Wolvercot. what's going on?

[Rugd1022]

I'll have a closer look this week as I'll be working 6V25 from Bescot to Hinksey on Monday, Tuesday amd Wednesday

[unravelled]

I managed to take another walk to Aristotle Lane after Christmas, and there is track in the future down slow/loop, as well as the beginnings of pointwork additions to what used to be the up loop. Closer to Oxford not much change in the area of the sidings, though many new trees have been planted near the river channel.

 

http://Aristotle Lane by David Harvey, on Flickr

 

 

For the first time I actually made it to Wolvercote, where the connection to the Down line is in place.

 

http://Wolvercote by David Harvey, on Flickr

 

 

Complete set of picturees at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/unravelled/albums/72157662881635111

 

THanks

 

Dave

[Shed]

How's this coming along? No updates for a while

[Pacific231G]

Small point of information but why are there so many references to Wovercot in this thread?  In the last years of steam around Oxford I used to regularly visit the former level crossing there and I'm sure that it, the village, paper mill,  and even the tunnel have always been Wolvercote. 

[ess1uk]

Small point of information but why are there so many references to Wovercot in this thread?  In the last years of steam around Oxford I used to regularly visit the former level crossing there and I'm sure that it, the village, paper mill,  and even the tunnel have always been Wolvercote.

 

The village is Wolvercote but the junction is Wolvercot Jn

[Pacific231G]

The village is Wolvercote but the junction is Wolvercot Jn

Interesting. I've done a bit more delving and the signal box plate WAS  Wolvercot Junction. In fact it seems the GWR misspelt Wolvercote very consistently with Wolvercot Junction, Wolvercot Siding and a halt called Wolvercot Platform. The LNWR did get the spelling right; the tunnel plate clearly says Wolvercote Tunnel (though Cooke's GW Atlas does call it Wolvercot Tunnel) and their own halt, alongside the First Turn Wolvercote bridge, was also called Wolvercote Halt.

 

Wiki claims that the GWR spelt their halt Wolvercot Platform to distinguish it from the LNWR's Wolvercote Halt but I respectfully suggest that to be rubbish as Wolvercot Platform only existed between 1908 and 1916 and Wolvercot  Junction was referred to in a (very unfavourable) railway inspector's report in 1853

 

I did wonder whether Wolvercot might have been an archaic local spellling but the nearby canal junction is Wolvercote Junction and in the Domesday Book Wolvercote was Ulfgarcote so ths seems unlikely. More likely the odd spelling was just the GWR demonstrating its ignorance. (Perhaps it's not surprising that the University kept the GWR so far from any of its colleges, a lot further than the canal basin)

.

I understand there are a number of other places where the railway's name for a place is different from the real one

Edited October 7, 2016 by Pacific231G

[Andy Kirkham]

.

I understand there are a number of other places where the railway's name for a place is different from the real one

 

Penwithers Junction (Truro) is near a place called Penweathers

[The Stationmaster]

Interesting. I've done a bit more delving and the signal box plate WAS  Wolvercot Junction. In fact it seems the GWR misspelt Wolvercote very consistently with Wolvercot Junction, Wolvercot Siding and a halt called Wolvercot Platform. The LNWR did get the spelling right; the tunnel plate clearly says Wolvercote Tunnel (though Cooke's GW Atlas does call it Wolvercot Tunnel) and their own halt, alongside the First Turn Wolvercote bridge, was also called Wolvercote Halt.

 

Wiki claims that the GWR spelt their halt Wolvercot Platform to distinguish it from the LNWR's Wolvercote Halt but I respectfully suggest that to be rubbish as Wolvercot Platform only existed between 1908 and 1916 and Wolvercot  Junction was referred to in a (very unfavourable) railway inspector's report in 1853

 

I did wonder whether Wolvercot might have been an archaic local spellling but the nearby canal junction is Wolvercote Junction and in the Domesday Book Wolvercote was Ulfgarcote so ths seems unlikely. More likely the odd spelling was just the GWR demonstrating its ignorance. (Perhaps it's not surprising that the University kept the GWR so far from any of its colleges, a lot further than the canal basin)

.

I understand there are a number of other places where the railway's name for a place is different from the real one

 

The GWR seems to have made a habit of misspelling (or using an alternative spelling for) place names.

[dvdlcs]

The GWR seems to have made a habit of misspelling (or using an alternative spelling for) place names.

 

Hello.

 

I had read, although this may be apocryphal, that some of the early GWR locomotives had 'unusual' spellings on the nameplates as the instructions were given verbally to possibly illiterate tradespeople that were doing the work.

 

Perhaps the same arrangement happened with the sign writers that created the name boards for stations, signal boxes etc.

[The Stationmaster]

Hello.

 

I had read, although this may be apocryphal, that some of the early GWR locomotives had 'unusual' spellings on the nameplates as the instructions were given verbally to possibly illiterate tradespeople that were doing the work.

 

Perhaps the same arrangement happened with the sign writers that created the name boards for stations, signal boxes etc.

 

I think with place names it was more a matter of there being different spellings or simply errors when names were recorded on plans.  Signalboxes were however a different matter as even in the 1980s i was coming across the S&T using a name for a signalbox which was slightly different from that used by the operating dept although on every scheme I was involved in the names were always agreed with Scheme Development in the S&T Dept and went onto their drawings which were used for design.  However on one occasion because I was still puzzling over a suitable name for a location and had simply called it 'Funny Name Junction' up to that point an official S&T drawing duly appeared with the location named as 'Funny Name Junction' which led to some bemused faces.  Even more fun ensued subsequently because I followed a typical GWR tactic of naming it after something it was nowhere near but was the junction for which caused confusion for road vehicles drivers making deliveries to site as it was the junction for a place on the opposite side of a river with no immediately obvious crossing between it and that place.

[Pacific231G]

The GWR seems to have made a habit of misspelling (or using an alternative spelling for) place names.

I think that can be shewn to be true.

I have though found a couple of other references to Wolvercot, in  an 1808  book "A New and Accurate Description of All the Direct and Principal Cross Roads in England and Wales" and in a reference in the London Gazette in November 1923 to an act to allow the extension of Oxford Electricity's network.

 

There are a few similar examples in that part of the country. Aynho was Aynho in the Domesday book, at some point gained an e to become Aynhoe, then reverted to its original spellling, which was used by GWR for its two stations south of the junction between the lines from Oxford and from Princes Risborough. Slightly surprising that the GWR didn't use Aynhoe as the local country house, Aynhoe Park, still had the extra e and the GWR were never shy of sucking up to the landed gentry. .

Edited October 8, 2016 by Pacific231G

[ess1uk]

First trains from Oxford to Marylebone on December 12th on the newly renovated line.

[BRX]

Found this thread after I had become curious about what's going on near Wolvercot(e) following a visit to family there at the weekend (I also took a trip along the newly opened Parkway-Oxford section).

 

On Sunday they had the down line (ie the main one) up and seemed to be relaying it - this somewhat to the north of Wolvercote. The down loop has a chunk missing from it (roughly opposite Wolvercote green where the pub is) and I was wondering why. I was also wondering why it was laid with a gap between it and the other 3 lines, but reading this thread it seems that's just because what the old alignment was (for unknown reasons)?

[Christopher125]

Found this thread after I had become curious about what's going on near Wolvercot(e) following a visit to family there at the weekend (I also took a trip along the newly opened Parkway-Oxford section).

 

On Sunday they had the down line (ie the main one) up and seemed to be relaying it - this somewhat to the north of Wolvercote. The down loop has a chunk missing from it (roughly opposite Wolvercote green where the pub is) and I was wondering why. I was also wondering why it was laid with a gap between it and the other 3 lines, but reading this thread it seems that's just because what the old alignment was (for unknown reasons)?

 

Oxford North Junction is currently incomplete, IIRC the final track layout is awaiting the resignalling when everything will be connected up.

[Rugd1022]

Oxford North Junction is currently incomplete, IIRC the final track layout is awaiting the resignalling when everything will be connected up.

 

There's the small matter of demolishing the red brick structure seen in unravelled's post #52 before the final piece of the puzzle can be slotted into place, it was still there last week when I went past with 6V25 Bescot - Hinksey tripper. The area off to the right of the photo is now fenced off too.

[bodmin16]

There's the small matter of demolishing the red brick structure seen in unravelled's post #52 before the final piece of the puzzle can be slotted into place, it was still there last week when I went past with 6V25 Bescot - Hinksey tripper. The area off to the right of the photo is now fenced off too.

Re the area now fenced is to become a car park for the allotment holders, who now access the allotments over the bridge following the closure of the foot crossing which was for their exclusive use. The area that was previously used for their parking will become part of an extension to the playing field for the adjacent primary school. You may also notice that the TSR on the down which was in situ for the crossing has now been removed.

[Rugd1022]

Re the area now fenced is to become a car park for the allotment holders, who now access the allotments over the bridge following the closure of the foot crossing which was for their exclusive use. The area that was previously used for their parking will become part of an extension to the playing field for the adjacent primary school. You may also notice that the TSR on the down which was in situ for the crossing has now been removed.

 

Thanks Bodmin. The area immediately north of Oxford from Portmeadow to Wolvercot Jcn is a bit of a no man's land as the distance between signals is very large compared to other areas. Coming off the down goods out onto the main at Portmeadow with a single yellow, once clear of the 25mph pointwork you can apply full power and still be able to stop at Wolvercot if OX30 signal is still at danger. You get a good early view of this signal just as you pass the little footbridge which currently sits over the stream between the down main and 'new' down loop, if it's showing green you keep the power on but there's still room enough to stop if you need to. 

[brian daniels]

Wonder if I will ever drive up there again as I have signed off north of Hinksey about a year now so haven't seen any of the work going on for the Bicester line junction. Must get down the station and see the new bay platforms as I had not seen any of that work being done either.

[Rugd1022]

You're in for a bit of a shock then mate...!

[rockershovel]

Penwithers Junction (Truro) is near a place called Penweathers

Nothing to do with the GWR, but Alwalton (on the outskirts of Peterborough) is variously pronounced "All-ton" or "Al-wal-ton". The river in Peterborough is pronounced "Neen" but Northamptonshire folk refer to the maze of sources and tributaries West of Thrapston as the "Nen" and the spellings appear to have differed in the past.

 

The pronounciation of Oundle appears to be more a matter of opinion than fact, as indeed does the spelling on some of my post, although the local roadsigns seem clear enough.

[big jim]

Wonder if I will ever drive up there again as I have signed off north of Hinksey about a year now so haven't seen any of the work going on for the Bicester line junction. Must get down the station and see the new bay platforms as I had not seen any of that work being done either.

i only signed it under the old guise as far as water eaton, similarly the bicester end i only did aylesbury-claydon-bicester town, ive yet to see the completed line through islip etc or indeed get a chance to learn it (and up onto the chilterns) as there are enough 'local' drivers who sign it now compared to just me when colas first started to take the infrastructure trains in

 

i should be doing an OOC to hinksey on boxing day via the chilterns and ive got to go via banbury to change ends with it because of the missing route knowledge across the renewed line which is a bit of a pain!

[unravelled]

I went back to Aristotle lane today to look at progress. At least the new bridge is open, so photographs are again possible, but virtually no changes to the track since last year. I'll put the pictures on Flickr when I get home, but here are a couple for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The small span on the ballast will link the Port Meadow side ramp to the allotments. The new bridge is higher than the old, and a single span. The ramps have been raised to match, and there is much visible plastic and geotextile holding it together.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

 

 

[rogerzilla]

Hello.

 

I had read, although this may be apocryphal, that some of the early GWR locomotives had 'unusual' spellings on the nameplates as the instructions were given verbally to possibly illiterate tradespeople that were doing the work.

 

Perhaps the same arrangement happened with the sign writers that created the name boards for stations, signal boxes etc.

LTC Rolt told that story in "Red For Danger", the example he gave being "Goliah", one of the broad gauge engines.  Swindon education hasn't improved much since, if you believe the latest damning Ofsted report!

[ejstubbs]

Small point of information but why are there so many references to Wovercot in this thread?  In the last years of steam around Oxford I used to regularly visit the former level crossing there and I'm sure that it, the village, paper mill,  and even the tunnel have always been Wolvercote. 

 

Looking at old-maps.co.uk, the Ordnance Survey have the village shown as "Woolvercot" on the 1876 1:2,500 map.  On the 1899 1:2,500 map it's "Wolvercot", and it stays that way up to and including the 1938-1946 1:10,560 map.  It doesn't become "Wolvercote" until the 1955-1961 1:10,560 plan.

 

That's not to say that the OS is the definitive source for place names - in fact they have a reasonably well-documented track record of getting certain ones wrong - but that does suggest that it's not just a GWR thing.  It's also possible that the accepted spelling did change over time, though whether that was with or without influence from 'authoritative' sources such as the GWR and the OS can probably only be confirmed by more thorough research.

 

According to Wiki, the place was recorded as "Ulfgarcote" in the Domesday Book, which at the time was definitive because the King said so!  (Wiki also says that it was "Wolvercote" by 1185.  I'd say that assertion may be somewhat questionable, though: that would be only 100 years after Domesday Book, and I think it's unlikely that most English words had standardised spellings at that point.  After all, The Canterbury Tales was written two hundred years later than that and in its original form it is pretty much illegible to most modern readers of English.  I suspect that it's possible that there is a record of it being called "Wolvercote" in 1185, but that does not mean that the name wasn't commonly rendered in a number of other ways between then and the nineteenth century.)

Edited January 2, 2017 by ejstubbs

[unravelled]

Full set of recent pictures:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/unravelled/sets/72157640351020075

 

Thanks

 

Dave