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Historic station name changes

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Taunton

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'Road' is another suffix that has been mentioned as either removed, or leading to renamings. One interesting one is Micheldever, originally opened as Andover Road but renamed after the village it is approximately 2.5 miles from. However, after the station opened a small village developed around the station and this village is... Micheldever Station!

Have any other villages (or suburbs) gained their name from a railway station?
Godstone in Surrey, a sizeable village, is nowhere near its station. Subsequently a settlement has grown up around this, which is known as Godstone Station.

Even more convoluted is Livingston in Scotland, where "Livingston Station" was a significant community that developed near the station on the Edinburgh-Bathgate line. Station closed in LNER days, the village remained a significant timing point as such for local bus services. Subsequently the whole Livingston New Town development came, between the Bathgate and the Shotts lines, eventually with a station on each, but not near Livingston Station, where eventually the old miners' cottages which were the core of the settlement were cleared away (no nostalgia here, they were pretty poor buildings even as old mining company houses go), 1980s urban new town development spread over the site, the name was changed to Deans, the bus timetables changed their names, and Livingston Station settlement just faded away.
 

Tester

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'Road' is another suffix that has been mentioned as either removed, or leading to renamings. One interesting one is Micheldever, originally opened as Andover Road but renamed after the village it is approximately 2.5 miles from. However, after the station opened a small village developed around the station and this village is... Micheldever Station!

Have any other villages (or suburbs) gained their name from a railway station?
Tring Station is a locality in the same way as Micheldever. It's actually nearer to Aldbury than Tring.
 

krus_aragon

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Llandudno Junction is another obvious one. The locale was initially known as Tremarl, but hardly anyone even knows about that name anymore.
Though replying myself may be bad form, I've just remembered that the station was briefly renamed Llandudno and Llanrwst Junction after the opening of its second branch line, though that name didn't stick.
 

Rescars

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Tooting was Tooting Junction
Aldrington was originally Dyke Junction Halt
Staines Central was Staines Junction
Purley was Caterham Junction
Redhill was Redhill Junction
Swanley Junction station closed in 1939 replaced with resited present Swanley station
Tonbridge was Tonbridge Junction
Wivelsfield was Keymer Junction
'Road' is another suffix that has been mentioned as either removed, or leading to renamings. One interesting one is Micheldever, originally opened as Andover Road but renamed after the village it is approximately 2.5 miles from. However, after the station opened a small village developed around the station and this village is... Micheldever Station!

Have any other villages (or suburbs) gained their name from a railway station?
Purley, previously Caterham Junction, was originally named Godstone Road. Double whammy?
 

Mcr Warrior

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'Trafford Park and Stretford' station on the CLC line from Manchester to Liverpool via Warrington Central, was renamed 'Trafford Park' in 1974.

Don't think it's ever had a Sunday service, with the possible exception of something operating towards the end of service on a Saturday night.
 

61653 HTAFC

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How many stations have lost the suffix "Junction"?
I can think of two, Waterloo Junction became Waterloo East and Lewisham just dropped Junction.
Feniton has quite the history of name changes including a long spell as Seaton Sidmouth Junction, though it originally opened as Feniton and that's the name it has now... so you could argue that it isn't valid for this thread!

A few others that haven't been mentioned, all on the Penistone line:
Shepley was formerly Shepley & Shelly
Denby Dale used to be Denby Dale & Cumberworth
Silkstone Common was just Silkstone in its previous life.
 
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Furryanimal

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Pontypool Road became Pontypool and is now Pontypool and New Inn.

Newport(South Wales) was once Newport High Street i believe ....
 

Strathclyder

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Dalmuir was known as Dalmuir Park until the late 1970s.
If RailSCOT is accurate, the current station - replacing the original 1858-97 station on the east side of Dumbarton Road on the present-day Singer line - was known as Dalmuir from opening in 1897* to 1952 and from 1973 onwards; it being called Dalmuir Park for the period inbetween the latter two years. The station opened in 1896 by the Lanarkshire & Dumbartonshire Railway was renamed Dalmuir Riverside in 1952, a name it retained until closure in October 1964. Presumably the 1952 name changes were intended to finally put a end to the confusion between the two stations, not that it mattered in the long term with Riverside closing outright just 12 years later.

*: The original 1858-97 station was also called Dalmuir.
 

Pigeon

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'Road' is another suffix that has been mentioned as either removed, or leading to renamings.

It's just been overtaken by linguistic development. The standard euphemistic suffix to denote a station located a useless number of miles from the settlement it has little reason to be named for is now "Parkway". Even though the original instance of that suffix didn't actually mean that, the subsequent ones all did, and to prove it we even have the example of a station near Bodmin where the suffix was directly upgraded without any compatibility problems.

One interesting one is Micheldever, originally opened as Andover Road but renamed after the village it is approximately 2.5 miles from. However, after the station opened a small village developed around the station and this village is... Micheldever Station!

Have any other villages (or suburbs) gained their name from a railway station?

Pretty sure there's now a village called Langwith Junction near the junction which AFAIK wasn't ever actually called Langwith officially.

...Yes, there is: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?x=452500&y=368500&z=120
 

Graham H

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Didnt Newhaven Marine get called Newhaven Harbour for a while and was designated platform 3 even though it really could be considered a separate station ?
 

Ken H

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Didnt Newhaven Marine get called Newhaven Harbour for a while and was designated platform 3 even though it really could be considered a separate station ?
This has it as harbour hotel stn.
 

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Falcon1200

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In Glasgow, what is now Exhibition Centre opened (and closed) as Stobcross, was reopened as Finnieston, but that name only lasted until 1987 !

And Wishaw was formerly Wishaw Central, to distinguish it from the closed Wishaw South, again nothing to do with the GCR.
 

D6130

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Feniton has quite the history of name changes including a long spell as Seaton Junction,
I think you will find it was Sidmouth Junction. Seaton Junction was a good ten miles or so further towards London - between Axminster and Honiton - and it never reopened.
The village of Halwell Junction in Devon named after the station,
Halwill Junction. ;)
 

61653 HTAFC

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I think you will find it was Sidmouth Junction. Seaton Junction was a good ten miles or so further towards London - between Axminster and Honiton - and it never reopened.
Oops! I literally had the wikipedia page open in another tab, and still typed the wrong East Devon resort! :oops:
 

24Grange

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Yes - I was thinking Sidmouth Junction ,when I wrote originally, but typed Seaton Junction!! There is obviously some strange goings on with the space/time continuum between those 2 stations !!
 

Rescars

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Belmont (on the Epsom Downs branch) opened as California, named after the long-established local inn. The story goes that after a lot of misdelived USA-bound freight(!) the station name was changed to Belmont. Later, when the village was developed, it was named Belmont after the station. The pub is still there (despite being bombed in WWII and rebuilt). During a sad interlude around the millennium the pub was renamed Belmonts, but happily it has reverted to its traditional name.
 

Lukeo2311

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In my former local area, Bebington & New Ferry changed simply to Bebington. However geographically the current Liverpool bound platform is located in Bebington and the Chester / Ellesmere Port Platform (former island) is located in New Ferry.
 

Springs Branch

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Have any other villages (or suburbs) gained their name from a railway station?
How many stations have lost the suffix "Junction"?
  • Lostock station used to be Lostock Junction before closure in the 1960s, when it had platforms on both the Wigan and Preston lines.
    Since re-opening in 1988 there have been platforms only on the Preston line and the station has not had a Junction suffix - despite the area it serves being known as Lostock Junction.
  • Walton on Merseyrail used to be named Walton Junction. It still is adjacent to the junction between the Ormskirk and Kirkby lines, but the station was never a junction in the passenger interchange sense (unless you took the short walk to Preston Road/Rice Lane)
  • Loughborough Junction is an area in South London which took its name from the station. (Don't change here for Loughborough though!)
  • Clifton (Manchester) used to be named Clifton Junction until the line towards Bury was closed. The industrial area east of the railway to the River Irwell is shown on OS maps as Clifton Junction, Clifton proper being west of the railway and station.
  • The small settlement immediately around Rainford station is known as Rainford Junction and is separated by roughly a mile from the main Rainford village. A former work colleague lived there and was at pains to point out he lived at "The Junction" and not in Rainford proper - it must be the posh end of town.
  • St Helens Junction is an odd one - the station hasn't been a junction for passenger services since the 1960s, but has not been renamed, even though Shaw Street was. Given the P&R facilities at the Junction, surprising it hasn't been renamed to St Helens South Parkway, or some such.
 

Bevan Price

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St Helens Shaw Street was renamed to St Helens Central in the late 80s
Apparently, it only received nameplates "St. Helens Shaw Street" in 1948, previously having been plain "St.Helens". However, the name Shaw Street had been used in Bradshaw since before 1900.
 

Djgr

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In my former local area, Bebington & New Ferry changed simply to Bebington. However geographically the current Liverpool bound platform is located in Bebington and the Chester / Ellesmere Port Platform (former island) is located in New Ferry.
Ticket office is in Bebington then!
 

didcotdean

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I think Didcot -later renamed Didcot Parkway- was known as Didcot Junction in the very early days of railways; the town didn't exist, it was just a village of 200 or so people, and the station was opened purely to allow interchange with the line to Oxford.

The station is listed as Didcot (Junction) in its early appearances in the Bradshaw Companion, but similarly there is Swindon (Junction) so could just be a descriptor. The GWR did have to build a road from Didcot station to connect with the Wantage turnpike (the present day Station Road and Broadway respectively).
 

davetheguard

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The station is listed as Didcot (Junction) in its early appearances in the Bradshaw Companion, but similarly there is Swindon (Junction) so could just be a descriptor. The GWR did have to build a road from Didcot station to connect with the Wantage turnpike (the present day Station Road and Broadway respectively).

And line the said Station Road with railway built & owned houses.

I hadn't realised the road from Didcot to Wantage was a turnpike - interesting. I wonder what the pre-turnpike route from the ancient towns of Wallingford to Wantage would have been? Via Abingdon? Or way back, via the Ridgeway?
 
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leytongabriel

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Tidying up of the ......and....... station names included Brentwood and Warley to Brentwood although the station is in Warley and Shenfield and Hutton to plain Shenfield. New Southgate and Friern Barnet likewise became New Southgate.

Harringay became Harringay West in BR days and then reverted to Harringay
 
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