they'd know the names of the stations on the Region. So it was a bit of a surprise when posters proclaimed that the first station out of Eastbourne on a specially-drawn map was Hampton Park, rather than Hampden Park. Yer can't get the staff! 

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When I was travelling regularly on the GWR main line from Yatton to Paddington, I initially got confused by a stop inbound from Reading which was pronounced 'Sluff' by most of the Guards (as they were in those days) in their announcements - it took a few days to realise that they were referring to the station that I knew as 'Slough' (rhymes with plough).

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When I was travelling regularly on the GWR main line from Yatton to Paddington, I initially got confused by a stop inbound from Reading which was pronounced 'Sluff' by most of the Guards (as they were in those days) in their announcements - it took a few days to realise that they were referring to the station that I knew as 'Slough' (rhymes with plough).

 

"Come friendly bombs and fall on Sluff! It isn't fit for humans now..."

Nah, doesn't work, does it?

 

Edit: punctuation.

Edited by bluebottle
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"Come friendly bombs and fall on Sluff! It isn't fit for humans now..."

Nah, doesn't work, does it?

 

Edit: punctuation.

I thought exactly the same - but you said it first.

 

Years ago we had Welsh neighbours. They insisted that the Marches town of Clun is pronouced "Clean". As it's their language, fair enough - except that when you drive through the place there's a pub called The Sun, with a slogan "The Sun at Clun" presumably pronounced "The Scene at Clean"?

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When I was travelling regularly on the GWR main line from Yatton to Paddington, I initially got confused by a stop inbound from Reading which was pronounced 'Sluff' by most of the Guards (as they were in those days) in their announcements - it took a few days to realise that they were referring to the station that I knew as 'Slough' (rhymes with plough).

 

That would be "plough", pronounced "pluff", then.

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I thought exactly the same - but you said it first.

 

Years ago we had Welsh neighbours. They insisted that the Marches town of Clun is pronouced "Clean". As it's their language, fair enough - except that when you drive through the place there's a pub called The Sun, with a slogan "The Sun at Clun" presumably pronounced "The Scene at Clean"?

 

Sun is an English word so pronounced the English way

 

Clun would be Clwn if pronounced the English "Clun"

 

It's like Sean Bean...

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Isn't Clun in Shropshire, England? A.E.Housman wrote, in A Shropshire Lad:

Clunton and Clunbury,

Clungunford and Clun,

Are the quietest places

Under the sun.

which implies pronunciation the English way.

 

The Welsh for the Shropshire Clun is Colunwy. There is a Clun in Swansea, which in English is Clyne.

 

There are two rivers Clun in the UK, which may be the source of the confusion. One of these rivers is in Shropshire, and it runs through the town of Clun, rhyming with sun. The other river Clun, pronounced Clean, is in Rhondda-Cynon-Taf and Cardiff districts, and flows into the River Ely at Pontyclun (pronounced Pont-a-clean).

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Sandwell and Dudley.

 

Sandwell dosen't exist

There is however a Sandwell Priory in the Sandwell Valley In the Sandwell District.

Admittedly nowhere near the station!

 

Keith

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When I was travelling regularly on the GWR main line from Yatton to Paddington, I initially got confused by a stop inbound from Reading which was pronounced 'Sluff' by most of the Guards (as they were in those days) in their announcements - it took a few days to realise that they were referring to the station that I knew as 'Slough' (rhymes with plough).

 

On more than one occasion I have heard Australian news readers pronounce Reading (Redding) as Reeding! Ahhh, the vagaries of the English language ... and spelling (which brings us back on topic!!) :)

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A question.  As in Bredgar and Wormshill, is "Bredgar" pronounced like "Edgar" (the reprehensible butler in the "Aristocats", or Mr Allan Poe), or to rhyme with "dredger".  (Or some othervway?)

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On more than one occasion I have heard Australian news readers pronounce Reading (Redding) as Reeding! Ahhh, the vagaries of the English language ... and spelling (which brings us back on topic!!) :)

 

Quite understandable. My Uncle Tommy gave me a little atlas as a present when I was learning to read. I found the name "Reading". "Aye, son, there's a university there where they teach you to read. That and writing and 'rithmatic". He was a mine of information, my Uncle Tommy. My teachers had to brainwash me before they could teach me anything. 

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st. monans or st. monance on the closed east of fife line

not so much railway, more a general difference depending on era

 

not really a spelling issue - on the leven line, cameron bridge would seem to be named after the distilleries etc. nearby, despite windygates being the village it served

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not really a spelling issue - on the leven line, cameron bridge would seem to be named after the distilleries etc. nearby, despite windygates being the village it served

But to add to the confusion the whisky produced there goes by the name of Cameron Brig.

Bernard

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