Great Western Coffee Shop

I trust that nobody from this forum would be such a naughty little Hobbit as to do this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-43459598 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-43459598)

 ;D

I thought it was Didcot-in-the-mire. Or was I thinking of another word ?. Either way it has to be a candidate for the most boring town in England. One redeeming (perhaps the only one) feature is of course, the Didcot Railway Centre.

Perhaps not the only redeeming feature: there's the view of the Remaining Iconic Cooling Towers (best seen from either a passing train or the top of the Downs), and the Wittenham Clumps.

As for the sign, I'm sure it's a story that first surfaced some time ago. Possibly it's meant to indicate the Daily Mail distribution centre and its relationship with reality.  :o

They did try and get the name changed to Didcot-on-Thames (to put the house prices up?), but it was rather a long way from the Thames. I always thought there was an opportunity, with the Daily Mail printing works and the power station being so close, for an alternative fuel for the power station.

It was Abingdon which added the on Thames bit. Don't know anyone who uses it apart from the Town Council.

The authority campaign in Didcot was to remove Parkway from the station name. Told it would be too expensive. Somehow it wasn't too expensive to rename Bicester Town to Bicester Village, but I digress.

Didcot of course was assessed to be the most normal place in England. Whether this is a good or a bad thing I'm not really sure :)

I wonder what strange science they use to measure normality?

I thought it was Staines sorry I mean Staines upon Thames (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staines-upon-Thames) but I see that Abingdon - sorry Abingdon-on-Thames (http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/headlines/9551306.It_s_all_change_at_Abingdon_on_Thames/) also did it in 2012

Quite a bit of effort has gone into this to replicate the font.

Typical would be more accurate I suppose. Some research firm crunched the numbers and Didcot closely resembled the statistical “median” for a number of factors, such as age distribution, ethnicity, employment type and political engagement. Although IIRC seemed when dug into that they had only analysed a few streets in the centre (more or less the Northbourne district).

Most of the names were added on Friday according to people claiming to have spotted a man doing it. He was wearing hi vis, so went unchallenged :)

Anyone know when Kingston, the one near Twickenham, got its '-on-Thames'.

https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/k-type/transport-new/
Also available as a free download somewhere or other.

Kingston is one of the older ones, though of course it is (as befits a Royal Borough) upon Thames.

Staines is certainly a newcomer to the upon Thames set, consciously not choosing to be -on-Thames like Henley, Walton, or Whitchurch. Sunbury seems to be a part timer, and some places have lost their (up)onThamesness.

Looking at an OS 1 inch map sheet 170 (London S. W.) with a general revision date of 1963, I can see:
Richmond Upon Thames
Kingston Upon Thames
Walton-on-Thames
Sunbury
Staines

Note the scarcity of hyphens, and that some of these are boroughs while the townships' names are unappended. However, this map has a roads revision date of 1965, the year of London's local government reorganisation. I think think that Richmond first became upon Thames as a London Borough, Kingston was one already (as a borough in Surrey), and the rest are outside Greater London.

Rumour has it that this change was sponsored by a certain outlet sales outfit....but of course, proof will never surface.

Supposedly free font, Transport medium, from https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5602 (https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5602). The basic drawings used to be on the DfT web site.

Oh heck, let's go the whole hog - Kemble on Thames..

Still a long way to go before the whole hog, surely, how about the twin parishes of Eton-on-Thames and Windsor-on-Thames connected by an over Thames bridge and then there's the parish a bit farther up stream, the current home of the current lodger in 10 Downing Street in the parish of Wesminster-on-Thames, oh yes, I remember, Maidenhead-on-Thames. I'm sure there are still more parishes that have yet to be suggested on this form that they adopt the -on-Thames suffix. While about it why not christen a few more parishes in the UK with an -on-(river name) such as North Somerset-on-Avon and my own home parish of Yate-on-Frome to start with.

Good morning from Melksham-on-Avon.   I was hoping this summer to go by train from Wareham-on-Piddle to Swanage, but am put off by the dogleg needed via Southampton-on-Itchen ...

Surely you mean Swanage-on-Sea!

Sewage -super- mare would mean Weston has a contender in the olfactory stakes.
Dawlish a cote le Brook would be preferable to Dawlish dans La Manche !

I guess we may have to take account of the (real or presumed) climatic increase in flooding incidents, leading to more names modelled on Upton in Severn.

Pedant alert, if you are going from Melksham-on-Avon via Salisbury-on-Avon to Wareham-on-Piddle then it would be Southampton-on-Test and not Southampton-on-Itchen. You would need to go via Eastleigh-on-Itchen to also go via Southampton-on-Itchen.

Should it not be Wareham-on-Piddle-and-Frome in view of the route followed